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{{Short description|Culture of the Indus Valley Civilization}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
'''Bara Culture''' was a culture that emerged in the eastern region of the [[Indus Valley civilization]] around 2000 BCE.<ref name="ref99xepif">{{Citation | title=Early Indian terracotta art, circa 2000-300 B.C., northern and western India | author=Arundhati Banerji | year=1994 | publisher=Harman Pub. House, 1994 | isbn=978-81-85151-81-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=91fqAAAAMAAJ | quote=... 2000 BC Bara Culture : Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh ... In the post-Harappan context, Bara is considered as a distinct culture, that dominates the entire Sutlej-Yamuna divide ... The jars, water vessels are incised on shoulder and rusticated at the bottom. The typical classical Harappan shapes such as perforated jar, S-shaped jar, tall dish-on-stand with drum, goblet, beaker and handled-cup disappear ... the Bara tradition in the north appears to be parallel to the Harappa tradition at least along the Sutlej ... early phase is usually assignable to a period earlier than the classical Harappan phase ...}}</ref> It developed in the [[doab]] between the [[Yamuna river|Yamuna]] and [[Sutlej River|Sutlej]] rivers, hemmed on its eastern periphery by the [[Shivalik Hills|Shivalik ranges]] of the lower Himalayas. This territory corresponds to modern-day [[Punjab, India|Punjab]], [[Haryana]] and [[Western Uttar Pradesh]] in [[North India]].<ref name="ref99xepif"/> Older publications regard the Baran pottery to have initially developed independently of the Harappan culture branch of the Indus Valley Civilization from a pre-Harappan tradition, although the two cultures later intermingled in locations such as [[Kotla Nihang Khan]] and [[Bara, Punjab]].<ref name="ref21libez"/><ref name="ref94logaf"/> According to Akinori Uesugi and Vivek Dangi, Bara pottery is a stylistic development of Late Harappan pottery.<ref name="Uesugi2017"/> In the conventional timeline demarcations of the [[Indus Valley Tradition]], the Bara culture is usually placed in the Late Harappan period.

Bara culture is so-named because initial evidence for its existence was discovered from archeological digs at the site in [[Bara, Punjab]].<ref name="ref14qefeh">{{Citation | title=Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations | author=[[Romila Thapar]] | year=1978 | publisher=Orient Blackswan, 1978 | isbn=978-81-250-0808-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fK3VTUrWsD0C | quote=... there appears to be a continuity of pre-Harappan cultures into the second millennium B.C. at sites in the Sutlej valley and the upper Saraswati (e.g. Bara and Siswal A) ...}}</ref> [[Dher Majra]] and [[Sanghol]] are other important Bara culture sites that have been excavated.<ref name="ref99quroh">{{Citation | title=Archaeology and history | author=Amalananda Ghosh | year=1987 | publisher=Agam Kala Prakashan, 1987 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x99tAAAAMAAJ | quote=... Dher Majra, Bara and Sanghol are all mainly Bara culture sites (Sharma, 1982a, 141-43, 154-57). Bhagwanpura, Dadheri, Nagar and Katpalon (Joshi et al, 1982, pp. 191-94), where Bara and Painted Grey Ware are found interlocked ...}}</ref>

==Bara pottery==
{{main|Pottery in the Indian subcontinent}}
{{see also |Pottery|Archaeological culture}}

Bara culture is based on the [[Pottery]] found here, it is classified as a separate archaeological culture and subculture.<ref name=dis1>[https://www.dailypioneer.com/2018/state-editions/the-harappan-civilisation-its-sub-cultures.html The Harappan Civilisation: Its Sub-cultures], Daily Pioneer, 10 May 2018.</ref> Older publications regard the Baran culture to have initially developed independently of the Harappan culture branch of the Indus Valley Civilization from a pre-Harappan tradition, although the two cultures later intermingled in locations such as [[Kotla Nihang Khan]] and [[Bara, Punjab]].<ref name="ref21libez">{{Citation | title=Cultural contours of India | author=Satya Prakash, Vijai Shankar Shrivastava | year=1981 | publisher=Abhinav Publications, 1981 | isbn=978-0-391-02358-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nKJiBUFrmfoC | quote=... Bara culture would appear to be related rather directly to a pre-Harappan tradition without the inter-medium of Harappan culture. The concomitance of Bara and Harappa cultures in the Sutlej area also lends support to this view ...}}</ref><ref name="ref94logaf">{{Citation | title=Indian Archaeology in Retrospect: Prehistory, archaeology of South Asia | author=Shadaksharappa Settar, Ravi Korisettar | year=2002 | publisher=Indian Council of Historical Research, 2002 | isbn=978-81-7304-319-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJzpAAAAMAAJ | quote=... The mound at Kotla Nihang Khan is divided into two sectors: eastern and western. The eastern sector mainly has Urban Harappan pottery like the dish-on-stand, goblets with pointed base, shallow flat dish with flaring sides ... The western part has Urban Harappan elements mixed with Bara Ware from the lower levels. Sharma (1982: 141) thinks that ... initially, in Phase I, the Harappans occupied the eastern area, but with the advent of the Barans ...}}</ref>

Pottery remnants of the Bara culture reveal a style that is consistently differentiable from that of the Harappan culture, though there are some shared features as well. Specific forms quintessentially associated with the Harappans, such as "perforated jar, S-shaped jar, tall dish-on-stand with drum, goblet, beaker and handled-cup" are absent.<ref name="ref99xepif"/> Instead, other forms unique to the Barans are found, including jars and vessels "incised on shoulder and rusticated at the bottom", jars with bulbous bodies, long necks and flaring rims, and collared-rim jars.<ref name="ref99xepif"/><ref name="ref19hucum">{{Citation | title=An encyclopaedia of Indian archaeology | author=A. Ghosh | year=1990 | publisher=BRILL | isbn=978-90-04-09264-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=law3AAAAIAAJ | quote=... most of the Bara ware is embellished with painted or incised patterns while a large proportion of the Harappa Ware is plain ... stem of the Bara dish-on-stand is generally short and wide ... long and slender stem of the Harappa counterpart ... incised designs on the interior sides ... bulbous jar with long neck and flaring rim, jar with collared rim ...}}</ref>

Harappan dishes-on-stand (i.e. dishes with a stand beneath) have long and slender necks, whereas Baran dishes-on-stand have short and thick ones. Harappan wares tend to be plain, while Baran ware is usually embellished with painted patterns (such as brush-made spirals) and decorative incisions, often on the interior side of vessels and jars.<ref name="ref19hucum"/>

According to Akinori Uesugi and Vivek Dangi, Bara pottery is a stylistic development of Late Harappan pottery.<ref name="Uesugi2017">Akinori Uesugi and Vivek Dangi (2017), [http://southasia.world.coocan.jp/Uesugi_2017c.pdf ''A Study on the Developments of the Bara Pottery in the Ghaggar Plains''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241121213903/http://southasia.world.coocan.jp/Uesugi_2017c.pdf |date=21 November 2024 }}. In K. Hetu (ed.), ''Essays in Prehistory, Protohistory and Historical Archaeology, Festschrift to Shri. K. N. Dikshit'': 176–197. New Delhi New Bharatiya Book Corporation.</ref>

==Possible role in propagating citrus cultivation==
[[Lemon]] seeds were found at the excavations at the Baran settlement at Sanghol, which remains the only evidence for [[citrus]] cultivation this far west at that time. Citrus is thought to have been domesticated first in a region centered on [[Northeastern India]], South China and the northern regions of [[Southeast Asia]], and diffused outwards from there. The finding at Sanghol suggests that westward diffusion may have occurred along the Ganges Valley where the Barans may have gained knowledge of citrus cultivation in the early second millennium BCE period and then contributed to westwards propagation. Citrus cultivation is believed to have arrived in [[Southwest Asia]] in the 1200 BCE period and lemons more specifically in the first millennium CE.<ref name="ref34pirec">{{Citation | title=Indian Archaeology in Retrospect: Protohistory, archaeology of the Harappan civilization | author=Shadaksharappa Settar, Ravi Korisettar | year=2002 | publisher=Indian Council of Historical Research, 2002 | isbn=978-81-7304-320-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cp3pAAAAMAAJ | quote=... The only early archaeobotanical evidence for Citrus fruits comes from the Late Harappan (Bara phase) site of Sanghol in Punjab where seeds of lemon (C. limon (L.) Burm. f.) have been reported (Saraswat and Chanchala 1997). This is of great interest as these fruits are thought to have been domesticated somewhere in the area spanning from north-eastern India to south China and South-East Asia, although there remains no firm evidence for precisely where or when ... suggests that lemons diffused westwards, presumably along the Ganga Valley in the early second millennium BC. Further west, in South-West Asia, the citron (C. medical L.) occurs as early as c. 1200 BC, while the lemon arrives later in the first millennium AD ...}}</ref>

== Urbanization ==
Bara culture, at several sites demonstrates urban features. For instance excavation at [[Sanghol]] and [[Rupnagar|Rupar]] yielded an urban city set up. Other sites such as Deeg ([[Kaithal]]) and Hudia ([[Yamunanagar]]) also demonstrated characteristic town or urban features.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/200233/18/18_chapter%208.pdf|title=Shodhganga : a reservoir of Indian theses @ INFLIBNET|accessdate=28 February 2024}}</ref>

==See also==

* [[Indus Valley Civilization]]
* [[List of Indus Valley Civilization sites]]
** [[Bhirrana]], 4 phases of IVC with earliest dated to 8th-7th millennium BCE
** [[Kalibanga]], an IVC town and fort with several phases starting from Early harappan phase
** [[Rakhigarhi]], one of the largest IVC city with 4 phases of IVC with earliest dated to 8th-7th millennium BCE
** [[Kunal, Haryana|Kunal]], cultural ancestor of [[Rehman Dheri]]
** [[Kotla Nihang Khan]]
* [[List of inventions and discoveries of the Indus Valley Civilization]]
** [[Hydraulic engineering of the Indus Valley Civilization]]
** [[Sanitation of the Indus Valley Civilisation]]
** [[Periodisation of the Indus Valley Civilisation]]
* [[Pottery in the Indian subcontinent]]
** Bara culture, subtype of Late-Harappan Phase
** [[Black and red ware]], belonging to [[Neolithic]] and Early-Harappan phases
** [[Siswal#Sothi|Sothi-Siswal culture]], subtype of Early-Harappan Phase
** [[Cemetery H culture]] (2000-1400 BC), early Indo-Aryan pottery at IVC sites later evolved into [[Painted Grey Ware culture]] of [[Vedic period]]
* [[Rakhigarhi Indus Valley Civilisation Museum]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
* [http://rupnagar.nic.in/html/asi_museum.htm ASI Museum - Rupnagar]

[[Category:Bara culture| ]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in India]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures of South Asia]]
[[Category:Bronze Age cultures of Asia]]
[[Category:History of Punjab]]

Bara culture - Revision history

2409:40D0:1395:DDE5:1817:B696:C52A:F41F at 05:21, 24 September 2025