6.1 Scope: “second urbanisation” is a shorthand, not a single event The expression “second urbanisation” is commonly used for the growth of towns, cities, states, specialised production and long-distance exchange in northern India during the early first millennium BCE, especially in the Ganga plains. It is useful only if it is not turned into a fixed date or a single-cause event. Archaeological sequences differ from site to site; some settlements grew gradually from earlier agrarian occupations, some acquired fortifications or durable architecture at different times, and some remained rural while participating in increasingly complex exchange networks. This chapter therefore uses “second urbanisation” as a regional process whose components became visible at different rates rather than as a moment when villages suddenly became cities (Allchin 1995; Sawant and Shete 2016). 6.2 What makes the process “second” The term contrasts early historic urban growth with the much earlier cities of the Indus or Harappan civilisation. It does not imply direct institutional continuity between those urban traditions and the Middle Ganga cities. The long chronological and geographical gap requires independent explanation. The “second” urbanisation is thus a historiographical label for a renewed and differently organised urban process in the first millennium BCE. Its archaeological signature includes settlement concentration, fortifications, specialised crafts, exchange, coins, increasingly durable construction and the emergence of political and religious institutions, but the exact bundle varies among sites. 6.3 The Middle Ganga plain was not empty before cities Chapters 2–5 demonstrated long sequences of hunting, farming, animal keeping, fishing, craft production and riverine mobility before the early historic period. Chirand, Chechar, Panda, Oriup and other sites already show communities capable of managing surplus, mixed subsistence and exchange. Urban growth must therefore be understood as a reorganisation and intensification of existing social landscapes, not as civilisation arriving in an unoccupied forest. This point also corrects older models in which dense forest was imagined as the single barrier that iron axes suddenly removed. 6.4 Iron mattered, but it was not an urban switch Iron technology expanded the range and durability of tools and weapons and eventually contributed to cultivation, carpentry, construction and political power. Yet the archaeological chronology does not support a simple equation “iron = cities.” Iron appears in the Ganga plains before the mature early historic urban pattern. The long interval between initial iron use and large urban centres means that technology had effects only through labour organisation, agrarian production, exchange, institutions and demographic concentration. IGNOU’s archaeological synthesis explicitly cautions that iron sustained urbanisation but cannot by itself explain it; this chapter adopts that multi-causal position. 6.5 Agriculture supplied the indispensable rural base Urban consumers had to be fed. Archaeobotanical evidence from the Ganga plains shows long-standing cultivation of rice together with other cereals and pulses before the NBPW horizon. Intensification could include extension of cultivation, more dependable storage, greater labour mobilisation and stronger flows of produce toward non-farming consumers. None of these processes requires every farmer to use an iron HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II ploughshare. The key historical change is the capacity of agrarian landscapes to support larger concentrations of people whose work increasingly included administration, trade, craft, warfare or religious service. 6.6 Surplus was social, not simply biological A good harvest becomes an urban resource only if grain can be stored, moved and claimed. Households, chiefs, assemblies, rulers, merchants, monasteries and other institutions could redirect produce through gifts, tax, tribute, rent, exchange or ritual obligation. “Surplus” therefore should not be imagined as grain automatically left over after subsistence. It was created and channelled through social relations. This distinction is essential for a socio-economic history because it links agricultural productivity to power and institutions without assuming that state formation was mechanically produced by crop yields. Figure 20 — Urbanisation as a convergence rather than an iron-triggered event. The components could develop at different rates and reinforce one another. 6.7 Northern Black Polished Ware: an important marker, not the definition of urbanism Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) is a distinctive fine ceramic tradition whose distribution has long been used to organise early historic chronology. Its lustrous surface, limited production and wide circulation make it valuable for studying cultural contact, exchange and status. Recent archaeological summaries stress, however, that NBPW is an artefact class rather than a synonym for a city (Kanungo et al. 2021). It can occur in settlements of different scale and function, while urban features may develop before or after particular ceramic horizons. This volume therefore uses NBPW as one chronological and economic indicator among several. 6.8 NBPW chronology is not a universal fixed bracket Published dates for NBPW vary by site and by the dating method used. Older schemes often placed its main beginning around the sixth century BCE, whereas some excavated sequences and later reviews allow earlier starts in particular contexts. The correct method is therefore site-specific: stratigraphy, associated ceramics, radiocarbon dates where available, coins and structural sequence must be assessed together. The chapter avoids assigning every NBPW sherd in Bihar to an identical century merely because the pottery shares a technological style. GAJENDRA THAKUR 6.9 What archaeologists should require before calling a settlement urban Size is important but insufficient. A large mound can represent long occupation rather than a large simultaneous population. Fortification may indicate defence, display, flood management or political control, but a wall alone does not create an urban economy. Stronger diagnoses combine several lines of evidence: dense and durable buildings, specialised craft areas, public or institutional structures, water management, streets or drains, coinage and exchange goods, a settlement hierarchy with smaller dependent places, and evidence that substantial numbers of inhabitants were supported by production beyond their own household subsistence. Figure 21 — Evidence bundle for identifying early urban settlements. No single indicator, including NBPW, is sufficient on its own. 6.10 Vaishali: archaeology and historical identification must be kept distinct Vaishali is central to the literary histories of Vajji and the Licchavis, but archaeology must be read independently of those texts before the two records are compared. The ASI’s Patna Circle lists the excavated Buddha relic stupa at Harpur Basant and the large mound conventionally known as Raja Vishal ka Garh among the protected remains. The relic-stupa excavation yielded a relic casket and other objects; the ASI assigns its innermost stupa to approximately the fifth century BCE. At Raja Vishal ka Garh, excavation across the rampart identified several later defensive phases, while finds from the wider site range from the sixth century BCE onward. These data confirm a major early historic settlement complex; they do not by themselves prove that a particular mound was a republican assembly hall simply because of its modern name. 6.11 Vaishali’s importance was regional, not only political A centre capable of sustaining ritual establishments, craft activity, markets, visitors and political gatherings depended on a broad supporting landscape. The later textual image of Vaishali as a wealthy place is therefore best tested against settlement archaeology, transport routes and material culture rather than repeated as description. Its location in the north Bihar plain connected it to riverine and overland routes, to agrarian producers and to the wider network that linked the Ganga valley with the Himalayan foreland. HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II Urbanity here should be understood as the concentration of functions as much as the concentration of buildings. 6.12 Raja Vishal ka Garh and the danger of function-by-name Archaeological place-names frequently preserve later memory. A mound called a “garh,” “palace” or “assembly” may indeed overlie an ancient fortified or public area, but the name cannot establish the original function of every structural phase. The three defensive phases reported by the ASI at Raja Vishal ka Garh belong to Sunga, Kushana and early Gupta periods, later than the sixth-century BCE horizon represented among the site’s finds. The chronological mismatch is a useful warning: the political importance of early Vaishali is not evidence that every surviving rampart belongs to the Vajjian republic. 6.13 Chirand: a rural–riverine settlement inside the urbanising economy Chirand is especially valuable because it shows that “urbanisation” also transformed places that were not necessarily cities. Indian Archaeology 1962–63 reported a historical Period II, approximately 600–100 BCE, marked by the advent of iron and NBPW together with grey ware, terracotta figurines, beads and other objects. The sequence follows much earlier Neolithic and Chalcolithic occupation. Chirand therefore demonstrates continuity through a changing material economy: a long-lived riverine settlement became connected to early historic technologies and exchange without needing to be reclassified as an urban capital. 6.14 Rural sites were active participants, not passive suppliers The countryside contained craft workers, traders, fishers, herders and households with their own consumption choices. Some rural settlements acquired fine pottery, beads, coins or iron tools through exchange. Others may have specialised in products sent to larger centres. Urban and rural were therefore relational categories. The same household could sell grain, obtain a manufactured implement, visit a religious centre, pay an obligation to a political authority and participate in a periodic market. Urban growth intensified these connections rather than replacing local economies. 6.15 Fortification was labour made visible Large ramparts required organised labour, planning and repeated maintenance. Their social meaning lies not only in military defence but in the capacity to mobilise people and materials. Mud ramparts could consume enormous volumes of earth; brick walls required fuel, clay preparation, transport and specialist knowledge. Fortifications also marked boundaries and could structure gateways, movement and taxation. The appearance of defended centres is therefore evidence for collective or coerced labour and institutional capacity, though the political form behind that labour must be established separately. 6.16 Champa: Anga’s archaeological sequence is indispensable The excavations at Champa, near modern Bhagalpur, prevent the history of “second urbanisation” from being reduced to the north Bihar–Magadha axis. Exploration reported black-and-red ware in lower deposits and NBPW in upper levels, while excavation revealed a substantial mud fortification and later brick construction. Indian Archaeology 1970–71 associated the rampart phase with black-and-red ware and NBPW and recorded ring-wells and other material. Subsequent seasons refined the sequence, and the 1975– 76 excavation exposed multi-room brick structures assigned to the late NBPW period. Champa thus provides direct archaeological evidence for a fortified and architecturally complex early historic centre in the Anga region. GAJENDRA THAKUR 6.17 Champa’s rampart did not appear from nothing The Champa sequence contains ceramic traditions that precede or overlap the NBPW horizon. This is important because it supports a developmental rather than replacement model. Early historic urban features emerged on a settlement history already linked to the Ganga corridor. The relationship among lower black- and-red ware deposits, NBPW horizons, rampart construction and later brick buildings must remain stratigraphic: they should not be collapsed into one undifferentiated “Anga city” phase. 6.18 Ring-wells, drains and water management: ordinary infrastructure matters Urban history is often written from walls, palaces and monuments, but small infrastructure may reveal more about daily density. Ring-wells, drains, paved floors and waste-disposal arrangements become increasingly important where many households occupy restricted space. Champa’s excavations reported ring- wells in early historic contexts. Such installations do not automatically prove municipal government, but they indicate investment in water or sanitation technologies that are especially useful in dense settlements. Figure 22 — A conceptual Middle Ganga–Anga settlement network. The diagram shows functional interdependence, not a reconstruction of exact ancient roads or geographic coordinates. 6.19 Craft specialisation increased the number of non-farming livelihoods Potters, metalworkers, bead makers, carpenters, builders, textile workers, ivory and bone workers and other specialists could operate at several scales. Some production remained household-based; other work required workshops, furnaces, standardised products or access to imported raw materials. Urban centres concentrated consumers and institutions able to support specialists, while regional exchange connected craftsmen to villages and distant resources. The evidence should therefore be read as a continuum from part- time household production to highly specialised craft rather than as an abrupt division between “peasant” and “artisan.” 6.20 Iron technology widened possibilities for craft and construction Iron’s urban significance was broader than forest clearance. Nails, clamps, knives, axes, chisels and other tools affected carpentry, building and maintenance. Archaeometallurgical work on an early historic iron nail from Balirajgarh, for example, demonstrates sophisticated forging and work-hardening in the Middle Ganga region by roughly 2,300 years ago (V. Singh and M. R. Singh 2019). Such evidence is important because it HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II shifts discussion from abstract claims about an “iron revolution” to actual manufacturing knowledge and particular artefacts. 6.21 Exchange expanded through multiple media Markets could operate through barter, weighed metal, coins, credit, gifts and institutional redistribution. Punch-marked coins become significant in early historic contexts, but monetisation was neither instant nor complete. A coin in an excavation proves that metallic currency reached that context; it does not prove that every transaction in the settlement was monetised. The spread of fine ceramics, beads, metals and other non- local goods provides an independent record of exchange alongside coinage. 6.22 NBPW itself records circulation and selective consumption Because NBPW was produced in limited quantities and circulated widely, its presence can illuminate exchange and social differentiation. Kanungo and colleagues emphasise its value for studying contact and hierarchy. Yet the ware should not be treated automatically as “elite tableware” in every context: vessel form, quantity, associated finds and depositional setting matter. A few sherds in a rural settlement may reflect participation in regional circulation rather than the presence of an urban elite. 6.23 Roads and rivers created a network, not a chain of isolated capitals Vaishali, Rajagriha, Pataliputra and Champa occupied different ecological and political settings, but their growth depended on movement among settlements. The Ganga and tributaries supported boats and ferry crossings; overland paths connected natural levees, market places and political centres. Routes changed with river migration and political security. It is therefore more accurate to imagine overlapping corridors and nodal places than a fixed road map projected backward from later itineraries. 6.24 Religious institutions were also urban-economic actors Buddhist and Jain texts foreground teachers, monks, nuns, merchants and donors moving among major settlements. Archaeology adds monasteries, stupas, reliquaries and craft objects. Religious institutions drew food, cloth, building materials and donations from lay communities while also attracting travellers and concentrating exchange. Their economic role should neither be ignored nor reduced to commerce: ritual, learning, prestige, redistribution and hospitality all formed part of the urban social economy. 6.25 Political institutions concentrated resources Monarchies and non-monarchical polities could both support urban centres. Fortifications, officials, armed retainers, assemblies and public ceremonies drew resources toward political nodes. The old opposition between “republic” and “monarchy” does not by itself explain why one settlement became urban. What matters materially is the capacity of institutions to mobilise labour, collect or redirect produce, regulate routes and maintain public works. The specific constitution of Vajji is treated in Volume I and later chapters; here the focus is the socio-economic consequence of institutional concentration. 6.26 Literacy belongs to the later visible phase, not to the beginning by assumption Urbanisation often promotes record keeping, but the chronology of writing must be established from inscriptions and securely dated objects. The presence of states, trade or NBPW does not allow historians to assume widespread literacy at the beginning of the urban process. Brahmi and Kharoshthi inscriptions GAJENDRA THAKUR become archaeologically visible in later first-millennium BCE contexts. Earlier administration may have used perishable media or non-written practices, but such possibilities cannot be converted into evidence without surviving traces. 6.27 Social inequality became more materially visible Differences in house size, access to fine goods, jewellery, coinage, craft products and burial or ritual expenditure can provide clues to inequality, but no single object yields a caste or class identity. Urban settings likely intensified disparities because they concentrated political authority, merchants, specialists, dependants and labourers. Yet the archaeological record usually reveals unequal consumption more readily than it reveals the legal categories by which people understood that inequality. Later textual classifications must therefore not be retrojected automatically into every excavated household. 6.28 Women’s labour is structurally necessary but archaeologically undernamed Food processing, textile production, household management, childcare, exchange and ritual work were essential to sustaining dense settlements, yet artefacts rarely identify the sex of their users securely. Grinding stones, spindle whorls, cooking vessels or ornaments cannot simply be labelled “women’s objects.” A socio- cultural-economic history must make household labour visible while keeping inference disciplined. Gender becomes more historically specific only when archaeological context can be combined with texts, inscriptions or osteological evidence. 6.29 Nepal-side Mithila: do not export the Bihar sequence without evidence The political and cultural history of Mithila crosses the modern India–Nepal border, but the archaeological visibility of early urbanisation is uneven. At present, the well-published sequences used in this chapter come primarily from Bihar and the Middle Ganga plain. The Nepal Tarai contains important early historic sites, but many lie outside the historical Mithila focus and cannot simply be used as substitutes for Janakpur or eastern Madhesh. Until comparable excavated sequences are available, the correct conclusion is not “no urbanisation,” but “insufficient site-specific evidence to assign the same sequence with equal confidence.” 6.30 Conclusion: cities were produced by relationships The second urbanisation was not a ceramic phase, an iron revolution or the automatic consequence of state formation. It was a long regional transformation in which agriculture supported larger non-farming populations; institutions mobilised resources; crafts became more specialised; settlements were fortified and internally reorganised; exchange networks widened; and some places accumulated political, commercial and ritual functions. Vaishali and Champa illustrate different trajectories, while Chirand shows how long-lived rural settlements participated in the same changing economy. The key analytical unit is therefore the network linking town and countryside. Chapter 7 turns from this urbanising landscape to the household, kinship and family relations that organised everyday social reproduction. HISTORY OF MITHILA, VAJJI & ANGA — VOLUME II Figure 23 — Rural–urban interdependence in the early historic economy. Flows were reciprocal and could include produce, labour, taxes, manufactured goods, markets and institutional services. Table 6.1 — Selected archaeological anchors for the urbanising Middle Ganga– Anga region Place / context Material indicators What they support What they do not prove by themselves Vaishali / Harpur relic stupa; early major ritual and that every named Basant and Raja historic finds; later settlement complex mound had the Vishal ka Garh rampart phases with long occupation political function assigned by later tradition Chirand, Period II iron; NBPW; grey participation of a that Chirand was an ware; terracotta long-lived riverine urban capital figurines; beads settlement in early historic material networks Champa lower-to- BRW below; NBPW development of a that all rampart NBPW sequence above; mud fortified early historic phases belong to one fortification centre in Anga political moment Champa late NBPW multi-room brick dense durable a specific municipal structures buildings; brick construction and constitution or floors; ring-wells in household / population total related seasons infrastructural investment NBPW distribution fine polished pottery exchange, chronology urban status of every circulated widely and selective site where sherds consumption occur Iron artefacts tools, weapons, nails, technological a single-cause “iron craft evidence capacity supporting revolution” that farming, automatically construction and produced cities craft