62 
the former cannot possibly be neolithic; knowledge ot 
the manufacture of iron into somewhat elaborate tools— 
saws, files and drills—must have been possessed by the 
bangle makers. This would appear therefore to rule out 
the early iron age, when iron weapons and tools were of 
primitive design. 
Incidentally this conclusion is likely to affect the 
estimate of age accorded to the potsherds so frequently 
associated with fr agments of chank bangles and to render 
doubtful their identification as neolithic or even of early 
iron age. 
(c) Three sites alone give other than es 
evidence in regard to age. These are Gudivada 1 
Kistna district, ‘Valabhiput i in Kathiawar and Mahuri in 
Gujarat. The remains at the first named are indubitably 
Buddhistic while the occurrence of a figurine of a bull 
with a double garland round the hump points distinctly 
to an age when the adherents of Brahmanism were in the 
land holding in especial reverence Siva’s sacred bull. 
Most important find of all was that made in the ruins of 
Valabhipur, for the history of this old city is fairly well 
known; the dates of many of the great events that 
happened there are on record and the descriptions of two 
Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who visited the city are 
extant. The story of Valabhipur goes back some 
centuries before the Christian era and for long it was 
the seat of the Valabhis, a Rajput race, and the centre 
of their rule, till the middle of the eighth century when 
the last of the line was overthrown by Arab invaders 
from Sind. Valabhi was visited by the Chinese pilgrim 
Hiuen Tsang in the course of his fifteen years’ sojourn in 
India (A.D. 630-645) and by I. Tsing in the succeeding 
century. Both pilgrims describe it as a large and 
flourishing city and a great centre of Buddhist learning, 
its streets and schools crowded with students. The 
reigning dynasty, themselves of the Brahman faith, 
appear to have been tolerant of Buddhism like many of 
their contemporaries. In Hiuen Tsang’s days the latter 
religion was still followed by great numbers of the 
populace, especially in Orissa and Southern India; 
elsewhere Hinduism was rapidly becoming the popular 
religion and the mass of the people were of this faith 
when the last Valabhi dynasty ended. 
