Historical Settlements and the Question of ‘Urban’ in the Brahmaputra Valley

Study on the ‘urban’ settlements and the process of ‘urbanization’ in historical contexts has been one of the major research concerns in South Asian archaeology and history. Discussions and debates on the genesis and growth of ‘urban’ centres in different phases of India’s past have provided us with a varied set of parameters to understand the nuances of urban phenomenon in different geographical settings and cultural contexts. Researches on the settlement history and urbanization of the Brahmaputra valley has received limited attention till the end of the twentieth century. With a number of inscriptions being studied and explorations and excavations conducted at different archaeological sites, our understanding of the problems of early settlements, the beginning of state formation, urban centres and urbanization, contexts and chronology of historical sites is being improved and refined. This paper emphasises the need for defining ‘urban’ and ‘urbanization’ in the context of the Brahmaputra Valley with new data. Case studies on recent researches conducted at the Krishnai-Dudhnoi-Brahmaputra confluence and Guwahati including its northern part are made to understand the early medieval urban settlements and their features. The role of rice agriculture in agrarian economy and in the development of an urban space is also underlined in the discussion.