Harappan architecture is the architecture of the Harappans, an ancient people who lived in the Indus Valley from about

3300 BCE to 1600 BCE. The Harappans were advanced for their time, especially in architecture. City walls[edit]

Each city in the Indus Valley was surrounded by massive walls and gateways. The walls were built to control trade and also to stop the city from being flooded. Each part of the city was made up of walled sections. Each section included different buildings such as: Public buildings, houses, markets, craft workshops, etc. Streets[edit]

The Harappans were excellent city planners. They based their city streets on a grid system. Streets were oriented east to west. Each street had a well organized drain system. If the drains were not cleaned, the water ran into the houses and silt built up. Then the Harappans would build another storey on top of it. This raised the level of the city over the years, and today archaeologists call these high structures "mounds".

Houses

Houses and other buildings were made of sun-dried or kiln-fired mud brick. These bricks were so strong, they have stood up to thousands of years of wear. Each house had an indoor and outdoor kitchen. The outdoor kitchen would be used when it was warmer (so that the oven wouldn't heat up the house), and the indoor kitchen for use when it was colder. In present day, village houses in this region (e.g. in Kachchh) still have two kitchens. Indoor kitchens are used mostly as store houses and are only used for cooking when it rains. Otherwise, residents prefer to use the outdoor kitchens because the dry shrub and cow dung used as cooking fuel are very smoky, making indoor cooking difficult. . Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. . All the houses had access to water and drainage facilities

Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes.

Tools

The Harappans used chisels, pickaxes, and saws. The saws they used had undulated edges so that dust escaped from the cut that they were sawing. These tools were most likely made of copper, as copper tools and weapons have been found at Harappan sites.

Lack of temples

So far, no unequivocal examples of temples have been found at sites belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization. Archaeologists do not know yet what religion was practiced in the Indus Valley Civilization. Community water pools (swimming or bathing) do exist, which may be linked with religious practice. Water plays an important role in Hindu sacred places, and pilgrimage to such places often involves sacred bathing (apart from the Ganges). The architecture of water pools used by Hindu pilgrimage and in Harappan cities are similar, although scholars disagree whether such similarities are functional, or cultural, in nature.

TOWN PLANNING Each city was carefully planned and at the peak of the civilization housed almost 40,000 people. A typical city would be divided into two sections, each fortified separately.

One section, known as the acropolis, was located on an artificially raised mound while the other level was on level ground. The acropolis contained the important buildings of the city, like the assembly halls, religious structures, granaries and in the case of Mohenjo-Daro the famous Great Bath. The lower section of the city was where the housing for the inhabitants was located. It was here where some truly amazing features have been discovered.

 The city was well connected with broad roads about 30 meters long which met at right angles. The houses were located in the rectangular squares thus formed. Granaries A special feature of the cities of the Indus Valley Civilization was the large granary that existed. As a structure it is particularly impressive, running 150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 15 feet high. This gave the granary an astounding 168,750 cubic feet of space. Thegranary was divided into 27 compartment in three rows. The granary was well ventilated and it was possible to fill grain in from outside. The large size of the granary probably indicates a highly developed agricultural civilization. Great Bath The city of Mohenjo-Daro possessed an amazing structure known as the Great Bath. The entire structure is about 179 feet long and 107 feet wide. The complex has a large quadrangle in the center with galleries and rooms on all sides. In the center of this quadrangle there is a large swimming enclosure that is 39 feet long, 23 feet wide and 8 feet deep. The entire complex is connected to an elaborate water supply and sewer system. The Great Bath was probably used for religious or ritualistic purposes.

Vedic period After the decline of the Indus Valley cities in the second millennium BC, the highly developed and standarised brick architecture of this period gave way, in the Vedic Period that followed, to pastrol settlements of mud, thatch, bamboo and timber in the valleys of the rivers from the Saraswati to Ganga. Probably there were clusters of circular huts with domed thatched roofs, gables, arched timber palaces and loggias. This situation continued till to arrival of Mauryas. Upon coming to India, the settlers gave up their totally nomadic existence and became partagriculturalists. This provided the impetus to build villages, the basic unit of which was the hut. For building material, the abundant forest provided ample raw stock. The Aryan hut, in its most basic shape, was circular in plan, with a thatched roof over a bamboo network of ribs. This was later elongated to become rectangular in plan, with roofing of bamboo as well, only this time curved in the shape of a barrel. Clusters of these huts formed a courtyard, much like huts in Indian villages even today. The better-off citizens roofed them with planks of wood or tiles, and used unbaked bricks for the walls. To maintain the barrel shape of the roof, a thong or string, perhaps of animal hide, was stretched across the end of the bamboo. The Three Stages of Vedic Houses

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 For protection against wild animals, a palisade fence of wood and bamboo surrounded the whole settlement. This fence was made of upright posts of bamboo with horizontal members threaded into holes in posts. At one point, the fence was extended forward to form a sort of gate. These forms - the barrel vaulted roof, the tie-cord, and the palisade fence and railing, formed important motifs for future Indian Architecture. In fact, huts in modern Orissa, one of the poorest Indian states, are still carrying traces of this influence, with symbolism dating back to Vedic times.

City-states and Timber Construction

With the conversion of the early Vedic people into agriculturalists, a growing rivalry for precious fertile land was inevitable. Groups of small villages banded together, and small 'cities' began to take shape. A palisade wall inevitably protected these and the buildings within were also made almost entirely of wood. The Vedic carpenters developed skill in timber construction of a very high standard. It is not surprising, therefore, that in later ages timber construction techniques were employed even though the material of construction was radically different - i.e. stone.

In general, the cities of the Vedic period were rectangular in plan and divided into four quarters by two main thoroughfares intersecting at right angles, each leading to a city gate. One of these quarters contained the citadel and another housed the residential area. A third quarter was reserved for the merchants, and the last for tradesmen who could display their wares.

From these modest beginnings, early Hindu architecture gradually metamorphosed into the magnificent Buddhist stupas and the rock-cut caves at Ajanta.