HISTORY

Subject : History
(For under graduate student)

Paper No. : Paper-I

History of India

Unit, Topic & Title : Unit- 4

Topic- 2
Indus Civilization

Lecture No. & Title : Lecture 2

Morphology

Indus Civilization: Morphology

The origin of the Indus Civilization is still steeped in

mystery. While some say that the earliest settlers of this
region were nomads who came in from Africa some
40000 years ago and settled here as they found green
pastures and fertile land, others say that the people of
this civilization were indigenous. As regards their culture
some say it was colony of some western empire while
others say it was definitely indigenous. Perhaps this
controversy will continue for some more time to come
but none can deny that the Indus Civilization was spread
out across a wide terrain.

Mohenjo Daro
A morphological study of the sites of Mohenjo Daro and
Harappa provide the best examples of the unique pattern
of structures of the Indus cities. Mohenjo Daro happens
to be the principle site of the Indus Civilization in Sindh.
It comprises an area of 200 hectares and it has been
described as the finest tract in the entire province. It
gives free access to the Bolan Pass and Kachchi Plain.
Excavations began here in 1922 under Rakhaldas
Banerjee and continued till 1931 under John Marshall and
E. Mackey.

The archaeologists working at Mohenjodaro had to face a

problem as the water level here had risen so high that it
was not possible to determine whether it was on an early
Indus level or on virgin soil.

At Mohenjo Daro one comes across two distinct mounds

that are separated by a 200 meter wide open space. It
was a planned city where there was evidence of
meticulous town planning. The acropolis or citadel is built
upon a high platform of clay. There are long, broad,
unpaved roads running parallel to other roads and lanes,
which invariably meet at right angles. Buildings are made
of mud bricks but are raised on fire brick foundation
walls. The most important feature of Mohenjo Daro's
urban planning is that it had an extremely advanced
drainage system, which is considered to be the hallmark
of an advanced civilization.

Another feature is the Great Bath which is a rectangular

in shape measuring 12 into 7 meters and 2.4 meters
deep. There is a well nearby which may have been used
to supply water to this tank. There is an interesting
difference of opinion amongst historians about the
purpose of constructing this Great Bath. According to
Prof. Irfan Habib it was built only for the elite class in the
city. Prof. D.K. Chakraborty however differs in his
analysis of the Great Bath which according to him was
like a sacrosanct tank that accompanies a typical Hindu
temple where you take a ritual bath before entering the
portals of the temple. It is difficult to decide which
interpretation is accurate.

Close to the Great Bath was a Granary, about which

there is unanimity among scholars as being used
expressly for purposes related of a granary complex.
Prof. D.K. Chakraborty feels that this was the best
possible explanation for this complex.

Apart from this there is a large pillared hall, what again

been interpreted differently as an Assembly Hall, or Town
Hall, or sometimes even as a Market Hall also. Its extent
is 750 square meters.

Evidence of about 2000 to 3000 houses has been found

in Mohenjo Daro along with as many as 700 wells. The
structure of these wells is oval and were probably used
either to fill water into the Great Bath or were private
wells. The peepal leaf shape of the wells may have been
of some significance to its builder. Whatever the purpose
of the wells was people look into them with bemused
wonder. Maybe they hide within them secrets that are yet
to be known. Excavations have left the walls of the wells
exposed. A lot of planning, organization, and labour must
have gone into building such a complex city as
Mohenjodaro.

Harappa
Sir Alexander Cunningham first excavated the site of
Harappa in 1872-73, when he was removing ballast for
the railway lines, in the process discovering the seal later
identified with the Harappa Civilization. It was Rai
Bahadur Dayaram Sahni who carried out extensive
archaeological excavations here in 1920. Soon after this
he started work at Mohenjo Daro thus drawing the
attention of the world to the oldest civilization of the
Indian sub-continent.

Harappa was relatively smaller than Mohenjo Daro but it

was built in the same planned manner. Here too there is
evidence of a massive granary around which there are a
number of quarters, probably used by the labourers who
worked in the granary. The discovery of three stones on
both sides seems to raise the query as to whether they
functioned as an air inlet. Mortimer Wheeler calls this
area the granary complex on the basis of burnt out grains
found at the site.

Jonathan Kenoyer in his book entitled "Ancient Cities of

the Indus Valley Civilization" published in 19980, has put
forth a different view, saying that evidence of burnt
grains or other articles associated with a granary is not
sufficient to conclude that this indeed was a granary. He
however does not clarify what this structure could be.
According to a some scholars in recent times, this
granary theory is based on a comparison with Roman
buildings. They point out that this structure came to be
called a granary because it resembled Roman granaries,
but they also correctly observed that there are no
parallels of such buildings in South Asian history. Here
again we are faced with another puzzle and another
debate.

Unfortunately most of the citadel buildings of Harappa

are now destroyed, even more than at Mohenjo Daro is.
The lower town however offers some important sites. A
boundary wall of mud bricks, a large number of wells, as
well as a highly advanced drainage system with drains
from buildings connected to the street drains have been
found in the lower town area. The town planning of
Mohenjo Daro and Harappa were therefore typically
similar.

Kalibangan
Another site, Kalibangan, was built on the banks of a
river called Ghaggar that has now dried up. What is
significant in Kalibangan is the discovery of certain spots
considered to be fire altars. Evidence of a ploughed field,
- the first of its kind in the history of civilization-has also
been discovered. The particular pattern of ploughing
continues in this region even today. Fortunately the early
strata at Kalibangan remains excellently preserved.

Kalibangan makes a very interesting study. It was

founded in 2900 B.C. It was a seven hundred and fifty
feet long planned city in rectangular shape. It used adobe
bricks or white clay. Around 2650 B. C. Kalibangan seems
to have been abandoned or evacuated suddenly by its
inhabitants for reasons still unknown to historians. Then
after a gap of fifty to hundred years, (we cannot be
certain) the place began to be reconstructed. It is
interesting to note that when it was rebuilt, its town
planning pattern began to resemble the one that existed
in Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.

It may be inferred from these developments that it was

coming under the considerable influence and domination
of Mohenjo Daro, which may have been in the aftermath
of a regular war, though there is no certainty that this
had been the case. Kalibangan survived until as late as
1800 B.C. when the Ghaggar River completely dried up
and the city lost its agricultural base.

Lothal
Another important site is Lothal a sea port, not far from
Khambat or Cambay in Gujarat. It was founded around
2200 B.C. Lothal represents the typical features of
Harappan towns. It had advanced drainage system as
well as similar roads running parallel to each other. But
by far its most remarkable feature was a huge unique
basin that was placed in the center of the city. It
measured 770 feet in length 120 feet wide, 15 feet deep
and it had 2 openings on either side which resembled
sluice gates. There is the probability that the basin was
used as a dock because underneath the basin there were
two huge round stones with holes in them, which may
have served to anchor ships that came from far off,
although scholars are not in agreement regarding the
utility of the basin. Some historians feel that it was a
water reservoir for purposes of irrigation or for the use of
the city, and not an anchor. Lothal reveals quite an
advanced state of a civilization. The citizens here seem to
have been quite wealthy because they used jewellery
made of beads and other precious sto nes. Apart from this
there are other signs that go to show that Lothal was a
prosperous town. It had tools, stone beads and seals,
among which the very famous Persian Gulf seal was
found here.

Lothal was a also a supplier of raw materials to other

cities in the Indus civilization like for instance, it supplied
cloth from Gujarat, copper from Rajasthan. So there is no
doubt that Lothal had a lucrative and thriving internal
trade. That is why Lothal can also be looked upon as a
gateway, as an entry point.

It was not a very large city, being 900 feet long and 750
feet wide. But its economic importance was considerably
significant. It was a great center of trade and commerce
and it was an extremely prosperous area. Its decline set
in at some time about 1850 BC as we find a pattern of
wild construction with no signs of town planning
anymore. Houses would crop up anywhere and
everywhere. What exactly caused this deviation is hard to
fathom but one reason could be that they sensed that
the end was drawing near, as the city had ceased to exist
by 1700 B.C.

Dholavira
Dholavira was discovered in 1989-90. It is a situated on
an island of Gujarat in the Rann of Kutch. It was a pretty
large city, measuring 60 hectares in extent. The most
important feature of Dholavira is that it has preserved its
stone culture in an excellent way. Like other typical Indus
cities it had a walled acropolis like Mohenjo Daro and
Harappa with walls and buildings made of mud bricks. As
there was plenty of stone available in this area, so stone
substitutes for fire bricks. It had the typical Indus town-
planning, - parallel roads, water supply through tanks
and wells. It also had the largest Indus inscription. Both
Dholavira and Lothal seem to have a close proximity to
the sea, but the latter was more important as a sea port
and commercial point, as is proved by the range of
artifacts found here. We come across precious stones like
lapis lazuli, carnelian and turquoise in abundance in
Lothal. The people of Lothal also knew the art of making
holes in beads which is what made this region into a very
prosperous area. In Dholavira the excavations have just
started (since 1990) so maybe further evidence in the
form of artefacts will be revealed, and help to unravel
more information about the status of Dholavira.

Sutkagen Dor / Sotka Koh

Another important site is Sutkagen Dor, close to which is
Sotka Koh. Sutkagen Dor is situated on the Dasht River
on Pakistan's frontier with Iran. Close to Sutkagen Dor
there is a fortified enclosure, made by joining two natural
ridges with thick walls made of stone blocks set in mud.
Sutkagen Dor is also to the sea. We do not have much
information about Sotka Koh which is situated in the
Shaadi Kaur valley as it remains largely unexcavated. It
resembles Sutkagen Dor to a large extent. We will have
to wait till more information about this region is
unearthed.

Conclusion
The analysis of these different sites, has revealed that so
far as their distribution is concerned, they were all well
integrated. All the sites were agriculturally rich as they
were situated in extremely fertile regions which also had
an abundance of natural resources. All the sites had
external and internal trade routes.

As to the question of state formation, or the kind of

government the Indus cities had, we may conclude that
towards the end of the Indus civilization; beginning from
the Mature Harappan Phase the dominance of Mohenjo
Daro to some extent may be observed. Prior to 2500 B.C.
all these cities were autonomous city states, and do not
appear to have been dominated by any particular political
power. After 2500 B.C. there is evidence of a very
striking uniformity among all the sites of the Indus
Civilization. The sudden decline of Kalibangan in 2550
B.C. and its reconstruction in the uniform Harappan style
about 50 to 100 years later seemed to point at the
possibility that this uniformity was achieved by wars and
conquests. Lothal and several other settlements which
have been discovered in recent years may be assigned to
the Mature Harappan phase of rapid expansion and
reconstruction. Historians, Herman Kulke and Dietmar
Rothermund have remarked that, "a new phase of
imperial state formation in South Asia" had started, with
the probability of an Indus Empire with Mohenjodaro as
capital.

The morphology of most of the excavated sites of the

Indus Civilization have revealed much while giving rise to
differences of opinion on certain matters, which can only
be resolved with more scientific study of the artifacts. It
is evident that the Indus Civilization was an agrarian
civilization with both internal and external trade. In the
early stages the different cities such as Harappa,
Mohenjo Daro, Dholavira, and Kalibangan were perhaps
independent city states. Gradually Mohenjo Daro seems
to emerge as the dominant power. The fact that
Kalibangan had a particular architectural style prior to
2500 B.C. which seems to have been abandoned all of a
sudden, and that the structures erected when the city
was rebuilt again after a century or so resembled that of
Mohenjo Daro seems to support this hypothesis that
Kalibangan was destroyed in a war with Mohenjo Daro
and rebuilt by the rulers of Mohenjo Daro later. However
only further research and analysis of the artifacts will
shed light on the situation and perhaps one day the mist
will clear from the face of Indus Civilization.