Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v6.c40.s5: Baluchistan

Mānasāra Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Mānasāra-Śilpaśāstra; III. Mānasāra on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Mānasāra: Translation; V. Architecture of Mānasāra: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v6.c40.s5

Language: English

Baluchistan

v6.c40.s5.1

With a view to finding a connexion between the peoples of the Indus Valley, whose cultural achievements have been disclosed by the discoveries made at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, and of Babylonia, excavations have been carried out in Baluchistan, ‘the country lying between these two important river basins and where connecting links between the two cultures’ was expected to be recovered.⁴

v6.c40.s5.2

⁴ H. Hargreaves, *Archaeological Survey of India Memoir*, no. 35, Preface, iii.

v6.c40.s5.3

The excavations at Sampur Mound at Mastung, some 33 miles south of Quetta, and at Sohr Damb at Nāl in Jhalawān in the Kalāt State some 200 miles southward, do not appear to have yielded much to establish that much-wished-for connexion.

v6.c40.s5.4

With the same view, further excavations have been carried out along the North-West Frontier from the Kuram river down through Waziristan and the northern district of Baluchistan, with no better results.¹

v6.c40.s5.5

¹ Sir Aurel Stein, *Archaeological Survey of India Memoir*, no. 37.

v6.c40.s5.6

Still further have been carried the excavations into the far-stretched portion of Gedrosia, comprising the territories of Khārān, Makrān, and Jhalawān, between the Arabian Sea in the south and the deserts adjoining Afghanistan in the north, but with the same fate.²

v6.c40.s5.7

² *Ibid*, no. 43.

v6.c40.s5.8

At Mastung, on the top of the mound, have been found only 'the interior wall of a small room. These walls were of kachcha (sundried) brick faced with mud plaster. No other rooms were traced elsewhere in this excavation.'³ 'No stone or brick walls were found anywhere on this site, and the only kachcha walls recognized with certainty were those in the higher sections . . . and the room on the summit.'⁴

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³ Hargreaves, *Memoir*, no. 35, p. 2.

v6.c40.s5.10

⁴ *Ibid*, p. 3.

v6.c40.s5.11

At Nāl, also, nothing more than the remains of the stone-walls of some structures, possibly rooms and courtyards, have been found. 'The word "room" is used for convenience for it is by no means certain that they are "rooms" in the ordinary sense of that word. The walls are at right angles and roughly oriented to the cardinal points. None are of any great height. In all probability the stone-walls were merely foundations. Any superstructures must have been of mud, brick or some light material which had entirely disappeared. No obvious entrances to the rooms can be traced. No traces of any roofing material or the charcoal of beams or rafters were discovered in this area. Most of the rooms had earth floors, but two rooms have pavements of small water-worn boulders and one had a particularly solid flooring consisting of three courses of stones carefully laid over a foundation of gravel.'⁵