Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c7.2

c7.2

INTRODUCTORY—Indus Valley Art has come to us in the mass of finds mainly at the two cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro (c. 2500 B.C.—1800 B.C.). Cunningham had touched the site of Harappa as early as 1878, but its proto-historic character was revealed for the first time in 1921 when D. R. Sahni was digging at Harappa on the Ravi and following him in 1922 R. D. Banerji struck upon the treasures of chalcolithic civilisation at Mohenjo-daro on the Indus. Marshall and his colleagues took up the work bringing to light an urban culture of vast dimensions, adjudged to be the most extensive in the pre-classical world. In time it stretched over a period of about a thousand years and in space over 1500 miles from Rupar (Kotla-Nihang, Ambala) to Rangpur and Lothal at the head of the Gulf of Cambay, District Ahmedabad, and still further upto Bhagat Rao on the river Kim in the Narmada valley. Latest exploratory survey has swelled the number of sites to about one hundred, the focal areas being those of Harappa, Sarasvati in Rajasthan desert with the big site of Kali Bangan on its bank, Mohenjo-daro and Chanhu-daro on the Indus, Rangpur and Lothal in Saurāṣṭra.