The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c4.s1: 1. The Indus seals and the discovery of the Indus Civilization
The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables c4.s1
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1. The Indus seals and the discovery of the Indus Civilization
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The Indus Civilization ranks among the most ancient urban cultures of mankind. It covered an appreciably larger area than either the Early Dynastic Egypt or Sumer. Like the other Old World civilizations, the Indus Civilization seems to have grown from the skilful utilization of the fertile river valleys. Its distinctive characteristics - the gridiron layout of the cities, their elaborate drainage, and the puzzling pictographic script - are still best known from the excavations of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.¹
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¹ For the Indus civilization in general, its context and for the latest developments, see the works quoted in footnotes 2-26 and the following: Gregory L. Possehl (ed.), *Ancient Cities of the Indus*, New Delhi 1979; id. (ed.), *Harappan Civilization*, New Delhi 1982; A.H. Dani (ed.), *Indus Civilization - New Perspectives*, Islamabad 1981; B.B.Lal & S. P. Gupta (eds.), *Frontiers of the Indus Civilization*, New Delhi 1984; *Vergessene Städte am Indus: Frühe Kulturen in Pakistan vom 8. bis 2. Jahrtausend*, Mainz 1987; and the series *South Asian Archaeology*, from 1971 onwards.
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Three distinctive seals - representing the object type that has remained most characteristic of the Indus civilization - were found at Harappa in the Punjab and published in 1875, 1886 and 1912.² But the full implication of these finds was not realized before excavations were started in 1920 at Harappa, and, by chance almost simultaneously, in 1922, at Mohenjo-daro in Sind, some 600 km south in the Indus valley. More seals of the same type were immediately found at both of these sites, and it became evident that an entirely unknown bronze-age civilization had come to light.³ This led to large-scale excavations at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa,⁴ followed by much more limited digs at Chanhujo-daro further south in Sind.⁵ The bulk of the Indus (or Harappan) seals and inscriptions available to research comes from these excavations in the 1920's and 1930's.
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² Cf. A. Cunningham, Harappa, in: *Archaeological Survey of India, Report for the year 1872-73*, Vol. V, Calcutta 1875, 105-108 & pl. XXXII-XXXIII; M. Longworth Dames, Old seals found at Harappa, *The Indian Antiquary* XV: 179, January 1886, 1; J.F. Fleet, Seals from Harappa, *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society* 1912, 699-701.
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³ For a comprehensive history of Harappan studies, see Michael Jansen, *Die Indus-Zivilisation: Entdeckung einer frühen Hochkultur*, Köln 1986.
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⁴ John Marshall (ed.), *Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization*, I-III, London 1931; Ernest Mackay, *Further Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro*, I-II, New Delhi 1938; M.S. Vats, *Excavations at Harappa*, I-II, New Delhi 1940.
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⁵ Ernest Mackay, *Chanhu-daro Excavations 1935-36*, American Oriental Series 20, New Haven 1943. Mackay's excavations were a follow-up of the pioneering explorations of N.G. Majumdar. The Indus seals and inscriptions from Amri, Jhukar and Lohumjo-daro included in this volume were discovered by Majumdar and reported by him in the *Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India for 1927-28* (1931), 76-83 & pl. XXVII-XXX (Excavations at Jhukar) and in his *Explorations in Sind*, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 48, Delhi 1934. The seals from Mehi and Shahi-tump were discovered by another famous early explorer, Sir Aurel Stein; see his report, *An Archaeological Tour in Gedrosia*, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 43, Calcutta 1931.
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In the partition of British India in 1947, all the major sites of the Indus civilization known at that time became part of Pakistan. During the last four decades, due to constant efforts of the Indian archaeologists, more than 862 Early Harappan, Harappan and Late Harappan sites have been discovered in the Indian Union. In India the area of distribution of Harappan settlements runs broadly from Manda in Jammu (Jammu & Kashmir) in the north to Daimabad in Maharashtra in the south, and from Desalpur, District Kutch, Gujarat, in the west to Hulas in district Shaharanpur, U.P., in the east.⁶ Among the newly extensively excavated sites in India are Kalibangan, Lothal, Surkotada, Daimabad and Banawali. These important excavations have thrown fresh light on the cultural style of the Indus civilization and have produced the greatest number of seals and inscriptions in India.⁷ The recently started marine archaeology along the coast of Gujarat has already produced exciting results at Bet Dwaraka.⁸
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⁶ For the progress of the Harappan discoveries in India, see the yearly reports in *Indian Archaeology - A Review*, from 1953/54 through 1984/85 and the following: Ancient India Vol. 9 (1953); Jagat Pati Joshi, Madhu Bala and Jassu Ram, The Indus Civilization: A Reconsideration on the Basis of Distribution Maps, in: B.B. Lal and S.P. Gupta (eds.), Frontiers of the Indus Civilization, New Delhi 1984, 511-530; Jagat Pati Joshi, Harappa Culture: Emergence of a New Picture, in: K.N. Dikshit (ed.), Archaeological Perspectives in India Since Independence, New Delhi 1985, 51ff.; B.M. Pande and B.D. Chattopadhyaya, Archaeology and History: Essays in Memory of Shri A. Ghosh, Vol. I-II, New Delhi 1987.
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⁷ The final reports for only the excavations of Lothal and Daimabad have been published so far: S.R. Rao, *Lothal, a Harappan Port Town* (1955-62), Vol. I-II, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 78, New Delhi 1979-1985; and S.A. Sali, *Daimabad 1973-79*, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 83, New Delhi 1986. For the Late Harappan sites of Rangpur and Prabhas Patan (Somnath) and the non-Harappan site of Maski (relevant for the Corpus on account of its cylinder seal), see S. R. Rao, Excavations at Rangpur and other explorations in Gujarat, *Ancient India* 18-19 (1962-63), 5-207; J.M. Nanavati et al., *Somnath 1956*, Baroda 1971; and B. K. Thapar, Maski 1954: A chalcolithic site of the southern Deccan, *Ancient India* 13 (1957), 4-142.
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⁸ See *The Statesman*, Delhi, April 17, 1985.