Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c13.21

c13.21

And in this connexion I would draw attention to the evidence mentioned in the last chapter; as we have seen, in the final phases of Mohenjo-daro there was a sudden strengthening of contact between the Harappā Culture and that of Kulli, and pottery and stone vessels of South Baluchistan types appeared in the later levels of the city’s occupation. Can this be wholly unconnected with the evidence for disturbed conditions in Baluchistan, and the establishment in the south of that region of newcomers from the west, suspect at least of being more than peaceful immigrant farmers? Were there refugees streaming down the passes of the Bolan, Lak Phusi and the Gaj Valley into the Indus plain, seeking shelter in the towns with which they long had traded? If this were indeed so, it is to be feared that they did not escape for long, for from Sind comes clear evidence that the mountains made no more than a temporary halting-place for the men from the west. Once over the Kirthar Range they could look down, upon prosperous communities, ripe for plunder, beside which the Baluchi villages were as nothing; they were on the frontier of civilization, but it was a kingdom unskilled in defence and unprepared for attack. Archaeology has shown something of the end of the Harappā towns at Chanhu-daro, Jhukar, and Lohumjo-daro in Sind, at each of which the invaders settled where they had plundered.