The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c11.1

c11.1

The citadel of Mohenjo-daro, like that of Harappā, is based upon an artificial hill which rises from a height of 20 ft. in the south to 40 ft. in the north, where it is crowned by a Buddhist stūpa and monastery of the second century A.D. To-day the mound is bitten into, and indeed nearly severed in two, by Indus floods which have transformed it into an archipelago of hillocks and have only been restrained by a modern system of embankments in the vicinity. Such is the force of the spring floods that these embankments are a perennial source of anxiety to the engineers concerned and are constantly being made good by hired bands of Baluch or Afghan tribesmen. The nearest branch of the river is now 3 miles away to the east, but it has been suspected on somewhat uncertain grounds that a watercourse ran anciently close under the northern end of the citadel.¹ It is within memory that a mile of obsolete embankment, now almost entirely removed, followed the western bank of the present stream where it faces Mohenjo-daro; but the fact that it incorporated Harappan material does not prove its contemporaneity with the city, although consistent with that possibility.