The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c9.2

c9.2

At both cities the acropolis or citadel was a parallelogram some 400-500 yds. from north to south and 200-300 yds. from east to west, with a present maximum height of about 40 ft. At both, whether by chance or design, it was similarly oriented, with the major axis north and south. At Mohenjo-daro it appears to occupy an *insula* in the lay-out of the town, of which the main streets form a grid-plan enclosing other *insulae* on that scale. The eviscerated mounds of the lower city at Harappā have not been dug, but it is fair to assume a similar plan there, and to credit the Indus civilization generally with a carefully engineered civic lay-out from as early a period as has been reached by excavation. In this respect it seems to differ from the available town plan of its Mesopotamian counterpart, Ur,¹ where the street-plan hinges upon a main street that wanders and curves with the casualness of a village lane or of New York’s Broadway, and suggests a phase of evolutionary development. If any inference may be drawn from this comparison, it might be that Mohenjo-daro, unlike Ur, was laid out at a time when town-planning had passed the experimental stage—an inference which, if correct, would be consistent with the relatively later date ascribed to the Indus site. But unknown factors at present impair the value of this argument.