An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s9: 4.9 Harappa
An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s9
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4.9 Harappa
v1.c9.s9.1
Even as late as 1920 it was generally held that civilization on the Indian subcontinent began only after the invasion of Alexander in 326 B.C. Such an assumption was due partly to a western outlook on Indian history but, to be fair, largely to lack of any material remains that could satisfactorily be dated to the pre-Mauryan times, except for the so-called cyclopean walls of RAJGIR, vaguely ascribable to the 6th century B.C. However the following two years, i.e. 1921 and 1922, added an altogether new chapter to India’s past, throwing it back to *c.* 3rd millennium B.C. In 1921 D.R. Sahni carried out trial excavations at Harappa in Dt Montgomery of Punjab and in the following year R.D. Banerji dug at Mohenjo-daro in Dt Larkana of Sind, both bringing to light hitherto unknown material—seals, pottery and other antiquities of a Bronze Age civilization. [In 1872-3 A. Cunningam ‘made several excavations’ at Harappa and reported ‘a number of stone implements for scraping wood or leather’ (parallel-sided chert blades), ‘numerous specimens of ancient pottery’ (all the ones illustrated by him are typically Harappa) and a previously discovered seal which had been found along with two small objects like chess pawns. ‘On the seal is engraved very deeply a bull without hump… Above the bull there is an inscription in six characters, which are quite unknown to me. They are certainly not Indian letters; and as the bull is without a hump, I conclude that the seal is foreign to India’ (*ASI-R*, 5, pp. 105-8). He was thus on the verge of discovering the great civilization but bypassed it. Also in 1886 was reported the discovery of another seal at Harappa (Dames, 1886). But this finds too remained unnoticed.] Those discoveries of Sahni and Banerji were followed by large-scale excavations at Mohenjo-daro under the general direction of Marshall (Marshall, 1931). Further excavations at the same site were carried out by Mackay (Mackay, 1938) who also dug at Chanhu-daro (Mackay, 1943). Vats excavated at Harappa (Vats, 1940), which was subjected to further digging in 1946 by Wheeler (Wheeler, 1947). On account of its being widespread in the Indus valley, this civilization has been given the name the Indus Valley civilization, but it is also known variously as the Indus civilization, Harappa civilization and Harappa culture.
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Partition of the country in 1947 took away almost all sites to Pakistan, leaving on the Indian side of the border only two tiny and debatable ones, viz. KOTLA NIHANG KHAN in Dt Rupnagar of Punjab and RANGPUR in Kathiawar. Indian archaeologists, however, took up the challenge and, as of today, more than a hundred sites of the Harappa culture have been identified within the Indian border. Of these about a dozen have been excavated, the more noteworthy being: LOTHAL and SURKOTADA in Gujarat (Rao, 1973; Joshi, 1972); KALIBANGAN in Rajasthan (Lal, 1962 and 1979; Thapar 1975); MITATHAL and BANAWALI in Haryana (Suraj Bhan, 1975; Bist, 1978); Rupnagar (ROPAR) in Punjab (Sharma, 1955-6); and ALAMGIRPUR and Hulas in n.-w. Uttar Pradesh (Sharma, *IAR 1958-9*, pp. 50-55; Dikshit, 1979).
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Since Independence quite a few Indus sites have been excavated in Pakistan as well, among which special mention may be made of: Allahdino, Amri and Kot Diji in Sind (respectively Fairservis, 1976 and 1977; Casal, 1964; and Khan, 1965); Balakot in Baluchistan (Dales, 1979), Jalilpur and Sarai Khola in Punjab (Mughal, 1972; Halim 1970-1 and 1972) and Gumla in N.W.E.P. (Dani, 1970-1).
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With the above-mentioned discoveries it may very well be said that the Indus civilization occupied an area greater than that of the contemporary civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia put together. From Sutkagendor on the Arabian sea-board in Baluchistan in the w. to ALAMGIRPUR in the upper Ganga-Yamuna doab in Uttar Pradesh in the e. it is a distance of nearly 1600 km. Again, from MANDA in Jammu and Kashmir in the n. to BHAGATRAV in Gujarat in the s. it is over 1350 km. In this context however one point ought to be mentioned, viz. that no site of the Indus civilization has yet been found in s. Rajasthan. This may partly be due to lack of intensive exploration of the area but may also be explained by the existence of the Thar desert and the Aravalli hills which might have prevented the movement of the Indus people due e. from upper Sind. In fact it would appear that from nuclear region of Sind and Punjab, the e. ward movement of these people took place along two routes, one along the tributaries of the Indus in the direction of the upper Ganga-Yamuna doab and the other along the sea-belt towards Gujarat.
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‘While there are many characteristic features of the Indus civilization, the one that places it far above the contemporary w. Asian civilizations is its meticulous town-planning and strict adherence to the same from the beginning to the end of any of the given sites, be it Mohenjo-daro or Harappa in Pakistan or KALIBANGAN or LOTHAL in India. At all these sites a concept of dividing the settlement into two major parts, called loosely by archaeologists the ‘Citadel’ and the ‘Lower Town’, is met with. The so-called ‘Citadel’ could be either an altogether separate entity, usually on the w. as at Mohenjo-daro and KALIBANGAN, or integrated with the 'Lower Town' within a common fortification wall, as at LOTHAL. Of the 'Lower Town', the most noteworthy feature was the systematic layout of its streets which ran n.-s. and e.-w., thus dividing the township into several grid-patterned blocks, each one of which comprised a number of houses opening out on one of the streets. Good sanitary arrangement, either by way of local soakage-jars, as at KALIBANGAN, or through a well-laid-out and covered drainage system, as at Mohenjo-daro, was another noteworthy feature.
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Although details of the structures at the above-mentioned sites will be found under the respective entries in Vol. II, it may be well worthwhile here to mention the most outstanding aspects of some of these sites in order to give a general idea of the emergent picture as a whole.
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Of all the Indus sites excavated so far, Mohenjo-daro is by far the largest. As already stated it has two components, the 'Lower Town' on the e. and the 'Citadel' on the w. The former, covering an area approximately 1070 m n.-s. and 685 m e.-w., had several criss-cross streets, the widest of which was as much as 10 m in width. The houses, made of kiln-burnt bricks, usually comprised a courtyard around which were located four to six living rooms, a bath-room and a kitchen. In larger houses there could be as many as 30 rooms. For the supply of fresh water many of the houses had their own wells. The presence of staircases in some of the houses suggests that these may have been double-storeyed.
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The 'Citadel' mound at Mohenjo-daro contained some very unique buildings, amongst which special mention may be made of a bath, a granary, and an 'assembly hall', all of which were made of kiln-burnt bricks. Located in the n. part of the 'Citadel', the bath complex consisted of a central tank, 12 m long, 7 m wide and 2·5 m deep, around which ran a pillared veranda followed by a series of rooms which might have been used for changing dress or for similar other purposes. Access to the water-level in the tank was had by means of two staircases, one each on the n. and s. side. To prevent leakage of water the bottom and side-walls of the tank were made waterproof by the use of gypsum in the mortar. A large well in the complex was the source of supply of water and for its discharge a corbelled drain was provided through one of the corners. Not far from the tank is a later (Kushan) *stūpa*, and it has been surmised that below it might be lying a religious complex of the Harappa times. If that be so, the tank may also have been associated with that complex, religious bathing having formed a part of the rituals. (In this context cf. below the evidence from KALIBANGAN.)
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Immediately to the w. of the tank-complex was the granary. It consisted of a podium over which stood 27 blocks of kiln-burnt bricks, arranged in three rows, each having nine blocks. Between the blocks was a passage, about 1 m in width, evidently provided for the circulation of air underneath the wooden superstructure in which grain was stored. In many of the blocks sockets have been identified, in which were evidently inserted the vertical timber beams of the superstructure. Along the n. side of the podium was the loading platform with an alcove into which probably moved carts laden with the grain. The overall area covered by the granary was 55×37 m.
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In the s. part of the Citadel was another interesting building. Within an area of about 750 sq m were located 20 massive piers of kiln-burnt bricks, arranged in four rows of five each, there also being the remains of corresponding pilasters at the ends. It is evident that the structure was a pillared hall, most likely used for assemblies.
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Wheeler's excavations at the Citadel mound in 1950 brought to light the remains of fortifications including a couple of towers. However further work ought to be done to get a clearer picture of the defences. No fortifications have been excavated around the 'Lower Town', though on the analogy of KALIBANGAN and LOTHAL such a possibility cannot altogether be ruled out.
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Harappa has suffered a great deal at the hands of brick-robbers. It has nevertheless added quite a few things to our knowledge. About the layout of the 'Lower Town' nothing can be said, since most of it has suffered spoliation and even the extant part has not been excavated. But of the 'Citadel', the defences have been excavated in much greater detail than those at Mohenjo-daro. The fortification wall forms a rough parallelogram on plan, covering an overall area of about 425 m from n. to s. and about 200 m from w. to e. A section cut across the wall on the w. side showed that it was made of mud bricks and measured about 13 m in width at the base, tapering upwards both at the front and the back. On the exterior it was provided with a burnt-brick revetment, also tapering. There were burnt-brick towers at the corners and at other places as well. Entry into the Citadel was had through two gates, one each on the n. and the w. Unfortunately little is known of the buildings inside the Citadel, since not much area has been excavated therein. All that can be said is that these buildings stood on mud-brick platforms as revealed by the trench across the defences, which was only slightly carried inwards.
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But of immense interest and significance are the structures that lay to the n. of the Citadel. These fall into two broad groups. The one that was located close to, as if in the shadow of, the n.-w. corner-tower of the Citadel comprised a series of workmen's quarters, furnaces and working floors. Enclosed by a common boundary wall of which only small portions have survived, the workmen’s quarters lay in two e.-w. rows. Each quarter, covering an area of about 17×7 m, comprised a room and a court-yard, the latter being entered from the outside through an oblique passage, evidently so designed for privacy. Immediately to the n. of these quarters, but on a slightly higher level, there lay 16 furnaces, roughly pear-shaped on plan, the major axis varying from 1 to 2 m. While the exact purpose of these furnaces has not been clearly made out, mention may still be made of the discovery of a bronze-smelting crucible in the area near by. The working platforms lay in five e.-w. rows, each row containing more than half-a-dozen examples. Having an average diameter of about 3·5 m, each platform consisted of several rings of burnt bricks set on edge, with a central depression about 0·5 m in diameter. On the basis of the discovery of husk, wheat and barley in the depression it is surmised that in it was placed a hollow wooden mortar for pounding grains. The idea gains added support from the presence of a granary a little to the n. of these platforms.
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Covering an overall area of 55×3 m, the granary complex comprised two blocks, each block having six halls, and each hall measuring about 15×6 m. The basal part of these halls was made of kiln-burnt bricks, with provision of regular air-ducts, whereas the upper part, of which nothing has survived, is likely to have been of wood. Immediately to the n. of the granary lies the ancient bed of the Ravi (which now flows a few km away), and it is only reasonable to surmise that boats moving up and down the river brought in the grain supplies.
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In contrast to the evidence so far obtained from either Mohenjo-daro or Harappa, that from Kalibangan shows that not only the ‘Citadel’ but also the ‘Lower Town’ was fortified. Further, since the ‘Citadel’ area at Kalibangan has been excavated in sufficient detail, it is also possible now to understand its real character.
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The fortified ‘Citadel’ complex was divided by a bipartite wall into two equal parts, n. and s., each forming a 120 m rhomb. Within the s. rhomb there stood several large-sized mud-brick platforms, of which some had anciently been eroded but at least six were clearly identified. Separated one from the other by passageways, the platforms appear to have carried on them some specialized structures. Thus, on the top of one was found a n.-s. row of seven ‘fire altars’. (This term has been used in the absence of a better one, but these ‘altars’, may it be added, have nothing to do with the fire-altars of the Parsis.) Sunk partly into the ground and lined with clay-bund above the ground-level, the altars contained ash, charcoal and a central stele of clay, besides fragments of what are known as terracotta ‘cakes’ [6.27]. Close to these altars was found a jar, partly buried into the ground and containing ash and charcoal; it was evidently associated with the altars. A little away from the altars but on the same platform were a brick-lined well and a few bath-pavements, clearly suggesting that ceremonial bathing formed a part of the ritual, whatever its other details might have been.
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On another platform were encountered a well, a fire-altar as also a brick-lined pit containing bovine bones and antlers, the last named suggesting some kind of animal sacrifice. That the people of Kalibangan performed animal sacrifice is also indicated by the engravings on a triangular terracotta cake which shows, on one side, an animal drawn by a person with a rope and, on the other, a deity wearing a head-dress similar to that of the famous Śiva-Paśupati from Mohenjo-daro.
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From the foregoing descriptions it would be seen that the s. rhomb of the so-called ‘Citadel’ did in fact contain structures of ritualistic denominations and as such it would be more appropriate to regard it as a religious or ‘temple’ complex rather than a ‘Citadel’ smacking of association with a king. Even in the n. rhomb there was no structure which could be regarded as a royal residence. In it there lay a series of houses on either side of a street, and it is not unlikely that in them there lived the priests whose duty it was to supervise the rituals performed in the s. rhomb.
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The s. rhomb had two entrances, one each on the s. and n. In both cases however there was provision of steps with or without landings indicating that no vehicular traffic could pass through them. Thus those who walked around the platforms had to do so on foot. Indeed one does not expect people riding about in carts within a temple complex.
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As already stated earlier, at Kalibangan the Lower Town was also fortified. Built right at the beginning of the settlement, the fortifications enclosed an area measuring 240 m from w. to e. and over 360 m from n. to s. Two gateways were identified, one on the w., providing an access to the ‘Citadel’, and the other on the n.-w. opening on the river-front.
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In the usual Indus style the streets were oriented n.-s. and e.-w., but an important point to be noted in this regard is that their width was in a set proportion, viz. that of 1 : 2 : 3 : 4. Thus, while the narrowest lane measured 1·8 m in width, the other passages were respectively 3·6 m, 5·4 m and 7·2 m wide. The houses consisted of a courtyard with a series of rooms around it. Within the courtyard there were rectangular mud-brick troughs and half-buried pitchers, in which respectively fodder and water were kept for the cattle. The doors were wide enough to permit entry of bullock-carts. There was often a wall in the courtyard. One of the rooms seems to have been specially earmarked for the ‘fire-altar’. This brings to mind the concept of a separate *pūjā-ghara* of Hindu houses. While the room floors were generally of mud or mud-bricks, and in one case the use of decorated tiles was also noticed, an unusual feature recorded in the upper strata was the provision of a soling below the clay floor of overburnt terracotta nodules interspersed with charcoal. Enquiries from local engineers have revealed that such a soling would protect the rooms from termites and would also prevent soil salts from travelling up the walls and thus save their surfaces from crumbling. Do not these little ingenuities speak highly of the intelligent ways in which the people tackled their problems?
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There is another area at Kalibangan which deserves special mention. A hunt for the continuation of the fortifications of the Citadel revealed that these did not continue beyond a certain point on the s., although the habitation as such did go on. Thus there was clearly an area in which there lived some people for whom fortifications were not considered necessary. Although no excavation has been done in this area, surface indications suggest houses of a moderate kind. This and the identification of pottery dumps at the s.-w. periphery of this area suggest that in this part of the settlement there lived the workmen who in all probability attended to the needs of those who lived in the ‘Citadel’ as well as the ‘Lower Town’. As already stated earlier, the n. part of the ‘Citadel’ housed the priests; and it is not unreasonable to surmise that the ‘Lower Town’ was occupied mainly by land-owning farmers and businessmen. Thus we see that Kalibangan provides evidence for a threefold stratification of the society, viz. the priests, the business-cum-agriculturist community and the working class. The evidence regarding the layout of the settlement at Harappa, as spelt out earlier, would also appear to support such a social structure.
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Situated on the bank of the Bhogavo river, a tributary of the Sabarmati which in turn falls into the Gulf of Cambay, LOTHAL has to offer something which adds a new dimension to our knowledge of the Indus civilization. It is a dockyard [14.8], located along the e. periphery of the town and measuring 216 m from n. to s. and 36 m from w. to e. It was lined with a burnt-brick wall, 1·2 m in thickness and 4·3 m in extant height. In the s. part of the e. wall there was a 7 m wide gap opening into a channel which joined the dockyard with the Bhogavo river. It is surmised that during high tides boats would start from the Gulf of Cambay, an inlet of the Arabian Sea, come up along the Sabarmati and Bhogavo rivers and the channel and enter the dockyard through this gap. The excess water of the high tides would spill out through a controlled sluice located in the s. wall, there always remaining a minimum amount of water necessary to keep the boats floating. After unloading the merchandise on the adjacent wharf and load-ing outgoing material, the boats would make use of a subsequent receding tide to go downstream to the sea.
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Quite close to the dockyard was another structure which completes the picture of Lothal as a port. Over a podium there stood 12 rectangular blocks of mud-bricks in four rows of three each, accounting for a total area of 17×14 m. Intervening the blocks were passages about 1 m in width, evidently meant to by air-ducts below the superstructure which in all probability was of wood. This is suggested by the burnt sides of the passageways as also by the presence therein of charred wood. In these passages have also been found lumps of burnt or partly burnt earth bearing on the side impressions of typical Indus seals and on the other those of reeds and sometimes even cloth. The entire evidence is of a kind which suggests that in all probability the structure was a warehouse in which were temporarily lodged the incoming and outgoing goods, as in a dockyard complex even to this day.
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The layout of the settlement at LOTHAL somewhat differs from both Mohenjo-daro and KALIBANGAN. Thus, whereas at the latter two places the so-called ‘Citadel’ was clearly separated from the ‘Lower Town’, at Lothal the two were integrated to fall within a common fortification wall. At the same time the ‘Citadel’ maintained its distinctive feature of having been built on a platform. While most of what had originally stood on the platform has been ravaged by time and man, whatever remains is still very important, particularly for an interpretation of this complex. Besides some remains of walls the most conspicuous structures comprised a series of over a dozen bath-rooms, whose drains discharged into a large common drain, a large well and another set of drains cascading down to a cess-pit at the foot of the platform. None of the structures was of a kind as would entitle itself to be regarded as the residence of a king, but the presence of a series of bath-rooms does remind one of the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro and of the bathing platforms at KALIBANGAN, whose religious association seems to be well indicated. It is thus likely that the so-called acropolis at Lothal may well have been a religious complex.
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In the layout pattern SURKOTADA in Dt Kutch presents yet another feature. Here the ‘Citadel’ and the ‘Lower Town’ were conjoined, though their relative positions, viz. on the w. and e. respectively, remained unaltered. Both were fortified, there being a common wall in between, a gate through which was also provided for intercommunication. To both the Citadel and the Lower Town there were independent entrances from the s., and that to the Citadel comprised an elaborate ramp and stairway. Made of rubble, which is locally available in plenty, the fortification wall may be seen even today standing to a height of over 4·5 m.
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The high level of civilization achieved by the Harappans is reflected not merely in their town-planning and architecture but also in other items connected with their day-to-day life, in their love for art and in their flair for trade and commerce. The most commonly used article in everyday life by persons at all economic levels is pottery and if the pottery of a people shows variety and artistic merit it should speak well of them. The Harappa pottery [11.3] is well-fired and sturdy and is often provided with a slip over which is painted a variety of designs in black pigment. Sometimes polychrome has also been used, as in a pleasing little vase from Harappa. The painted designs not merely include geometric, floral, faunal and even human motifs but sometimes also depict scenes which bring to the mind stories recorded later on in the *Pañcatantra*. Thus, on a pot from LOTHAL are portrayed two birds perched on a tree and holding fish in their beaks, and at the bottom is an animal with a bushy tail, perhaps a fox. This scene is reminiscent of the story of ‘the cunning fox’, in which the fox praised the crow that it sang exceedingly well and the crow, getting puffed up, opened its mouth to sing. In doing so, it dropped the piece of flesh which it held in its mouth, and the cunning fox immediately ran off with it. On another pot from the same site occurs a scene in which on one side of a tree is shown a crow with a pitcher in front of it and on the other an animal turning his head back and looking, as if in wonder, at the crow. The depiction recalls the story of a wise crow, in which a thirsty animal failed to drink water from a narrow-necked pitcher, while the crow kept on dropping pebbles in it until the water-level rose high enough to let the crow drink it.
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Terracottas [17], associated more with the common folk than with the elite, provide another index to the level of artistry of a people. While the Harappa specimens do show a fairly rich variety, this is doubtless not as rich as, for example, that of contemporary Egypt. Most of the Harappa terracottas are hand-modelled, the eyes, ornaments, etc., being in appliqué by means of clay pallets, strips and the like. The mouth is often slit and the nose pinched up. A very common terracotta human figurine is that of the female, heavily ornamented and putting on a pannier head-dress. It has often been thought to represent the mother goddess [12.6] but may or may not have been so. However amongst other terracotta human figurines particular mention may be made of a tiny little head, hardly 3 cm in height, from KALIBANGAN which depicts the facial features so vividly that it at once reminds one of the famous steatite figure of the so-called priest from Mohenjo-daro. Special interest also attaches to another class of human figurines which are shown in various yogic poses (*āsanas*). These are evidently the earliest examples of the kind known from anywhere in the world.
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Terracotta animal figurines are plentiful, representing mainly the bull, but also the elephant, rhinoceros, dog, monkey, pig, etc. Except a few stray examples, say from a late level of LOTHAL, the horse is by and large absent from the terracotta representations. The much debated terracotta animal from Mohenjo-daro (Mackay, 1938, 2, pl. LXXVIII, p. 11) is indeed a dog, as clearly seen from the contours of its face, and not a horse. From the artistic point of view one cannot fail to observe the high degree of modelling represented by the terracotta bulls from Mohenjo-daro and KALIBANGAN. The other terracotta objects included toy-carts with solid wheels [16.19], cubical dice [6.7.1] with markings usually 1 opposite 2, 3 opposite 4, and 5 opposite 6, and a variety of ‘cakes’—flat-triangular, biconvex-circular, spheroid and oblong—whose exact use is still debated.
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Though not many specimens of stone sculptures have been found, whatever have been are indeed of a high order. In this context may specially be mentioned three figures, one from Mohenjo-daro and two from Harappa. The most outstanding amongst these, however, is the broken (32 cm high) bust of steatite from Mohenjo-daro: the face is bearded but the moustache is shaven; on the low forehead is a fillet; the body is covered with a shawl having typical trefoil design; and the half-closed eyes appear to be focused on the tip of the nose (*nāsāgra*). On the basis of the last-named feature, the figure has been thought to be that of a *yogī* in meditation. Of the two figures from Harappa, one represents a young man with a pronouncedly muscular body. Its another noteworthy feature is the provision of holes for fixing in the arms and the head. The other figure is to be noted for its pose in which one of the legs, though broken, seems to be swinging round, as if in a dance. It has been suggested, though not with unassailable validity, that the figure might be precursor of Śiva-Naṭarāja.
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The metal sculptures are as remarkable for their craftsmanship as those in stone, though their number is far less. Of special interest is the nude figure, supposedly of a dancing girl, from Mohenjo-daro. It is full of vivacity, and a sense of haughtiness appears to be reflected on the slightly drawn-up face. The bent right hand is poised on the right hip, while the left one rests on the bent left knee. The left arm is covered almost all over with bangles, while a necklace dangles between the breasts. The figure is broken from ankles downwards, but from another specimen from Mohenjo-daro itself it would appear the dancing girl wore anklets. Besides human figurines, those of animals are no less impressive, as for example, the buffalo with sturdy body and upraised head from Mohenjo-daro, the dog attacking to a deer shown on a pin-head from Harappa and a vivacious bull from KALIBANGAN.
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But there is none to beat the Indus artist when he sets himself down to carve out the seals [3.2]. Made of steatite, the typical Indus seal is square in shape, the side measuring from 2 to 3 cm. On the main face is carved in intaglio an animal above which is a short inscription. The back has usually a perforated boss, evidently for suspension. While the animals include the unicorn, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, etc., the depiction of Brahmani bull with its hump and swinging dewlap is indeed most remarkable and can very well be the envy of any artist, past or present. Besides these typical seals, there are others which are either rectangular or circular in shape; and a few are cylindrical as well. Some seals bear only an inscription and no animal, whereas there are some others which have only an animal or a bird or a symbol but no inscription. Some seals are rather elaborate and depict scenes like ‘Gilgamesh fighting with lions’, devotees offering sacrifice to a deity within a pipal enclosure, or even a ‘Śiva-Paśupati’ surrounded by wild animals. While the use of some of the seals may have been magico-religious, it would appear that most of these were used for the very purpose for which seals are used even today. This is indicated by the discovery of lumps of clay which bear impressions variously of reeds, cloth and or knotted twine on one side and of a seal or seals on the other. Evidently certain commodities were packed in reed or cloth packages which were tied with a thread; on the knot was placed wet clay which in turn was stamped with a seal or seals as necessary.
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Ever since the discovery of these seals attempts have been made to decipher the inscriptions [20.4.1] thereon. It may, however, at once be stated that no one has really succeeded so far, in spite of tall claims made by some of the decipherers. According to some the language is an old form of Dravidian whereas some others regard it as related to Vedic Sanskrit. Though these two languages have formed the major bases of subsequent Indian language, respectively in the s. and n., one wonders why the Indus language could not have been yet a third one. There is no agreement amongst scholars even about the basic nature of the script, whether it is pictographic, syllabic or alphabetic. Whereas some regard the signs as being mere pictograms, others think that they represent a kind of syllabary, the number of signs involved being about 400. According to yet another view, the signs can be reduced to a bare 20 and odd and represent alphabets. While all these are debated matters there seems to be a general agreement on at least one aspect of the script, *viz.* that it was written generally from right to left (Lal, 1975). However, when a second line was involved, the style was boustrophedon.
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There is one aspect of these inscriptions which deserves to be brought to the fore, and it is this. The inscriptions are not confined to seals and sealings. They occur on bronze axes and knives, ivory sticks, as also on pottery. The occurrence of inscriptions even on such commonplace items as pottery would indicate that a fairly sizeable section of the population was literate, at least in the metropolitan towns.
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The literacy of the Indus people was not confined to reading and writing but extended to the third ‘R’, *viz.* arithmetic. This is duly reflected not only in the standardization of brick sizes (40 × 20 × 10 cm or 30 × 15 × 7·5 cm, the ratio being invariably 4:2:1) or the width of streets (as referred to earlier in respect of KALIBANGAN) but also in the weights and measures used by these people. Usually cubical in shape and made variously of chert, limestone, gneiss, chalcedony, etc., the weights [6.29] followed a binary system for the lower denominations and a decimal one higher up, the ratios being 1, 2, 8/3, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 160, 200, 320, 640, 1600, 3200, etc., up to 12800. Such a set and well-defined system is rather unique for the ancient world. Graduated scales [6.29] have been discovered at Mohenjo-daro, LOTHAL and KALIBANGAN, though these are not always complete. Likewise there is a bronze rod from Harappa which also bears markings at regular intervals. Put together, the evidence suggests that the Indus people used a ‘foot’ of about 33 cm to 33·5 cm, as well as a ‘cubit’ measuring about 51·6 to 52·8 cm.
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The invention of writing, the use of seals and sealings, the manufacturing of weights and measures—all point towards flourishing trade and commerce. And there is ample evidence that this was so. For example, within the domain of the Indus civilization itself, it is likely that with LOTHAL as the principal marketing centre Gujarat may have supplied semiprecious stones, like agate, carnelian, chalcedony, etc., to most of the Indus sites. Similar may have been the case in respect of Kolar gold. Chert, for the preparation of blades, may have gone to most of the places from Sukkar and Rohri in Sind. In fact, when towards the end of the Indus civilization even the internal trade began to weaken, the more e. sites, e.g. ALAMGIRPUR in Uttar Pradesh, did not get their chert quota. However it was not the internal trade that boosted up the Indus economy, but the commercial relations that the Indus people were able to forge with w. Asian and c. Asian countries. There is enough evidence to show that such a relationship existed. For example, while the occurrence of a typical Persian Gulf seal at the port-site of LOTHAL points to the presence of a Gulf merchant there, sending back home commodities purchased from Gujarat, a case for Indian traders settling down in Mesopotamia is suggested by the discovery of a large number of seals of the Indus style variously at Ur, Lagash, Susa, Tell Asmar, Umma, etc. In fact a sealing from the last-named site is reported to have been found in association with a bale of cloth, which evidently was an export from India. If the description of imports given in contemporary Mesopotamian inscriptions is any guide, it is probable that besides cloth the Indus people may have also exported spices, ivory, etc.
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While the trade with Mesopotamia may have been essentially by sea—and in this coastal sites like Sutkagendor may have played a role—that with C. Asia and Afghanistan was evidently overland. In Afghanistan Harappa pottery has been identified at Shoturgai, which clearly indicates contacts with the Indus valley. It is not unlikely that here were some Harappa tradesmen who in return brought to the Indian subcontinent the much coveted semiprecious stone, lapis lazuli, for which Badakhshan is well known. The Indus contacts did not end up with Afghanistan. The discovery at Altin-Depe of a seal depicting an animal with three heads, one bent down, another looking forward and the third turned backwards—a style reminiscent of some Indus seals—and of another seal with two doubtless signs of the Indus script is proof enough of the C. Asian contacts even in those days. [cf. Gupta, 1979, 2, ch. 3.]
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But all urbanization, trade and commerce must rest on the solid foundation of agricultural production and surplus. (Those days one could not expect a high degree of industrialization.) And there is enough evidence of it. Firstly, the granaries at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro clearly point in this direction. Perhaps a granary may also have stood on one of the eroded platforms in the s. rhomb of the ‘Citadel’ at KALIBANGAN. Secondly, it is to be noted that even during the pre-Harappa times the people had developed the technique of sowing two varieties of cereals in a single field. At KALIBANGAN has been discovered a pre-Harappa ploughed field with grid-patterned furrow-marks [16.1]. Of these, furrows in one set are at a distance of 1·9 m and in the other at 30 cm [16.1]. In the modern examples of such fields it is seen that mustard plants, being taller, are grown in the widely-distanced furrows, while horsegram is planted in the other. For all one knows, a similar planting arrangement may have been followed in the ancient times as well. However, archaeological remains duly attest the production of wheat (*Triticum compactum* or *T. sphaerococcum*), barley (*Hordeum vulgare*), peas (*Pisum arvense* L.) and sesamum. Special interest attaches to the cultivation of cotton—an item not produced even by Egypt for centuries to come, even though the country derives its name from that material. The seeds of melon and date testify to the consumption of these fruits, while the banana can be identified from the paintings on pottery.
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To the dietary of the people were added, besides the foregoing cereals and fruits, the fish, fowl, mutton, pork and beef, for which the animals concerned must have been domesticated. The other domesticated animals included the cat and dog—a brick from Chanhu-daro bears impressions of the paws of these animals in a manner which suggests the chasing of the former by the latter—and perhaps the elephant. The evidence on the camel and horse is very meagre and not wholly beyond doubt.
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From the technological point of view the Indus people were in the Bronze Age, though the use of chert blades still persisted, which has sometimes led to the civilization being labelled ‘chalcolithic’. The fact that even vessels were sometimes made of copper or bronze shows the full use of these metals. Bronze was produced by the addition of tin which has been noted to be as much as 8 to 12% in some samples [16.9.5]. The metal tools for agricultural and domestic use [6] included axes, saws, sickles, knives, chisels, razor-blades, fish-hooks and the like. For offence of defence or for hunting, arrowheads, spears and short swords were used [19.1]. However the small number in which swords occur and the lack of items like shields and armours has suggested to scholars that the Indus people were essentially non-warlike and peace-loving.
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Not much detailed evidence is available regarding the dress of the Indus people. From a figure painted on a pot from Harappa it is seen that *dhoti* was in use. Likewise, the sculpture of the priest or yogī from Mohenjo-daro shows that shawl was used as an upper garment. It may perhaps be added, for whatever it is worth, that both *dhoti* and shawl have been until recently, and in many areas still are, the conventional dress of a Hindu. From the presence of needles and buttons one may justifiably conclude that at least some garments were stitched. Some female figures depicted on seals wear a kind of skirt or tunic, but that is rather rare. The terracotta figurines, which are more common, unfortunately do not throw any significant light on the dress. But these figurines do tell us a lot about the kind of ornaments worn, of which actual specimens in gold, silver and precious stones have also been found. The ornaments [10.3] included a variety of necklaces, ear-rings, bracelets, bangles, girdles, anklets and the *bija*—a hollow conical object worn on the forehead even today by women in Rajasthan.
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The pastimes of the people included the playing of chess of which gamesmen [6.7.2] have been found both in terracotta and stone. Some kind of gambling also seems to have been in vogue, as indicated by the dice [6.7.1], already referred to earlier. Hunting also must have formed a favourite pastime of the more daring ones. Youngsters played hopscotches [6.7.3] and marbles and rejoiced themselves with horned masks [6.13] and some ingenious terracottas, such as bulls with mobile heads and monkeys going up and down a string.
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Although the Indus civilization had been discovered in the early twenties, at least for two decades nothing was known about the disposal of the dead. However, in the forties a cemetery, called R 37, was located at Harappa, to the s.-w. of the Citadel. It was found that the burial method [12.4] was that of extended inhumation. The body was placed in a rectangular pit, sufficiently large to easily accommodate it. In some cases a mud-brick tumulus was erected over the grave. The body lay on its back, with the head towards the n. A few pots, cosmetic objects like the mirror [18.5] and antimony rod [18.1] and sometimes even edibles, in one case a fowl, were also placed alongside the dead, perhaps under the belief that these would serve the person in the next world. In one case the body had been placed in a wooden coffin. The interred person may have been a w. Asian, for coffin burials were common in Mesopotamia during the Sargonid times. At KALIBANGAN two more varieties of burials have been discovered. In one the pit and funerary objects were like those in the foregoing, but strangely there was no dead body. In the other variety the pit was circular and relatively small, there again being no skeletal remains, though pottery and other grave furniture were there all the same. Since these two varieties occur in the same cemetery complex which contains the normal extended burials, there is little doubt about their funerary association. However, future research alone can solve the riddle of their exact usage. At LOTHAL three graves contained two skeletons each, and although guesses have been hazarded about these having been cases of *satī* (wife immolating herself along with her dead husband), nothing definite can be said in the matter on account of the disputed identification of the sexes.
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The skeletal remains [15.2] recovered from these burials throw some light on the racial composition of the Indus people. They included variously the Mediterraneans, Proto-Australoids, Alpines and even Mongoloids. Such a cosmopolitan character seems to be quite in keeping with the urbanized Indus settlements: whereas the Mediterraneans and Alpines may have originally come from the w. The Proto-Australoids seem to have been autochthonous. The Mongoloids, accounting for a smaller number, evidently descended from the hilly regions.
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In such a mixed population the religious beliefs are also bound to be many and varied. Thus, whereas on the one hand there was down-to-earth worship like that of trees and streams and probably of the spirits believed to be residing in them, the figure of the *yogī* from Mohenjo-daro on the other hand tends to suggest that meditation on 'Higher Reality' was also practised. In between there were other kinds of worships and rituals. The depiction on some seals of a three-faced deity, wearing a feather-and-horn head-gear and surrounded by a large number of wild and domesticated animals, shows that Śiva in the form of Paśupati, lord of animals, was under worship. Śaivism is again suggested by some of the remains which have been taken to be *lingas* and *yonis*. A ritual associated with 'fire altars', and animal sacrifice, again forming a part of some ritual, are evidenced from KALIBANGAN.
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Although casual reference has been made above to the chronological horizon of the civilization it seems necessary to discuss the matter in some detail, particularly because of the differing opinions expressed by scholars from time to time in this regard. Thus, way back Marshall, 1931, p. 106, opined that the civilization might be dated broadly between 3250 and 2750 B.C. A little later Vats, 1940, pp. 9-10, expressed that view that since the lower levels of Mound F at Harappa yielded certain tiny seals the like of which had not been found at Mohenjo-daro, the beginning of the site (Harappa) be placed in the 'first half of the fourth millennium B.C.'. In marked contrast to the foregoing, Wheeler, 1947, p. 82, suggested a date-bracket of 2500-1500 B.C. for the civilization. The upper limit of Wheeler seems to have been conditioned by his belief that this civilization came to an end at the hands of the Aryans, who are assumed to have entered India around that date. Later on, however, he modified the dating as follows, 'it may now be postulated that the nuclear cities of the Indus civilization were founded some time before 2400 B.C. and that they endured in some shape to the eighteenth century B C.' (Wheeler, 1968, p. 125). The most recent pronouncement is that by Agrawal and Kusumgar, 1974, p. 10, who prefer to place the 'Nuclear Harappa' between 2300 and 2000 B.C. and 'Peripheral Harappa' between 2200 and 1700 B.C. We shall now briefly analyse the available date.
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The dates fall into two broad categories. In one are the objects of Indus style found at sites in w. Asia, and in the other are the ¹⁴C dates of the Indus sites themselves.
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While there are quite a few objects, including seals, in the first-named category, we shall deal here only with such examples as have been found in a reasonably datable context at the w. Asian sites. Thus one may refer to the occurrence of: etched carnelian beads of the typical Indus style in the Royal Graves at Ur, and in the burials at Kish, both ascribable to the Early Dynastic III times (the beads continue to occur in the Sargonid period as well); characteristic kidney-shaped bone inlays at Tell Asmar in the Akkadian levels (in which also occur potsherds with barbotine knobs (again typically Indus); and gold disc beads with axial tube from Early Dynastic III-Akkadian levels of some Mesopotamian sites. In this context mention may also be made of the presence in the early levels of Mohenjo-daro of the fragment of a vessel of chlorite schist, carved with a design resembling interwoven matting, which evidently belongs to the category of ‘stone house-urns’ found also at Kish, Lagash, Ur, etc., in Early Dynastic context. Of the seals of the Indus style found in datable contexts two are ascribable to the pre-Sargonid times, six to the Sargonid and two to the Larsa period. A seal stated to be from the Kassite levels is of doubtful stratigraphy. The foregoing evidence shows that the contacts of the Indus and w. Asian civilizations had already begun in the Early Dynastic III period (*c.* 2550 B.C.), were on the peak during the Akkadian (*c.* 2350 B.C.), and had declined by the Larsa times (*c.* 1950 B.C.).
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We may now pass on to the ¹⁴C dates which offer ‘direct’ evidence. Here however the difficulty is twofold. In the first place, we do not have ¹⁴C dates for many of the well-known sites, e.g. Harappa itself, and in certain cases, e.g. Mohenjo-daro, the dates are available only for the later part of the occupation. Secondly, though offering direct evidence, the ¹⁴C dates themselves are not unassailable, partly because of the possibility of contamination of the samples (in some cases) and more because of the now well-established deviation between the dates obtained by this method on the one hand and those by the astronomical/historical/tree-ring methods on the other [5.3]. To get over the drawback of contamination, erratic or incongruous dates shall be discounted. As to the deviation problem, MASCA correction (Ralph *et al.*, 1973), which is acceptable to most scholars, shall be applied. With the foregoing limitations the emergent picture is as follows.
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The most profusely dated site with this method is KALIBANGAN for which as many as 25 dates are available for the Harappa occupation and 10 for the pre-Harappa. Since, for obvious reasons, all these cannot be quoted here only the more relevant ones are given. (These are in B.C., the equivalent dates in brackets being MASCA-corrected.) The most dominant date-group for the Early sub-pd of the Harappa occupation consists of: 2075±110 (with MASCA correction it comes to M 2490-2540±120), and 2090±125 (=M 2520, 2540±135), although the earliest date is 2230±115 (=M 2690, 2720, 2760-2800±125). The Middle sub-pd gives a date range from 2060±105 (=M 2480±115) to 1770±90 (M 2110±100). There are 12 dates for the Late sub-pd of which the latest takes the site down to 1665±110 (=M 2040±120). Four dates for Late sub-pd have to be discounted, as they are either too early, viz. 2225±115, or too late, viz. 1215±105 and even 40±105. Thus, taking MASCA-correction into consideration, the Harappa occupation at KALIBANGAN may be deemed to have run from about the middle of the 26th century B.C. to the end of the 20th.
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LOTHAL is another site fairly well dated by the ¹⁴C method. For it as many as nine dates are available, seven for the Harappa occupation and two for what has been termed as devolved Harappa. Of the four Harappa Phases, the earliest (I) gives a date of 2080±135 (=M 2490-2540±145), while an early level of the latest Phase (viz. IV A) gives 1895±115 (=M 2195±125). The dates for the devolved stage (Phase V) are 1865±110 (=M 2165±120) and 1800±140 (=M 2120-2140±150). These dates show that the Harappa occupation of Lothal began somewhere in the 25th century B.C., i.e. about a century later than that at KALIBANGAN, and the devolution began to take place around 2100 B.C.
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In Gujarat there is another site, SURKOTADA, which is fairly well-dated. Of the nine dates available, one is rather unusually high, being 2315±135 (uncorrected), but the others give a fairly consistent picture. These place the earlier sub-pd (I A) around 2055±100 (=M 2480±110) and the latest around 1660±110 (=M 2020-2040±120).
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To sum up. The dates arrived at on the basis of the occurrence of the antiquities of the Indus style at w. Asian sites on the one hand and those obtained by the ¹⁴C method on the other give a more or less consistent picture, which is as follows. Since the Indus civilization had already established trade contacts with Mesopotamia by the Early Dynastic III times (*c.* 2550 B.C.), it may have originated some time at the beginning of the second quarter of the 3rd millennium B.C. The trade was at its peak in the Sargonid period (*c.* 2350 B.C.) but dwindled by the Larsa times (*c.* 1950). At no site do the corrected ¹⁴C dates place the end of the civilization later than the Larsa-contact date. Thus the overall range of the Indus civilization may be placed between *c.* 2700 and *c.* 1900 B.C., with the remark that whereas sites in the nuclear region of Sind and Punjab may have begun in the earlier part of this bracket those in the peripheral regions of Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat may have come into being a century or two later. A similar pattern would seem to apply to their ends as well.
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