An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s9.1

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.