History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c29.s1.t1: Indus Civilization
History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c29.s1.t1
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Indus Civilization
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Indus Civilization had a vast expanse with its northern boundary at Rupar in Haryana, and the southern at Bhagatrav (Gujarat) eastern and western boundaries being Alamgirpur in U.P. and Sutkagendor(Makran) respectively, occupying an area equal to 1.25 million sq km; larger than the present Pakistan.
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A large number of cities of this civilization have been excavated which reveal uniformity in the lay-out of the cities. Mention may be made of Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Lothal, Kalibangan etc. The examination of the lay-out of these cities reveals that they consciously planned their cities and kept in mind the following factors :
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1. The topography and the ecology of the area, (being riverine civilization) they selected long river fronts.
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2. They chose rectangular area, kept proper orientation and followed the cardinal points.
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3. The need for defence and prevention from floods made them to improvise the system of fortification and ramparts.
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4. The division of the city according to the dictates of the society, building important quarters on the citadel and ordinary houses at the ground level.
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5. They followed grid-iron system of laying out the streets, cutting each other at right angles.
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6. High level of sanitation system and underground drainage.
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7. Adequate means and regular system of water supply, through wells and tanks.
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City planning takes effect largely through some governing agency and requires understanding of the ecology (in this case, the riverine ecology) and the means to exploit it. This would require adequate organization to execute large scale works of elaborate fortification and layout of the city and construction requiring experienced architect, masons, carpenters, with facilities of surveying, analysis and designing.
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Excavations at Mohenjo-daro and Lothal etc have brought to light geometrical and surveying instruments for precise measurements and fixing cardinal points.
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A brief mention may be made of some of the salient features of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Kalibangan and Lothal towns of the Indus civilization.
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All the towns, big or small show regular orientation. The towns of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and Kalibangan depict two distinct features, namely, on the west there is a distinct citadel mound which is artificially built on a high podium by use of mud bricks. From the center of the citadel branch out long axis running north-south and to the east. The citadel outstands the lower city which houses the main residential area. Either both the citadel and the lower city or at least the citadel were surrounded by massive fortification wall.
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Harappa: The town extended over a circuit of 6 km on the left bank of Ravi. The site is now in Punjab province of Pakistan. It has been identified with Rgvedic Hari-Yupiya by Wheeler. There is a lower town and a citadel in the shape of a parallelogram (Vats, 1941).
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Mohenjo-daro: Situated on the right bank of the Indus in Larkana district (Sindh: Pakistan). The city has a parallelogram shaped citadel 50 feet high and the lower town. The city had 12 blocks extending over 1.5 km. Granary and Great Bath are situated on the citadel. Great Bath measures 17×7×2.5m. It has the distinction of remarkable water proofing device using bitumen. Bricks are set on edge in gypsum, below the bricks was a damp-proof course of bitumen held by further wall of bricks. Sanitation methods are mentioned separately. (Marshall, 1931).
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Kalibangan (Dt. Ganganagar; Rajasthan): Both the citadel (240 m N-S×120m E-W) and the lower town (240 m E- W×360 m N-S) are parallelogram in shape and are surrounded separately by a massive defence wall which is 3.5 to 9 meter thick made of mud bricks of 40×20×10 cm size in its earlier phase and 30×15×7.5 cm in its later phase. The fortification wall is mud plastered and is reinforced with rectangular salients and bastions.
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There are four arterial thoroughfares in north-south direction and three or four in east side. Street corners are provided with fender posts to avoid damage from vehicular traffic. Roads are unmetalled except in the last phase. House drains discharged themselves into soakage jars, buried under the street floor. Streets were laid in perfect alignment.
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Widest streets run across the lower city from north-south. Roads are twice as broad as the street and the latter are twice as broad as the lanes. The city shows regard to the cardinal points.
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The citadel town had important buildings, civic, religious, administrative and also the granaries. General population lived in lower town (Lal, 1978).
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Lothal (Dt. Ahmedabad, Gujrat): Situated at the head of gulf of Cambay, north-west of the junction of Sabarmati and Bhagavo rivers. Being a port town it had a somewhat different lay-out. The city is rectangular. The longer side, 300 meter had a north- south orientation and the shorter side 225 meter had east-west expanse. There was a massive mud-brick defence wall surrounding the city as a protection against the flood.
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Port town is situated on a low ground by the side of a tributary of Sabarmati river. On the eastern side of the township is a dock-yard (detailed separately). The citadel, 7 meter high, constructed of mud brick, situated on the south eastern flank of the city, houses all the important establishments of the city - the acropolis. It measured 119×127m with longer axis north- south. All important buildings: public and private houses, and the warehouse, were built in of 12 cubical blocks with air ducts and passages running in between. Mention may be made of a series of rooms with a brick paved bath having remarkable system of underground drainage with silting chambers and cess pools -these might have been the ruler's residence.
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Streets were four to six meter wide and narrow lanes two to three feet broad. Main street ran north to south (Rao, 1973).