A History of Agriculture in India v1.c17: Chapter 11. Harappan Chalcolithic Culture in Pakistan

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c17

Language: English

v1.c17.s1 Cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro — 21 parts

Chapter 11. Harappan Chalcolithic Culture in Pakistan

THE Mohenjo-daro mound in the Larkana District of Sind, capped by a Buddhist stupa, and the ruined city of Harappa, littered with bricks, were known to the people of Sind and the Punjab for a long time. Excavations at Harappa in the Montgomery District of the Punjab Province were started in 1921 by Daya Ram Sahni, and at Mohenjo-daro in 1923 by R.D. Banerjee. The work at the two sites was co-ordinated by Sir John Marshall. The excavation of the town of Chanhu-daro in Sind was undertaken by Mackay in 1935-36. Detailed excavations at Harappa were later on done by M.S. Vats in 1939-40. The Indus civilization is known as the Harappa civilization after Harappa, the site where it was identified for the first time. Lothal in Gujarat was a contemporary of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. From Sind and the western Punjab, Harappan Chalcolithic culture spread to the eastern Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and western Madhya Pradesh. From Lothal this culture diffused to a number of sites in Gujarat (Fig. 61).

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From end to end of the territory stretching from Mohenjo-daro to Harappa, from some 40 settlement-sites, come pottery of identical mass-produced types. Harappan Chalcolithic culture is further characterized by the concurrent use of copper or bronze flat axes and stone blades. The mass production of stone blades started in the Neolithic Period in the Fertile Crescent and it continued even after the discovery of copper on account of the cheapness of stone and its easy availability. Other characteristics of Chalcolithic culture are steatite and faience beads, along with those of carnelian, agate and copper, and peculiar terracotta figurines. Houses are built of baked bricks of standard dimensions. Stamp-seals are engraved with figures of domestic animals and a uniform script. A standard system of weights is recognizable. Whereas some sites are villages, others are small towns, and 350 miles [563 kilometres] apart stand two cities, each covering at least a square mile [2.6 square kilometres] of ground, twin capitals of an empire.

Cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

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The northern ‘capital’ Harappa is in the Punjab (Pakistan) about 100 miles [160 kilometres] south-west of Lahore. The southern city, Mohenjo-daro, is on the Indus, in Sind, nearly 200 miles [320 kilometres] north of Karachi. ‘The very existence of these large cities and towns’, states Piggott, ‘must pre-suppose a considerable agricultural population producing an adequate surplus beyond its immediate needs for sale to the towns. The invariable use of burnt clay bricks throughout the Harappa culture must imply far greater timber resources for firing the kilns than the present vegetation of tamarisk and scrub would afford.

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Fig. 61. Harappan and pre-Harappan sites (After Y.D. Sharma)

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‘Though none of the evidence is conclusive, the inference from the fauna, the wood needed to burn so many million bricks, and the implication of a flourishing agricultural background, all suggest a climate different from that of today, when at Mohenjo-daro the range in annual temperature is between 120°F [49°C] in summer to frost in winter, with a rainfall of less than 6 inches (152 millimetres) in the year. The very use of burnt brick as a building material instead of the sun-dried mud brick common to the Ancient East may imply the necessity of finding something more durable under conditions of frequent or considerable rainfall, and the elaborate sytem of drains in the cities may also be explained in connexion with a greater volume of rain-water’.¹

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¹ Piggott, S. *Prehistoric India*, pp. 137, 138

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The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were contemporary; laid out according to a common ground-plan, each was with its defence citadel towering above the rest of the town. They seem to have been twin capitals, a northern and a southern, of one united kingdom.

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Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were large cities with systematic town-planning. Harappa had a circuit of 4.8 kilometres. Its bricks provided ballast for the railway track of the North-Western Railway for many kilometres. Both the cities were protected by citadels, and were planned in rectangular blocks separated by broad main streets (Fig. 62). The houses were built of kiln-fired bricks, and some were two-storeyed. They had three to four living-rooms and were provided with a bath, a kitchen and a well. The use of the corbelled arch indicated Mesopotamian influence. The drainage system consisted of kiln-fired ring wells, which can also be seen in a section of the Nalagarh mound at Rupar (Fig. 69).

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The citadel at Mohenjo-daro had massive towers of burnt bricks. Inside the citadel was a public bath, cloak-rooms, a square-pillared hall for public gatherings, and a large granary.

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The Harappans. Evidence of the physical type and personal appearance of the Harappans lies in two sources, viz. sculptures in stone and bronze and the remains of skeletons found on the excavated sites. From the available evidence, it appears that more than one ethnic strain was present in the population. Nearly half the skulls belong to the Mediterranean type, which includes a large number of groups of people from Spain to India. This is the type also found in late Natufian of Palestine, and pre-dynastic Egypt. It is found in Arabia and northern India. Such people are medium to tall, with a complexion ranging from dark to light olive-brown, a long head and face, and a narrow and relatively pronounced nose, black hair, and eyes ranging from black to brown and characteristically large and open. The body is of slender build. An example of this type is seen in the bust of a bearded man from Mohenjo-daro, wearing a cotton shawl, with a trefoil motif. The upper lip is shaved and the beard is trimmed (Fig. 63). This fashion, though pre-Islamic, is still followed by some Moslems in Pakistan and India.

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The other type is the Veddoid or Proto-Australoid. Three skulls from Mohenjo-daro belong to this group and these possibly represent the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. Of small stature, with a dark skin, approaching black, wavy or curly black hair, long head, broad flat nose and fleshy protruding lips, these people form the main element in the southern and central Indian aboriginal tribes of the present day. The bronze sculpture of a dancing-girl in the National Museum, New Delhi, represents the Proto-Australoid type—dark complexion, slender build, and thick lips (Fig. 64).

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Fig. 62. Systematic town-planning with rectangular blocks separated by broad main streets as seen in excavated remains at Mohenjo-daro, Sind, Pakistan, 2300 to 1750 B.C. (Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India)

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Fig. 63. Head of a bearded man wearing a shawl with trefoil motif. The shawl was possibly of cotton. Mohenjo-daro, 2300 B.C. (Courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India)

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Fig. 64. A bronze figure of a nude dancing-girl wearing bracelets (Courtesy: National Museum, New Delhi)

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Fig. 65. A painted dish on stand. This type of pottery is typical of Harappan Civilization. Harappa, 2300 B.C.

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Fig. 66. Bronze objects, axes, knife, a chisel, etc., from Sind and Harappa (Courtesy : Archaeological Survey of India)

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Burials. The Harappans buried their dead. The bodies were extended from north to south, with the head towards the north. The graves were large enough to contain an average of 15 to 20 pots. The pots recovered from the graves at Rupar contained foodgrains (Fig. 70). Personal ornaments were sometimes worn by the dead, e.g. shell bangles, necklaces and anklets of steatite or paste beads, copper finger-rings, and ear-rings of thin copper wire. Toilet and other objects were occasionally included: handled copper mirrors, mother-of-pearl shells, an antimony stick, a large shell spoon. In one grave at Harappa a pottery lamp and bones of a fowl were found at the foot. A grave at Harappa was notable for the fact that the body had been buried in a wooden coffin, 7 feet [2.13 metres] long and 2-2½ feet [61-76 centimetres] wide, widening towards the head. The thickness of the timbering of the coffin, as shown by a clear stain in the sandy soil, was 1½ inches [3.8 centimetres], representing, side-walls of Dalbergia latifolia. Traces of the lid on the sandy material immediately overlying the skeleton were identifiable as deodar which grows in the Himalayas and may have been river-borne to Harappa.²

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² Wheeler, M. The Indus Civilization, pp. 66, 67

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Harappan Culture. The Harappans had reached a high state of culture. They wore cotton garments, and used ivory combs and copper mirrors. Women wore a variety of ornaments of bronze and gold. They used knife blades, saws, sickles, spears, axes, arrow-heads, daggers of bronze and copper fish-hooks. They had weights of chert, steatite and chalcedony. These articles were no doubt produced by skilled craftsmen—coppersmiths, carpenters, jewellers, goldsmiths, stone-cutters and potters. There was a system of writing from right to left, and there must have been a class of clerks. A system of trade with the adjoining countries must have developed, as most of the commodities, including metals, timber and precious stones, were imported. The discovery of Harappan seals at Ur in Mesopotamia indicates trade relations with the Indus Valley during the reign of Sargon of Akkad, c. 2380 B.C. There is little doubt that the idea of literate urban civilization reached the Indus Valley through Iran from the earlier civilization of Mesopotamia, a country which had trade links with northern India. This view is further strengthened by the composition of the population of Mohenjo-daro as revealed by the examination of skulls. About 50 per cent of skulls are of dolichocephalic Mediterranean type, similar to those of Al'Ubaid in Sumer.

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The occurrence of copper ore in Baluchistan, the western Himalayas and Rajasthan accounts for the rise of Chalcolithic culture in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent. Evidence of earliest copper-smelting is found among the makers of painted pottery. In the early phases, copper must have been worked by hammering and cutting only from natural metal or from the metal smelted from ore. The copper or bronze axes are flat, without the shaft-hole (Fig. 66). They were presumably hafted in a split and bound handle. Arrow-heads are of copper or bronze. They are thin and flat, resembling those from northern Iran. Knives are leaf-shaped. Copper and bronze axes, daggers and spears were in use. The use of copper was limited, as the metal was scarce and expensive. Most implements were made of stone. Chert blades, which were provided with handles, continued to be used by the Harappans on account of their cheapness and abundance. The concurrent use of copper and stone implements gave the name—Chalcolithic—to this culture. On account of the scarcity of copper, the use of this metal was restricted to weapons, tools for city craftsmen, and for ornaments for women. The major technological advance of the Harappan culture was the use of metals, particularly that of copper and its alloy, bronze.

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The general characteristics of this civilization, as enumerated by Wheeler, include a thick red-slipped ware in cylindrical and goblet shapes, intersecting circles, *pipal* leaves, rosettes and peacocks as motifs, Indus seals and script, triangular terracotta cakes, kidney-shaped inlays of shell or faience, metal tool types, and town-planning according to a grid-iron scheme of streets and houses. A cultural uniformity, unquestionable technical competence, though dull, and a flare for standardization are noticeable in all areas of activity—in the making of bricks, in sanitary arrangements, in pottery, in the wide range of copper and bronze tools, vessels and human and animal figurines, and seal-cutting from steatite blocks. In this effortless competence, of which evidence has survived in archaeological remains of all descriptions, one can see the picture of city-centred prosperous agricultural communities thriving on wheat, barley, sesamum and mustard, animal husbandry, an industry of woven cotton, various arts and crafts and an extensive trade, all rendered possible by an efficient central government with capitals, defensive city outposts, docks and harbours.

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The buildings and articles found in the excavations of Harappan towns were produced by specialized craftsmen—brickmakers, carpenters, potters, coppersmiths, stone-cutters, goldsmiths, and jewellers. The regularity of the streets implies a civic authority with officials to enforce its decisions. Sweepers must have been employed for cleaning the drains. There must have been a class of clerks, since a system of writing and numeral notation was in use, as well as standardized weights and measures.

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All these classes, evidently very numerous, must have been supported by the surplus food-stuffs produced by peasants living in the city or in the suburban villages. In Chapter 13 is described the agriculture of the Harappans, which supported the urban civilization.