History of India / Early India - The Indus Valley Civilisation

EARLY INDIA

TOPIC :The Indus Valley Civilization

The  earliest urban civilisation in India and in fact , one of the earliest civilisations in the world , was the Indus valley civilisation , or the harappan culture.

About 5000 years ago , a group of nomads travelled from Sumeria ( present-day Iran ) and entered North Western India, near present-day Karachi. By the banks of the River Indus, they found a land so richly fertile that they settled there without hesitation. This area , with abundant water , fodder and fuel , later came to be  known as Punjab.


Over the next thousand years , the immigrants spread over an area of half a million square miles. Excavations  prove that the level of urban planning and architecture prevalent here was incomparable. The anchor for this civilistaion lay in the  beautiful twin cities of Mohenjo-daro and harappa.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                THE STREETS OF MOHENJO-DARO

Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were identical in most ways . Even centuries ago , they were remarkably well planned. Both cities were a square mile ,with defensive outer walls. each city block on a grid that was so perfectly  proportioned that historians are baffled ,even today

The name Mohenjo-daro means 'Mound of the Dead' in Sindhi. The city was built around 2600 BC and abondoned around 1700BC. Evidence indicates that the city was prone to devastating floods.

The street layout shows an understanding of the basic principles of traffic. The broad parallel streets ran in perfect patterns around the buildings and crossed each other to divide the city into 12 rectangular blocks. The corners of the streets were rounded to allow the carts to turn easily. Except for the West-central blocks , the basic unit of city planning was the individual house.

The buildings were made of bricks -either baked mud or wood bricks.The baked bricks were a superior version of the sun-dried bricks used in other civilistaions. Wooden bricks were made by burning wood.

The amazing part was that the workers made every brick of the same size. The type of bricks used,  ensured the durability of the buildings were made from timber and in many houses , brick stairways led to the roofs.

                           EACH HOUSE HAD A WELL FROM WHICH IT DREW WATER

Despite a population of about 30,000, the city had one of the best sanitation systems . Each house had well from which it drew water.

From a bathing room the waste water was directed into covered drains along the main streets.Since all the streets were well-drained , the city remained dry and clean. this is evidence of a very modern method of sanitation and sewerage.

                                                       GRANARIES IN THE CITIES

Advanced architecture showed  in the construction of granaries , warehouses , platforms and protective walls.

Mohenjo-daro was primarily an agricultural city. It was situated below the great mountain ranges ,with rivers flowing abundantly through the land , depositing rich soil. so it was obvious that agriculture was the main occupation.

Further proof of this is the presence of a large well ,a central marketplace and several granaries in the city . One of the most important buildings was the Great Granary.This was designed in such a way as to enable easy unloading of carts that delivered grain from the countryside.

The Great Granary or the Great Hall had three major buildings. The earliest structure was represented by a single wall that was oriented East-West and lay directly below the second major building of the Great Hall. The Great Hall was first modified with the addition of an external mud -brick platform and subsequently completely filled with clay. On top of this new platform , the Later Hall was built . Once stored inside , the grain stayed fresh, thanks to the ducts that allowed air to circulate beneath and keep it dry.

                                                                 THE GREAT BATH

Near the granary was the great public bath house , known as the Great Bath. Steps led down to a pool lined with bricks in a huge courtyard.The beautiful bath area had a layer of natural tar . this was to prevent it from leaking. In the center of the bath area was the swimming pool. The purpose of the Great Bath was assumed to be for ritualistic bathing. This is a practice followed by Hindus even today.

HOUSES WERE WELL PROTECTED FROM NOISE , ODOUR  AND THIEVES

Houses were well protected from noise , odour and thieves. Each house opened out onto inner courtyards and smaller lanes , so it was safe. Although some houses were larger than the others , the city seemed to promote an equal society , for all the houses had the same kind of access to water and drainage . so ,it could be presumed that there was not much wealth concentration in the city.

The city had an impressive defense structure in place as well. Though it lacked outer walls, there were defensive towers in the West and South. Since other Indus cities had stronger defense systems in place , it is speculated that perhaps Mohenjo-daro was only an administrative center.


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USHA