The Harappan Civilisation
1 1. WHAT
ARE THE SOURCES AVAILABLE TO UNDERSTAND (OR) TO STUDY HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION?
* The Harappan seal is possibly the most
distinctive artifact of the Harappans or Indus valley civilisation. Harappan
seals contain animal and plant motifs and signs from a script that remains
undeciphered.
* We know a great deal of sources which were left
by the people, such as their houses, pots, ornaments, tools and seals – in
other words, archaeological evidence.
2. WHY
WAS INDUS VALLEY CIVILISATIONALSO CALLED THE HARAPPAN CULTURE?
* Archaeologists
use the term “culture” for a group of objects,distinctive in style, that are
usually found together within a specific geographical area and period
*In
the case of the Harappan culture, these distinctive objects include seals,
beads, weights, stone blades and baked bricks.
* These
objects were found from areas as far apart as Afghanistan, Jammu, Baluchistan
(Pakistan) and Gujarat .
* Harappan
civilisation is dated between c. 2600 and1900 BCE.
3. WHAT ARE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EARLY
HARAPPAN CULTURES AND MATURE HARAPPAN CULTURES?
a) Early and later Harappan cultures were
associated with distinctive pottery, evidence of agriculture and pastoralism,
and some crafts.
B) In Early Harappan cultures Settlements were
generally small, and there were virtually no large buildings. But in Mature
Harappan culture settlements were large and buildings were also large.
4. WHAT ARE SUBSISTENCE
STRATEGIES (DIETARY PRACTICES) OF HARAPPAN CULTURES AND MATURE HARAPPAN
CULTURES?
* The Harappans ate a wide range of plant
products. Archaeologists have been able to reconstruct dietary practices from
finds of charred grains, seeds and bones. * These are studied by archaeo-botanists, who
are specialists in ancient plant remains.
* Food grains found at Harappan sites include
wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, sesame, Millets and rice.
* The Harappans ate a wide range of animal
products.Archaeologists have been able to reconstruct use of animals from finds
of charred animal bones found at Harappan sites. These include those of cattle,
sheep,goat, buffalo and pig.
* These are studied by Archaeo-zoologists or
zoo-Archaeologists who are specialists in ancient animal remains.
f * Bones of wild species such as boar, deer
and gharial were also found. We do not know whether the
Harappans hunted these animals themselves orobtained meat from other hunting
(tribal) communities.
5. PREVALENCE
OF AGRICULTURE IN HARAPPAN CIVILISATION
* Representations on seals and terracotta sculptureindicate
that the bull was known, and oxen were used for ploughing.
* Terracotta models of the plough have been found at sites in Cholistan and
at Banawali (Haryana).
*. Archaeologists have also found evidence of a
ploughed field at Kalibangan (Rajasthan).The field had two sets of furrows at
right angles to each other, suggesting that two different cropswere grown
together.
* Archaeologists have also identified thetools
used for harvesting. Harappans used stone blades set in wooden handles and
metal tools made of copper.
* Most Harappan sites are located in
semi-aridlands, where irrigation was probably required for agriculture. Traces
of canals, water reservoirs and wells have been found at the Harappan sites
indicate that agriculture was practiced.
f * Archaeologists have also found charred food
grains which indicate prevalence of agriculture.
6. WHAT ARE THE UNIQUE
FEATURES OF MOHENJODARO?
A. DIVISIONS IN
MOHENJODARO CITY
The settlement is divided into two sections,
one smaller but higher called as the Citadel and the other
much larger butlower called the Lower Town.
The Citadel owes its height to the fact that
buildings were constructed on mud brick platforms. It was walled and physically
separated from the Lower Town. We find evidence of structures that were probably
used for special public purposes.
B.CITADEL
The warehouse, a massive structure
of which the lower brick portions remain, while the upper portions, probably of
wood, decayed long ago.
The Great Bath was a large
rectangular tank in a courtyard surrounded by a corridor on all four sides.
There were two flights of steps on the north and south leading into the tank.
There were rooms on three sides, in one of which was a large well. Across a
lane to the north lay a smaller building with eight bathrooms, four on each
side of a corridor.Scholars suggest that it was meant for some kind of a
special ritual bath.
C. LOWER TOWN
The Lower Town was also walled. Several
buildings were built on platforms, which served as foundations.
Once the platforms were in place, all building
activity within the city was restricted to a fixed area on the platforms. So it
seems that the settlement was first planned and then built accordingly.
D.DRAINAGE SYSTEM
One of the most distinctive features of
Harappan cities was the carefully planned drainage system. If you look at the
plan of the Lower Town you will notice that roads and streets were laid out
along an approximate “grid” pattern, intersecting at right angles.
It seems that streets with drains were laid out
first and then houses were built along them.
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE
I The Lower Town at Mohenjodaro provides
examples of residential buildings. Many were centred on a courtyard, with rooms
on all sides. The courtyard was probably the centre of activities such as
cooking and weaving, particularly during hot and dry weather. People were more
concern for privacy: there are no windows in the walls along the ground level.
Besides, the main entrance does not give a direct view of the interior or the
courtyard.
J Every house had its own bathroom paved
with bricks, with drains connected through the wall to the street drains. Some
houses have remains of stair cases to reach a second storey or the roof. Many
houses had wells, often in a room that could be reached from the outside and
perhaps used by passers-by.
7. STRATEGIES TOFIND OUT
WHETHER THERE WERE SOCIAL OR ECONOMICDIFFERENCES AMONGST PEOPLE LIVING WITHIN
HARAPPAN CULTURE.
* At burials in Harappan sites the dead
were generally laid in pits. Sometimes, there were differences in the way the
burial pit was made – in some instances; the hollowed-out spaces were lined with
bricks. These variations are an indication of social differences.
* Some graves contain pottery and
ornaments,perhaps indicating a belief that these could be used in the
afterlife. Jewellery has been found in burials of both men and women.
* In the cemetery found in Harappa in the
mid-1980s, a burial contained ornament consisting of three shell rings, a
jasper bead and hundreds of micro beads were found near the skull of a male.In
some instances the dead were buried with copper mirrors. But the Harappans did
not believe in burying precious things with the dead.
* Another strategy to identify social
differences is to study artefacts, which archaeologists broadly classify as
utilitarian and luxuries. The first category includes objects of daily use made
of stone or clay such as querns, pottery, needles, flesh-rubbers are usually
found distributed throughout settlements.
* Archaeologists assume luxuries objects are
rare and made from costly, non-local materials or with complicated technologies
such as little pots of faience, beads, micro beads etc were probably
considered precious because they were difficult to make.Rare objects made of
valuable materials are generally concentrated in large settlements like
Mohenjodaro and Harappa
7. briefly describe CRAFT PRODUCTION IN INDUS VALLEY
Mohenjodaro almost exclusively devoted to
craft production, including bead-making,shell-cutting, metal-working,
seal-making and weight-making.
The variety of raw materials used to make
crafts such as stones (carnelian - red stone, jasper-yellow stone, crystal-
colourless stone, quartz and steatite) metals(copper, bronze and gold) shell
and clay.
The shapes of crafts were numerous – disc shaped,cylindrical,
spherical, barrel-shaped,segmented. Some were decorated by incising or painting,
and some had designs etched onto them. Some beads were made of two or more
stones, cemented together, some of stones were decorated with gold caps
Techniques for making beads differed according
to the material Moulding, chipping,Grinding, polishing and drilling are some of
the techniques used for making crafts.
Chanhudaro, Lothal, Dholavira,Nageshwar and
Balakot are some of the craft centres.
8) HOW DID
ARCHAEOLOGISTS IDENTIFY CENTRESOF PRODUCTION?
In order to identify centres of craft
production, archaeologists usually look for the following: raw material such as
stone nodules, whole shells, and copperore etc.
Archaeologists also look for tools which were
used for making crafts.
Archaeologists look for unfinished objects,
rejects and waste material. Waste is one of the best indicators of craft work.
Sometimes, larger waste pieces were used up to make smaller objects.
These traces suggest that apart from small,
specialized centers, craft production was also undertaken in large cities such as
Mohenjodaro and Harappa.
10. STRATEGIES
FOR PROCURING RAW MATERIALS WITH IN THE SUB-CONTINENT
Transportation:
Terracotta toy models of bullock carts
suggest that this was one important means of transporting goods and people
across land routes.
Depictions of ships and boats on seals suggest
that Riverine routes along the Indus and its tributaries, as well as coastal
routes were also probably used for transporting goods and people.
Strategies for Procuring Materials
The Harappans procured materials for
craftproduction in various ways. For instance, theyestablished settlements
where raw material was available.(Nageshwar andBalakot- shell, Shortughai-
lapis lazuli, a blue stone, Lothal- carnelian, steatite and metal-Rajasthan and
Gujarat)
Another strategy for procuring raw materials
mayhave been to send expeditions to areas such as the Khetri region of
Rajasthan (for copper) and southIndia (for gold). These expeditions
establishedcommunication with local communities.
Occasional finds of Harappan artefacts such as
steatite micro beads in the Khetri area indicates that the inhabitants of Ganeshwar-Jodhpura
culture supplied copper to the Harappans according to the aggrement.
11. What is Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture?
In
the Khetri area archaeologists found a new culture and call it as the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura
culture. Here they found distinctive non-Harappan pottery and an
unusual wealth of copper objects. It is possible that the inhabitants of this
region supplied copper to the Harappans.
12. what were the STRATEGIES FOR
PROCURING MATERIALS FROM DISTANT LANDS?
Recent archaeological finds suggest that
copper wasalso probably brought from Oman, on the south eastern tip of the
Arabian Peninsula. Chemical analyses have shown that both the Omani copper and
Harappan copper artifacts have traces of nickel.
A distinctive type of vessel, a large Harappan
jar coated with a thick layer of black clay has been found at Omani sites. It is
possible that the Harappans exchanged the contents of these vessels for Omani
copper.
Mesopotamian texts datable to the
third millennium BCE refer to copper coming from a region called
Magan, perhaps a name for Oman, and interestingly enough copper found
Mesopotamian sites also contains traces of nickel.
It is worth noting that Mesopotamian
texts mention contact with regions named Dilmun(Bahrain), Magan and Meluhha (the
Harappan region).They mention the products from Meluhha: carnelian, lapis
lazuli, copper, gold, and varieties of wood.
A Mesopotamian myth says of Meluhha: “May your
bird be the haja-bird, may its call be heard in the royal palace.”
Some archaeologists think the haja-bird was the peacock.
f Mesopotamian texts refer to Meluhha (the
Harappan region) as aland of seafarers. Besides,we find depictions of shipsand
boats on seals.
HARAPPAN SEALS
Seals and sealings were used to facilitate
long distance communication. Imagine a bag of goods being sent from one place to
another. Its mouth was tied with rope and on the knot was affixed some wet clay
on which one or more seals were pressed,leaving an impression.
If the bag reached with its sealing
intact, it meant that it had not been tampered with. The sealing also conveyed
the identity of the sender.
Harappan seals usually have a line of writing
and animal midifs. Scholars have also suggested that the motif (generally an
animal) conveyed a meaning to those who could not read.
HARAPPANSCRIPT
Harappan seals usually have a line of writing.
Most inscriptions are short, the longest containing about 26 signs. Although
the script remains undeciphered to date, it was evidently not alphabetical but
syllable.It has just too many signs –somewhere between 375 and 400.
It is apparent that the script was
written from right to left as some seals show a wider spacing on the right and
cramping on the left, as if the engraver began working from the right and then
ran out of space.
A variety of objects on which writing has been
found: seals, copper tools, rims of jars,copper and terracotta tablets,
jewellery, bone rods, even an ancient signboard. Remember, there may have been
writing on perishable materials too such as cloth, animal skin etc.
HARAPPAN WEIGHTS
Exchanges were regulated by a precise system
of weights, usually made of a stone called chert and generally cubical with no
markings.
Thelower denominations of weights were binary
(1, 2, 4,8, 16, 32, etc). while the higher denominations followed the decimal
system. The smaller weights were probably used for weighing jewellery and beads
and bigger weights were used for food grains.
Metal scale-pans have also been found. These
were probably used for measuring cloth and other materials.
Ruling Authority in indus valley civilisation
13. What are indications prove that complex
decisions were taken and implemented in Harappan society by the ruler?)
The extraordinary uniformity of Harappan
artefacts as evident in pottery, seals and weights.
Bricks, though obviously not produced in any
single centre, were of a uniform ratio throughout the region, from Jammu to
Gujarat.
We have also seen that settlements
were strategically set up in specific locations for various reasons.
Labour was mobilised for making bricks and for
the construction of massive walls and platforms.
Who organised these activities? Most probably
the king.
RULING AUTHORITY OR CENTRE OF
POWER
A large building found at Mohenjodaro was
labelled as a palace by archaeologists but no spectacular finds were associated
with it.
A stone statue was labelled and
continues to be known as the “priest-king”. This is because archaeologists were
familiar with Mesopotamian history and its “priest-kings”
Some archaeologists are of the opinion that
Harappan society had no rulers, and that everybody enjoyed equal status(
Democracy)
Other archaeologists feel that there was
no single ruler but several, that Mohenjodaro had a separate ruler, Harappa
another, and so forth.
Yet other archaeologists argue that there was a
single state and single ruler because of the similarity in
artefacts, the evidence for planned settlements, the standardized ratio of brick
size, and the establishment of settlements near sources of raw material.
The End of the Civilisation
There is evidence that by c.
1800 BCE most of the Mature Harappan sites had been abandoned.
Simultaneously, there wasan expansion of population into new settlements in
Gujarat, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
Distinctive artefacts of the civilisation-
weights, seals, special beads, Writing, long-distance trade, andcraft
specialization disappeared after 1800 BCE. House construction techniques
deteriorated and large public structures were no longer produced.
Overall disappearence of artefacts and
settlements indicates a rural way of life in what is called Vedic
culture or vedic civilisation began.
Several explanations have been put forward.
These range from climatic change, deforestation,excessive floods, the shifting
and/or drying up of rivers, to overuse of the landscape.
Some of these“causes” may hold for certain
settlements, but they do not explain the collapse of the entire civilisation.It
appears that a strong unifying element, perhaps the Harappan state, came to an
end.
Evidence of an “invasion”in Indus valley
civilisation
Deadman
Lane is a narrow valley where part of a skull, the bones of the
thorax and upper arm of an adult were discovered.All were in very friable
condition, at a depth of 4 ft 2 in. The body lay on its back diagonally across
the lane. Fifteen inches to the west were a few fragments of a tiny skull. It is
to these remains that the lane owes its name.
Sixteen
skeletons of people with the ornaments that they were wearing when theydied
were found from the same part of Mohenjodaro in 1925.
R.E.M.
Wheeler, then Director-General of the ASI, tried to correlate this
archaeological evidence with that of the Rigveda, the earliest known text in
the subcontinent.
d There
is no destruction level covering the latest period of the city Mohenjodaro, no
sign of extensive burning, no bodies of warriors clad in armour and surrounded
by the weapons of war. The citadel, the only fortified part of the city,yielded
no evidence of a final defence.
Discovering the Harappan Civilisation
(How have archaeologistsused evidence from
material remains topiece together parts of a fascinating Harappan history?) OR (How did archaeologists
“discover” the Harappan civilization?)
a. Cunningham’s confusion
Cunningham, the first Director-General of
the ASI, began archaeological excavations in the mid nineteenth century.
Cunningham’s main interest was in the archaeology of the Early Historic(c.
sixth century BCE-fourth century CE) and later periods. He used the
accounts left by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who had visited the
subcontinent between the fourth and seventh centuries CE to
locate early settlements.
Harappan artefacts were found fairly often
during the nineteenth century and some of these reached Cunningham, he did not
realise how old these were. A Harappan seal was given to Cunningham by
an Englishman. He noted the object, but unsuccessfully tried to place it within
the time-frame of c. sixth century BCE- fourth century CE.It
is not surprising that he missed the significance of Harappa.
b. John Marshall`s Ignorance
John Marshall , the Director-General of the
marked a major change in Indian archaeology. He was the first
professional archaeologist to work in India, and brought his experience of
working in Greece and Crete to the field. He was interested in spectacular finds
and patterns of everyday life.
Marshall tended to excavate along
regular horizontal units, measured uniformly throughout the mound, ignoring the
stratigraphy of the site. This meant that all the artefacts recovered from the
same unit were grouped together, even if they were found at different
stratigraphic layers. As a result, valuable information about Harappan
civilisation was irretrievably lost.
c. R.E.M. Wheeler`s problems
R.E.M. Wheeler, took over as Director-General
of the ASI in 1944, who rectified many problems. Wheeler recognised that it was
necessary to follow the stratigraphy of the mound rather than dig mechanically
along uniform horizontal lines. Moreover, as an ex-army brigadier, he
brought with him a military precision to the practice of archaeology.
However, with the partition of the subcontinent
and the creation of Pakistan, the major sites are now in Pakistani territory.
This has spurred Indian archaeologists to try and locate sites in India.
d. Daya Ram Sahni
Seals were discovered at Harappa by
archaeologists such as Daya Ram Sahni in the early decades of the twentieth century, in layers
that were definitely much older than Early Historic levels. It was then that
their significance began to be realised.
e. Rakhal Das Banerji
Another archaeologist, Rakhal Das Banerji
found similar seals at Mohenjodaro, leading to the conjecture that these sites were part of a
single archaeological culture. Based on these finds, in 1924,John Marshall,
Director-General of the ASI, announced the discovery of a new civilisation in
the Indus valley to the world.
f f. S.N. Roy
As S.N. Roy noted inThe Story of Indian
Archaeology, “Marshall left India three thousand years older than he
had found her.”This was because similar, till-then-unidentified seals were found
at excavations at Mesopotamian sites. It was then that the world knew not only
of a new civilisation, but also of one contemporaneous with Mesopotamia.
Since the 1980s, there has also been growing
international interest in Harappan archaeology.
Specialists from the subcontinent and abroad
have been jointly working at both Harappa and Mohenjodaro. They are using modern
scientific techniques including surface exploration to recover traces of clay,
stone, metal and plant and animal remains as well as to minutely analyse every
scrap of available evidence. These explorations promise to yield interesting
results in the future.
How does material evidence allow
the archaeologists to better reconstruct Harappan life?.
Recovering artefacts is just the beginning of
the archaeological enterprise. Archaeologists then classify their finds. One
simple principle of classification is in terms of material, such as stone,clay,
metal, bone, ivory, etc.
The second, and more complicated, is in
terms of function: archaeologists have to decide whether, for instance, an
artefact is a tool or an ornament, or both, or something meantfor ritual use.
An understanding of the function of an
artifact is often shaped by its resemblance with present-day things – beads,
querns, stone blades and pots are obvious examples.
Archaeologists also try to identify the
function of an artefact by investigating the context in which it was found: was
it found in a house, in a drain, in a grave, in a kiln?
Sometimes, archaeologists have to take
recourse to indirect evidence. For instance, though there aretraces of cotton at
some Harappan sites, to find out about clothing we have to depend on
indirect evidence including depictions in sculpture.
What were the problems of archaeological
interpretation to reconstruct religious practices of the Harappans?
Early archaeologists thought that certain
objects which seemed unusual or unfamiliar may have had a religious
significance. These included terracotta figurines of women, heavily jewelled,
some with elaborate head-dresses. These were regarded as mother goddesses.
Rare stone statuary of men in an almost
standardised posture, seated with onehand on the knee – such as the “priest-king” –
was also similarly classified.
In other instances, structures have been
assigned ritual significance.These include the Great Bath and fire
altars found at Kalibangan and Lothal.
Attempts have also been made to
reconstruct religious beliefs and practices by examining seals,some of which
seem to depict ritual scenes. Others,with plant motifs, are thought to indicate
nature worship. Some animals – such as the one-horned animal, often called
the “unicorn” – depicted on seals seem to be mythical, composite creatures.
In some seals, a figure shown seated
cross-legged in a “yogic”posture, sometimes surrounded by animals, has been
regarded as a depiction of “proto-Shiva”, thatis, an early form of one of the
major deities of Hinduism. Besides, conical stone objects have been classified
as lingas.
f Many reconstructions of Harappan religion are
made on the assumption that later traditions provideparallels with earlier
ones.
