Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

ARCHAEOLOGY

Pre-Harappa Cultures The origin of the Harappa Culture is traced to the pre-Harappa Culture in Kalibangan I where the east-west run of streets is com- parable to the alignments in the Harappan levels of the succeeding phase. The pottery of Period I continues to occur in Period II also. The pipal leaf, fish scale and other motifs painted on pottery are common to both the periods. In Banawali the pottery of Period I is similar to that of pre-Harappan pottery of Kalibangan period I and survives in Period II. Siswal in District Hissar is another pre-Har- appan site where all the six fabrics of KBGI occur in Period A and continue in Period B (Harappa). Mature Harappan ceramic types such as the scoured goblet, beaker and dish have their origin in the pre-Harappan levels. In Pakistan the pre-Harappa cultures of Amri and Kot Diji (Sind), Jalilpur (Punjab), Ghumla (NWP) and pre-Defence level of Harappa have certain elements like pottery, decorative motifs and terracotta figures common with the mature Harappan artefacts. But in the absence of other essential elements such as seals, weights and writing it is too early to label these pre- Harappan cultures as early Harappan or as the ancestor of Harappa Culture.

Harappa and Harappa cultures on the one hand and the Egyptian and Sumerian Civilisations on the other. Careful planning of towns, provision of maximum civic amenities, inculcation of a high civic sense among the citizens, introduction of a uniform system of weights and measures, standardization of goods and services throughout the vast territory, the development of the science of yoga and invention of a simplified alphabetic system of writing which facilitated quick communication and recording of thought are among the major contributions of the Harappans to the progress of man. Town planning (Fig-8) The Harappan towns were divided into two main parts namely the Acropolis or the Citadel and the Lower Town or lower city. In Lothal and Kalibangan both the parts were protected by mud brick walls while in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro the fortification was limited to the citadel. The danger from floods to the settlements in the flood plains of the Indus, Sarasvati (Ghaggar) and Sabarmati rivers necessitated construction of public and private buildings within the citadel and Lower Town on artificial platforms of mud bricks, 1 to 2 or 3 metres in height. They served as the second line of defence against inundation, but the peripheral walls and the inner terraces were mistaken by Marshall, Wheeler and Mackay for de- fences against the enemy. In Lothal, Kalibangan, Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and Chanhu-Daro houses had to be reconstructed

Harappa Culture (Mature) The urban discipline and homogeneity of its products are fac- tors that distinguish the mature Harappa Culture from the pre-

after every major flood on still higher platforms. Major floods occurred in 2300 B.C., 2200 B.C., 2000 B.C. and 1900 B.C. in the Mature Harappan Period of Lothal. The grid-iron plan of the Indus cities at Harappa, Mahenjo-Daro, Lothal, Kali- bangan was maintained for more than 300 years despite reconstruction 4 or 5 times. The streets running east-west and north-south and the in- terconnecting lanes and by lanes provided access to all the blocks of houses which were well served interconnected by a network of under- ground and surface drains. The houses had a flat roof and in most cases they were windowless. The use of kiln-fired bricks was limited to the construction of the ruler’s mansion, dockyard, drains and a few public buildings in Lothal, whereas in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro most houses in the citadel and a few in the Lower Town were also of kiln-fired bricks. All else were of mud-bricks. LOTHAL (23°31'N; 72 0 -15'E) in Saragwala vil- lage of Limdi Taluk in Surendranagar District of Gujarat was discovered by S.R. Rao in November 1954 in the course of a systematic exploration of the lower reaches of the Sabarmati and Bhogavo rivers undertaken with a view to tracing mature Harappan sites within the political boundaries of post-partition India. The excavations conducted by him on behalf of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1955 to 1962 at Lothal have brought to light two periods of the Indus Civilization, namely the Mature Harappan in Period A and the Late