Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

ARCHAEOLOGY

archaeologically attested to by the very minute divisions on the Lothal scale. (2) that a circle can be divided into any number of parts by drawing diameters is also borne out by the terracotta floor tiles of Kalibangan on which circles are so divided. The geometrical rules for the construction of sacrificial altars are followed in the sienna citi constructed by Sila Varman at the ancient site of Kalsi near Dehradun (IAR 1952-55). Similar rules must have existed in Harappan times for the construction of

namely V 2

, 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 100. The smallest disc

weighs 50mg equal to a dhanya or masaka (V 2 masakas equal to a dhanya or masaka (V 2 gunja) and 10 masakas equal to one suvama masaka of the Arthasastra. It weighs 5 Gunjas. The unit 100 mg of Lothal gold discs runs in the ratio V 7 ,1, 2 / 5 ,5,10,25,27.5,30 and 32.5 with two variants 28 and 29. The unit weight of 27.584g of the mature Harappans or 26.61 lg of Late Harappans was, it appears, the basis for modelling the Greek Uncia of 27.2g. The Indus decimal graduation continued in the Vedic period, for, the Yajurveda (Ch. 17, Verse 2) mentions the decimal multiples 1 to 10. The Indus length measure is determined by Mainkar on the basis of the Mohenjo-Daro and Lothal scales. The Lothal scale has smaller divisions 1.704 mm, while the length in the Mohenjo- Daro scale is 6.705 mm. Four divisions of Lothal scale are equal to one division on the Mohenjo-Daro scale. The greatest accuracy was achieved in drawing 40 divisions in 68 mm on Lothal scalf. It must have involved great skill and fine instruments to draw lines at 1,704mm distance in 2300 B.C. The practical use of the Mohenjo- Daro—Lothal integrated scale can be demonstrated by measuring the brick walls and foundations. The longest side of Lothal brick (250rhm) is equal to 10 major graduations of the other scale within limits of error. Mainkar has taken the distance between the 6th and 21st longer lines as the major division on Lothal scale. The width of the wall of Lothal dock (1.04 m) is equal to 40 large graduations on Lothal scale and the width of its foundation 1,78m is 1000 times the small graduation (Rao S.R. 1985, 560-565, V.B. Mainkar, 1984,141-151). Brij Bhushan Vij says that the dimensions to which the Great Bath of Mohenjo-Daro was constructed indicate that the idea of angles and their trigonometric functions were within the speculative imagination of the Harappan engineers and they had perhaps the knowledge of the value of pi (Vij B.B., 1984, 153- 156). gunja ) and 10

fire altars at Lothal, Kalibangan (fig: 31)

and

Rangpur.

Perphaps

these

correspond to the Garhapatya, Ahavaniya and Daksina agnis.

The seal No.320 from Harappa has a fire-altar device and an inscription reading pag-bhag-arakaha 'seal of mighty God Arka' white seal No. 307 (fig : 27) from Harappa depicts a God in an arch of flame. The inscription below reads bhag-rka 'God Arka'. Fire- worship was popular at Lothal and Kalibangan, where animal sacrifices similar to the gavam-ayana of the Brahmana (Aitrariya Br, IV. 17) were performed (Rao 1990, 284 ff). The brick-built sacrificial altars contain

Astronomy

Two hollow cylinders of conch shell one from Lothal with 4 slits each in the upper and lower margins and the other from Dholavira with 6 slits each in the two margins were used not only for measuring angles of 45° (fig:30) and 30°, respec- tively, but also for measuring the whole sections of the horizon by viewing the object through the lower and upper slits. It could serve as a compass as well as sex- tant for navigators for ascertaining the position of the star or sun, at its

bovine bones, terracotta 'cakes' (fig:32) or lumps and in the case of the Lothal altar a circular gold rukma was also found. A similar ornament is seen on the forehead and arm of the statue of the ‘Priest’ from Harappa (fig:33). The offering of a bull in Harappan sacrifice was later observed only in a symbolic form in the Vedic Gavamayana sacrifice (Rao 1987,11). Maybe that gavam stood for the solar gait and the sacrifice originally lasted for 360 days, but later on finding that the year had 365V 4 days the suspension of the sacrifice for a certain number of days was observed. Two halls each with 3 altars in two different houses of the Lower Town at Lothal answer to the description of yajanasala. The word dama is used for the hall in the Indus seals as well as Brahmana literature. Sattra is another cognate appearing in seal inscriptions. It stood for a year-long sacrifice similar to the gavam- ayana. N. Mahadevan observes that “by holding the session of gavam-ayana they also hold the walk of the aditya. The Visuvan {equinox) occurred exactly in the middle of the sattra. The passage Aghasu hanyante gave Arjunyo paryuhate in Aitareya Brahmana suggests suspension of cow’s gait in Maghas and resumption in Phalgunis which could add 15 days more to the year of 350 days.

helical rising.

Perhaps the

ring of 12 slits corresponds to the

Zodiac of

12

directions of wind arid division of the sky as in the

Vedic and later Greek Zodiac. The Sulba-sutras which were a part of the Srauta Sutras are geometric manuals for the construction of sacrificial altars. It is interesting to find that in the rules given for construction of altars, certain assumptions similar to the Euclidean postulates are taken for granted (S.N. Sen 1971, 145). For instance that (1) a straight line can be divided into an infinite number of equal parts is