THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION AND CONFLICTING CLAIMS

1
LECTURE 1

• THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION AND CONFLICTING CLAIMS
• 2500-1500 BCE

2
INDIA OR SOUTH ASIA

• INDIA OR INDIAN SUB-CONTINENT refers to
  pre-partition Indian sub-continent in these
  series of lectures.
• Modern South Asia has seven independent countries
  1) India 2) Pakistan 3) Bangladesh 4) Sri Lanka
  5) Nepal 6) Bhutan 7) Maldives.

3
THREE GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS
Fatima Imam Geographically, there are three
regions in northwest, north and central and the
south

• The Northern Mountains bounded by Hindu Kush
  mountains in the north west and Himalayas in
  north and north east.
• The Indo-Gangetic Plain which is bifurcated into
  river systems of the Indus and the Ganges.
  Lastly, the peninsular area lying south of
  Vindhyan mountains and Narmada river.

4
THE EARLY BEGINNINGS

• Human inhabitation  on the Indian subcontinent
  can be traced back to the Paleolithic  and
  Neolithic periods. The Indus valley civilization
  dated from about 2500 to 1500 BCE is considered
  to be at par with the other civilizations of the
  world e.g Sumer, Eygpt, Mesopotamia and China.

5
OTHER CIVILIZATIONS
6
HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION 2500-1500 BCE

• SOURCES
• ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS
• AND SOME WRITTEN MATERIAL BUT THE INDUS SCRIPT
  HAS NOT BEEN DECIPHERED AS YET.

7
CONFLICTING CLAIMS

• The discovery of Indus cities in 1920s and 1930s
  led to re-orientation of Indias past and the
  origins were attributed to possible colonial
  transpositions from west Asian civilizations. The
  pendulum is swinging the other way, and now the
  Indian archaeologists are claiming that the
  Harappan culture was supposedly inhabited by the
  indigenousVedic Aryans.

8
GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT

• The Harappan sites extends from Baluchistan in
  the west to the alluvial plains of Indus to the
  deserts of Cholistan and Thar in the east. From
  north to south, it stretches from the foothills
  of the Himalayas to the coastal regions of Makran
  to the mainlands of Gujarat.

9
HARAPPAN PHASE
10
DEFINING FEATURES

• The defining features of Harappa with other towns
  or sites
• Wheel made pottery distinctive and baked to a
  red colour, Indus script appearing on seals,
  sun-dried bricks of standard size 124, Standard
  weights apparently based on a unit of 13.63
  grams, drainage, streets, citadels, masonry wells
  and burial sites.

11
THE MAIN SITES
12
MEHRGARH

• Mehrgarh is one of the most important site of the
  neolithic period in this region. The Indus
  valley civilization was developed from the
  farming communities of Mehrgarh. The evidence of
  earliest farming is found here and the
  semi-nomadic people used plants such as wheat,
  barley and domesticated animals such as sheep,
  goat and cattle.

13
MEHRGARH

• The settlements had small mud buildings with four
  internal divisions. There was considerable amount
  of technological and manufacturing activities and
  signs of commercial links with other people. The
  area was abandoned by the beginning of the mature
  phase of Indus valley (2600 BCE).

14
MAJOR TOWNS

• HARAPPA ( 150 HECTARES IN AREA)
• MOHENJODARO (200 HECTARES)
• DHOLAVIRA (60 HECTARES)
• KALIBANGAN (11.5 HECTARES)
• LOTHAL (4.8 HECTARES)
• CHANHU DARO (4.7 HECTARES)

15
INTERIORS OF MOHENJORAO
16
GREAT BATH IN MOHENJODARO
17
LOTHAL
18
HARAPPA
19
DHOLAVIRA
20
KALIBANGAN
21
TOWN PLANNING

• Geometrically designed the towns had
  fortifications (for protection against both
  intruders and floods). The citadal area had
  several distinct quarters, assembly halls,
  granaries and manufacturing units of various
  types  the bigger cities, also, had furnaces for
  the production of copper and bronze tools. While
  the houses were built on the lower level or quite
  far from the citadels.

22
TOWN PLANNING

• The towns had public baths (probably often part
  of the temples), private baths were found in most
  of the houses, sewerages were connected through
  underground drains. There was an efficient water
  management with numerous reservoirs and wells.
  The streets were built on grid pattern and cut
  each other on the right sides.

23
TOWN PLANNING

• Mohenjo-daro, for instance, had over 700 wells,
  some of them fifteen metres deep, built with
  special trapezoid bricks (to prevent collapse by
  the pressure of the surrounding soil), and
  maintained for several centuries. Dholavira had
  separate drains to collect rain water and six or
  seven dams built across the nearby rivers.

24
TOWN PLANNING

• The houses were almost always built with mud
  bricks (sometimes fired in kilns), which followed
  a standard ratio of 4 2 1, though the actual
  sizes varied  bricks for houses, for instance,
  might be 28 x 14 x 7 cm, while for fortification
  walls they could be 36 x 18 x 9 cm or even
  bigger.

25
TOWN PLANNING

• Walls were seventy centimetres thick, and many
  houses two storeys high. A few houses, perhaps
  those of rulers or wealthy traders, were
  particularly large, with up to seven rooms, but
  they were found right next to a craftsmans
  modest house.

26
LAYOUT OF THE CITY OF LOTHAL.

27
WORKING PLATFORMS AT HARAPPA
28
THE STREETS OF HARAPPA
29
SIDE LANES OF HARAPPA
30
THE WELL IN THE CITY OF HARAPPA.
31
ACROPOLIS (LOTHAL).
32
THE DRAINAGE SYSTEM (IN HARAPPA).
33
REMAINS OF LOWER TOWN EXCAVATED IN LOTHAL.
34
REMAINS OF WALL IN THE CITY OF LOTHAL.
35
KITCHEN REMAINS FROM THE CITY OF LOTHAL.
36
GRANARY IN HARAPPA
37
SPECIAL STRUCTURES GREAT BATH IN MOHENJODARO
38
SPECIAL STRUCTURES DOCKYARD IN LOTHAL
39
AGRICULTURE

• The people of Indus valley prospered on the
  foundations of agriculture based system of
  irrigation and fertility which was maintained by
  the silt bearing floods (Indus River). They
  cultivated wheat, six rowed field of barley,
  melon seeds, oil crops like sesame, mustard,
  dates, and peas.

40
AGRICULTURE

• The earliest traces of dyed cotton known anywhere
  in the world was found in the valley (the other
  example is from Jordan around 3000 BCE). Indus
  valley people cultivated rice (evidence from
  irrigated fields of Kalibangan, Rajasthan).

41
ARTS AND INDUSTRIES

• The Harappans were also expert craftsmen. They
  made beads of carnelian, agate, amethyst,
  turquoise, lapis lazuli, etc. they manufactured
  bangles out of shells, glazed faience and
  terracotta  they carved ivory and worked shells
  into ornaments, bowls and ladles. They weilded
  bronze and copper for weapons, tools, domestic
  objects and statues.

42
ARTS AND INDUSTRIES

• They also worked with silver and gold with great
  skill, specially for ornaments. Of course, they
  baked pottery in large quantities to the delight
  of archaeologists, since the different shapes,
  styles, and painted motifs are among the best
  guides in the evolution of any civilization.

43
ARTS AND INDUSTRIES

• Harappans excelled at stone-carving, complex
  weaving and carpet-making, inlaid woodwork and
  decorative architecture. And, of course, they
  engraved with remarkable artistry their famous
  seals, mostly in steatite (or soapstone)  those
  seals, over 3,000 of which have been found, seem
  to have served various purposes  some
  commercial, to identify consignments to be
  shipped, and some for ritual or spiritual
  purposes to invoke the deities, maybe.

44
ARTS AND INDUSTRIES

• This statute continues to be worshipped as a
  goddess and later on came to be known as consort
  of the god of the dance the natraja.

45
ORNAMENTS

• The variety of ornaments made of silver, bronze
  and bone have been found on the site of the Indus
  Valley

46
NECKLACE

• A necklace made of beads and bamboo sticks.

47
BANGLES

• Bangles made of bone,copper and bronze found on
  different sites.

48
BRACELET

• A beaded bracelet (modern looking ornament).

49
POTS

• The terracotta pots found inside the graves.

50
POTS
51
WHISTLES

• Bone whistles.

52
FACE MASK

• Made of terracotta.

53
OTHER ARTS

• Dancing, painting, sculpture, and music (there is
  evidence of drums and of stringed instruments)
  were all part of their culture. Possibly drama
  and puppet shows too, judging from a number of
  masks. Statues found are not abundant, but are
  very refined, whether in stone, bronze or
  terracotta. An ancestor of the game of chess has
  been unearthed at Lothal, as well.

54
DECIMAL SYSTEM

• The Harappans were the first to use the decimal
  system for measurement. Their town-planning,
  which makes much use of geometry, partly relied
  on this decimal system. The analysis of Harappan
  weights and measures also point to the use of
  decimal system because their ratios corresponds
  to 0.5,0.1,1,2,3 and so on and goes up to 500.

55
SOME SPECIMENS
56
TRADING LINKS

• The Harappans had a flourishing overseas trade
  with Oman, Bahrain, and Sumer  exchanges with
  the Sumerians went on for at least several
  centuries, and merchant colonies were established
  in Bahrain and the Euphrates-Tigris valley. These
  trading links shows their high skills in
  ship-making and sailing.

57
TRADING LINKS

• Several representations of ships have been found
  on seals, while many massive stone anchors have
  come up at Lothal and other sites of Saurashtra,
  Gujarat. For navigation, compasses carved out of
  conch shells appear to have been used to measure
  angles between the stars.

58
TRADING LINKS

• A voyage from Lothal to Mesopotamia to sell the
  prized Harappan carnelian beads, which the kings
  and queens of Ur were so fond of, meant at least
  2,500 kilometres of seafaring  of course there
  would have been halts along the shore on the way,
  but still, some 4,000 years ago this must have
  ranked among the best sailing abilities.

59
SEALS

• Most distinct feature of the Indus valley
  civilization are the terracotta seals (burnt),
  used for trading. Maybe, they were used as
  documents or sale transactions.

60
SEALS

• Different seals found in the excavated sites of
  Harappa.

61
SEALS

• Engraved seals (most of the historians think that
  these are the business deals or administrative
  directives).

62
SEALS

• Engraved seal found in Mohenjodaro.

63
INDUS SCRIPT

• Indus script comes to us in the form of short
  inscriptions (4,000 in all) each about five
  characters on average). These are found mainly on
  stamp seals of various materials, seal
  impressions on clay, pottery, moulds, copper
  plates, scrawls on metal artefacts and pottery.
  The writing is usually from right to left, though
  second line sometimes run from left to right. It
  is a logo-syllabic

64
INDUS SCRIPT

• script, very similar to Proto-Elamite script of
  southwestern Iran.
• The script has not been deciphered as yet, but
  the language seems to be official the one
  universally in use among the Indus ruling class,
  merchants and priests. From certain indications
  within the script such as frequent fish sign,
  it seems to belong to the family of Dravidian
  languages.

65
STATE, SOCIETY AND RELIGION

• The town planning, maintenance of drainage
  system, granaries, uniformity of weights and
  measures and the script shows a remarkable
  administrative control over the large population
  in the rural as well as the urban areas. An Indus
  Empire could have been created but unfortunately,
  hardly anything can be said about the nature of
  the state because of lack of written evidence.

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PRIEST KING?

• The only surviving stone image of priest or a
  ruler?

67
SOCIETY AND RELIGION

• Harappan society was highly differentiated
  houses, servant quarters, citadels, seal
  impressions etc.
• They worshipped natural forces like the trees
  (pipal tree found engraved on the seals), humped
  bull, mother goddesses and most probably, were
  ruled by a king priest.
• The evidence found on the burial sites suggests
  that they buried their dead with their belongings
  (their graves remained very sparse and basic in
  comparison to the Egyptians).

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MALE GRAVE NOT BURIED WITH HIS BELONGINGS
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FEMALE GRAVE SHE IS BURIED WITH HER INFANT AND
OTHER BELONGINGS
70
BURIAL GROUND IN HARAPPA
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DECLINE OR DISAPPEANCE?

• POSSIBLEFACTORS
• ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES FLOODS, DRAUGHTS AND
  DEFORESTATION
• MIGRATION TO GREENER PASTURES TOWARDS GANGETIC
  PLAINS
• OR ARYAN INVASION?