In my previous post, we saw the legends tied around the Sarasvati river and its disappearance. In this post, I will try to cover the part two of the book, about the Harappan Civilization.
All of us have studied the Harappan Civilization (or Indus Valley Civilization, as it is often called) as part of our history curriculum in high school. It is common knowledge that Harappa and Mohenjodaro were the first discovered sites of this ancient civilization, discovered in the early part of 20th century by John Marshall. It is called Indus Valley Civilization in popular discourse (which is technically not the right name; We will see why later).
However, in our history books it is treated as a closed chapter and posited that the civilization vanished without a trace (some say it was decimated by the invading Aryans, which is a bunch of hokum). There is a lot more to it than that. A wealth of research that has been carried out in varied disciplines like Archaeology, Remote Sensing, Genetics, Linguistics and even Computer Science is almost unknown to the layperson! It is an active area even to this day and the holy-grail for all code breakers as it is one of the few (and the oldest) writing systems yet to be deciphered.
History of Discovery
In late nineteenth century when the British were laying railroads in Punjab and Sindh regions of North-West India, they needed ballast to stabilize the tracks. The northern plains with its alluvial soil is very unlikely place to get raw materials for ballast. However, they came across huge mounds of very high-quality bricks in a village called Harappa and places nearby. Using these bricks they laid ballast for over 160 km on the Lahore-Multan line. These were the bricks from the ancient city of Harappa!
Soon Alexander Cunningham (founder of Archaeological Survery of India (ASI) ) realized the importance of these ancient bricks to study the history of this place tried to put an end to this. He (and others at that time) were of the opinion that this must some ancient Buddhist site which must be explored. (The west had assumed Mauryan empire to be the starting point of Indian history). But Cunnigham retired soon and did not get a chance to investigate this. The task of excavation (and all the glory that followed) came to John Marshall, a young archaeologist newly appointed in the ASI.
Marshall, enthusiastically pursued the task of excavating these sites. He hired local scholars to determine the significance of the artifacts unearthed. Daya Ram Sahni, a Sanskritist and epigraphist, meticulously looked at the bricks discovered, their proportions and other characteristics. He opined that this belonged to a pre-Mauryan era. At the same time the seals were also discovered. However, they could not still establish a plausible date of these pre-Mauryan artifacts and also decipher the writing on the seals. Marshall published the findings, along with the pictures of the seals in Illustrated London News on 20th September 1924. He also requested if any knowledgeable readers can throw some light on the script. A week later, an Assyriologist pointed out that the same kind of objects were found in Mesopotamia which was dated to 3rd millennium BCE. So, in one stroke, the dates of Indian civilization was pushed back to atleast 3000 BCE! Not only was it a contemporary of Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization but also reached out to them. A fabulous discovery indeed!
Expanse and number of sites discovered
The expanse of this civilization was huge. It roughly covered 800,000 sq. km., about a quarter of India's present size. Comparing it with its contemporaries, it was larger than ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia put together.
Over 3700 sites are identified as belonging to the civilization and the number is increasing over the years as new sites are being discovered every year.
It was mainly a city oriented civilization. Some of the large cities like Mohenjodaro and Kalibangan were over 100 hectares. In fact, it is estimated that Mohenjodaro supported a population of over 50,000 residents making it a New York or Tokyo of the ancient world. It was a very prosperous civilization and highly advanced technologically. They carried out trade with distant places ranging from Oxus, Bactria, Dilmun, Magan, Elam, Ur, Kish and so on. Their trade was very far-reaching making it the first globalized market!
Curious and Enigmatic facts of the civilization
Apart from the fact that the Indus script is still undeciphered, there are a lot of unanswered questions challenging researchers about this ancient civilization. Perhaps deciphering the script will unlock many secrets and also put an end to a lot of controversial claims about this civilization. Next, I will list a few curious facts and enigmatic features presented in the book.
All of us have studied the Harappan Civilization (or Indus Valley Civilization, as it is often called) as part of our history curriculum in high school. It is common knowledge that Harappa and Mohenjodaro were the first discovered sites of this ancient civilization, discovered in the early part of 20th century by John Marshall. It is called Indus Valley Civilization in popular discourse (which is technically not the right name; We will see why later).
However, in our history books it is treated as a closed chapter and posited that the civilization vanished without a trace (some say it was decimated by the invading Aryans, which is a bunch of hokum). There is a lot more to it than that. A wealth of research that has been carried out in varied disciplines like Archaeology, Remote Sensing, Genetics, Linguistics and even Computer Science is almost unknown to the layperson! It is an active area even to this day and the holy-grail for all code breakers as it is one of the few (and the oldest) writing systems yet to be deciphered.
Part 2: Harappan Civilization
History of Discovery
In late nineteenth century when the British were laying railroads in Punjab and Sindh regions of North-West India, they needed ballast to stabilize the tracks. The northern plains with its alluvial soil is very unlikely place to get raw materials for ballast. However, they came across huge mounds of very high-quality bricks in a village called Harappa and places nearby. Using these bricks they laid ballast for over 160 km on the Lahore-Multan line. These were the bricks from the ancient city of Harappa!
Soon Alexander Cunningham (founder of Archaeological Survery of India (ASI) ) realized the importance of these ancient bricks to study the history of this place tried to put an end to this. He (and others at that time) were of the opinion that this must some ancient Buddhist site which must be explored. (The west had assumed Mauryan empire to be the starting point of Indian history). But Cunnigham retired soon and did not get a chance to investigate this. The task of excavation (and all the glory that followed) came to John Marshall, a young archaeologist newly appointed in the ASI.
Marshall, enthusiastically pursued the task of excavating these sites. He hired local scholars to determine the significance of the artifacts unearthed. Daya Ram Sahni, a Sanskritist and epigraphist, meticulously looked at the bricks discovered, their proportions and other characteristics. He opined that this belonged to a pre-Mauryan era. At the same time the seals were also discovered. However, they could not still establish a plausible date of these pre-Mauryan artifacts and also decipher the writing on the seals. Marshall published the findings, along with the pictures of the seals in Illustrated London News on 20th September 1924. He also requested if any knowledgeable readers can throw some light on the script. A week later, an Assyriologist pointed out that the same kind of objects were found in Mesopotamia which was dated to 3rd millennium BCE. So, in one stroke, the dates of Indian civilization was pushed back to atleast 3000 BCE! Not only was it a contemporary of Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilization but also reached out to them. A fabulous discovery indeed!
Expanse and number of sites discovered
Over 3700 sites are identified as belonging to the civilization and the number is increasing over the years as new sites are being discovered every year.
It was mainly a city oriented civilization. Some of the large cities like Mohenjodaro and Kalibangan were over 100 hectares. In fact, it is estimated that Mohenjodaro supported a population of over 50,000 residents making it a New York or Tokyo of the ancient world. It was a very prosperous civilization and highly advanced technologically. They carried out trade with distant places ranging from Oxus, Bactria, Dilmun, Magan, Elam, Ur, Kish and so on. Their trade was very far-reaching making it the first globalized market!
Curious and Enigmatic facts of the civilization
Apart from the fact that the Indus script is still undeciphered, there are a lot of unanswered questions challenging researchers about this ancient civilization. Perhaps deciphering the script will unlock many secrets and also put an end to a lot of controversial claims about this civilization. Next, I will list a few curious facts and enigmatic features presented in the book.
- The cities were an engineering feat in themselves. Each city had well constructed roads and boulevards, a well maintained drainage system, systematic construction of houses (sometime containing 2-3 storeys). All this give a feeling that they had a very high degree of civic sense. Attention to detail and effective planning is evident from the excavations (Sadly, absent in many modern Indian cities). The common citizens were pampered and much attention was paid to their well being.
- Evidence of artifacts of Harappan civilization is seen in far off places. However, no ancient artifact of the other civilizations are found in any Harappan sites. Does that mean the trade was one-sided ? Perhaps they traded only perishable goods .. Nobody has a satisfactory answer
- The civilization is marked by the absence of many "common" aspects that we find in other ancient civilizations.
- Absence of any royal symbols. No palatial buildings in cities, no royal tombs no sign whatsoever of a powerful ruler controlling the "empire"
- Absence of military artifacts. No weapons or helmets or shields discovered. None whatsoever of any sign of conflict. Was it a Utopian society ?
A curious fact that is emerging from recent findings is that the Indus Civilization was not just watered by the Indus river-system alone. There had to be another major river-system that supported this. Starting from the work of legendary archaeologist Aurel Stein, this notion of another river system has been investigated. Location and distribution of the various Indus civilization sites suggest that a significant number of sites are distributed along the now dry Ghaggar-Hakra basin (which is shown to be the ancient Saravati). In the light of these facts, one might question the correctness of naming this as Indus Valley Civilization (It is common practice to name a civilization after its first discovered site, so terming it Harappan Civilization is not incorrect). In fact, many researchers now rightly call it the Indus-Sarasvati Civilization.
In the next part, I will try to elucidate the continuity in the civilization chain from the Indus to the Ganges Civilization which is part 3 of the book.
Before signing off, I would like to share an interesting TED talk on attempts to decipher the Indus script.
Very informative - Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteAbout the lack of royal signs, etc. Was it a very egalitarian society? As you say, it was an urban civilization, so was there a large 'middle class' as there is today in urban civilizations?
Thanks Anoop!
ReplyDeleteIt looked like there was an equal distribution of wealth (what communists hope to achieve but only much more prosperous!)
All of the houses were more or less similar in terms of amenities and so on...
However, there are a few houses among these houses which are a little bigger. Some claim that these either belonged to the administrative class or wealthy merchants in high positions.