CHAPTER 7

The Harappan Culture: Bronze Age Civilization

Geographical Extent _ cultures. It arose in the north-western

Tue inpus or the Harappan culture is Part of the Indian subcontinent. It is

older than the chalcolithic cultures called Harappan because this civiliza-
which have been treated earlier, but it tion was discovered first in 1921 atthe

is far more developed than these modern site of Harappa situated in the

7.1 Kalibangan: General View showing Excavated Trenches

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54 /

province of West Punjab in Pakistan.

Many sites in Sind formed the central
zone of the pre-Harappan culture. This
culture developed and matured into.an
’ urban civilization whith emerged in
Sindh and Punjab. The central zone
of this mature.Harappan culture lay
in Sind and Punjab, mainly in the Indus
valley. It is from here that it spread
southwards and eastwards. In this way,
the Harappan culture covered parts of
Punjab, Haryana, Sindh, Baluchistan,
Gujarat, Rajasthan and the fringes of
western Uttar Pradesh. It extended
from Jammu in the north to the
Narmada estuary in the south, and
from the Makran coast of Baluchistan
in the west to Meerut in the north-east.
The area formed a triangle and ac-
counted for about 1,299,600 square
kilometres, which is larger than Paki-
stan and certainly bigger than ancient
Egypt and. Mesopotamia. No other
culture zone in the third and second
millennium B.C. in the world was as
large as the Harappan.. a.
Nearly 1500 Harappan sites : are
known so far in the subcontinent. Most
of them are late Harappan, post-urban
sites. These, including Bhagwanpura,
generally lie ori the banks of the Hakra-
tel. They belong to early,
mature and late phases of the
Harappan culture. But the number of
the sites belonging to the mature phase
is limited, and of them only. a few can
be regarded as cities. Of these, the two
most important cities were Harappa in
Punjab and Mohenjo-daro (literally the
mound of the dead) in Sindh, both
forming parts, of Pakistan. Situated at
a distance of 483 kilometres they were

linked together by the Indus. A third:

city lay at Chanhu-daro about 130 km

south of Mohenjo-daro in Sindh, and

a fourth~at Lothal in Gujarat at the
head of the Gulf of Cambay. A fifth city
lay at Kalibangan, which means black
bangles, in riorthetn Rajasthan. A sixth
called Banawali is situated in Hissar
district in Haryana. It saw two cultural
phases, pre-Harappan and Harappan,
similar to that of Kalibangan. To the
Harappan period belong the remains
of mud-brick platforms, and of streets
and drains. The Harappan culture is
noticeable in its mature and flourish-
ing stage at all these six places. It is
also found in its mature phase in the
coastal cities of Sutkagendor and
Surkotada, each one_of which is
marked by a citadel. The later
Harappan phase is found in Rangpur
and Rojdi in the Kathiawar peninsula
in Gujarat. In addition to these,
Dholavira lying in the Kutch area of
Gujarat shows Harappan fortification

‘and all the three phases of the

‘Harappan culture. These phases also

appear in Rakhigarhi which is situated

‘on the Ghaggar in Haryana.and is

much bigger than Dholavira.

Town Planning and Structures

The Harappan culture was distin-

guished by its system of town plan-
ning. Harappa and Mohenjo-daro each
had its own citadel or acropolis, which
was possibly occupied by members of
the ruling class. Below the citadel in
each city lay a lower town containing
brick houses, which were inhabited by
the common people. The remarkable
thing about the arrangement of the
houses in the cities is that they fol-
lowed the grid system. According to it,
roads cut across one another almost
at right angles, and the city was

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THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION

i —~.-
WORKMEN'S
QUARTERS. ~

XN

Mw, .
NES
~

WESTERN ¢
GATEWAYS \&

angel

AND Bun Sy ZI
TERRACES WAR Se
& eB \
Z 2 NE
Se? gee \
‘Bs eS 2
\Z2 4 oA (WB
BIR? OY
Zz A ZA
\ rae
‘ ZG VA
NY Ledtplddt iii
° =“ ~ LZ,
7 4
THE CITADEL we a
HARAPPA Ty )
ans
Scale of Metres ,
wo 9 oe CEMETRY.

Nq

CEMETRY RST
le

7.2 Harappa — Pian of the City

divided into so many blocks. This is

true of almost all Indus settlements

regardless of size.
Big buildings distinguished both

55

Harappa and Mohenjo-daro; the lat-

ter was extremely rich in structures.
Their monuments symbolised the abil-
ity of the ruling class to mobilise
labour and collect taxes; the huge
brick constructions also impressed the
common people with the prestige and
influence of their rulers.

The most important public place

of Mohenjo-daro seems to be the Great
Bath, comprising the tank which is
situated in the citadel mound. It is an
example of beautiful brickwork. It
measures 11.88 x 7.01 metres and
2.43 metres deep. Flights of steps at
either end lead to the surface. There
aré side rooms for-changing clothes.
The floor of the Bath was made of
burnt bricks. Water was drawn from a
large well in an adjacent room, and
an outlet from the corner of the Bath
led to a drain. It is suggested that the
Great Bath served ritual bathing,
which has been so vital to any reli-

_ gious ceremony in India.

In Mohenjo-daro the largest build-

ing is a granary, which is 45.7.1 metres
long and 15.23.metres wide. But in.
the citadel of Harappa we find as many
as six granaries. We come across a
series of brick platforms which formed
the basis for two rows of six grana-
ries. Each granary measured 15.23 x
6.09 metres and lay within a few
metres of the river bank. The combined
floor space of the twelve units would
be about 838 square metres. Approxi-
mately it had the same area as the
Great Granary at Mohenjo-daro. To
the south of the granaries at Harappa
lay working floors consisting of the
rows of circular brick platforms. These
were evidently meant for threshing
grain because wheat and barley have

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56

been found in the crevices of the floors.

Harappa also shows two-roomed bar-
racks, which possibly accommodated
labourers.

At Kalibangan also we notice in the

southern part brick platforms, which
may have been used for granaries.
Thus, it would appear that granaries
constituted an important part of the
Harappan cities.

The use of burnt bricks in the

Harappan cities is remarkable, be-
cause in the contemporary buildings
of Egypt mainly dried bricks were
used. We find the use of baked bricks

ANCIENT INDIA

in contemporary Mesopotamia, but

they were used to a much larger ex-
tent in the Harappan cities.

The drainage system of Mohenjo-

daro was very impressive. In almost
all cities every big or small house had
its own courtyard and bathroom. In
Kalibangan many houses had their
wells. Water flowed from the house to
the streets which had drains. Some-
times these drains were covered with
bricks and sometimes with stone
Slabs. The street drains were equipped
with manholes. The remains of streets
and drains have also been found at

7.3 Great Bath, Mohenjo-daro

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THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION 57

- EXTENT OF .
ream SS THE HARAPPA CULTURE
. : ; ; Me 100 0 100 300 300
i .200 400

CULOMETRES
INOEn

MOCEPN TOUNS @
MAQAPPAN SITES @
PRESENT EXTERNAL BOUNDARY OF INDLA —-~—. —-

ARABIAN SEA

PRABHAS PATAN BN AGATRAY

BAY:
OF
BENGAL

o8dag
re) v,
aor Say,
are
ete .

nS

The topographical details within India are based upon Survey of India maps with the
permission of the Surveyor General of India.

© Government of India Copyright, 1986

The territorial waters of India extend into the sea t~ a distance of twelve
nautical miles from
the appropriate base line.

Figure 6 Harappa Culture

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58

mater Nak Geminis ir oon mc eo

. WER A OP LIK ALLA tin

oes

ANCIENT INDIA

a 9 Pie fs ae
: . , “a

7.4 Isometric Projection of the Granary of Harappa

Banawali. Altogether the quality of the

domestic bathrooms and drains is
remarkable, and the drainage system
of Harappa is almost unique. Perhaps
no other Bronze Age civilization gave
so much attention to health and clean-
liness as the Harappan did.

Agriculture

Comparatively rainless, the Indus re-

gion is not so fertile these days. Its
prosperous villages and towns show
that it was fertile in ancient times. At
present it has only a rainfall of about
15 cm. In the fourth century B.C. one
of the historians of Alexander informs

us that Sindh was a fertile part. of the

country. In earlier times the Indus

region possessed more natural vegeta-
tion which attracted more rainfall. It

supplied timber fuel for baking bricks

on a large scale, and also for construc-
tion. In course of time, natural vege-
tation was destroyed by the extension
of agriculture, large-scale grazing, and
supply of fuel. A far more important
reason for the fertility of the area
seems to have been the annual inun-
dation in the Indus river. Walls made
of burnt bricks raised for protection
show that floods took place annually.
The Indus carried far more alluvial silt
than the Nile in Egypt and deposited
it on the flood plains. Just as the Nile
created Egypt and supported its
people, so also the Indus created Sindh
and fed its people. The Indus people
sowed seeds in the flood plains in No-
vember, when the flood water receded,
and reaped their harvests of wheat and
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THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION

_ 7.5 Covered Drain, Mohenjo-daro

barley in April, before the advent of the

next flood. No hoe or ploughshare has
been discovered, but the furrows dis-
covered in the pre-Harappan phase at
Kalibangan show that the fields were
ploughed in Rajasthan in the
Harappan period. The Harappans
probably used the: wooden
ploughshare: We do not know whether
the plough was drawn by men or oxen.
Stone sickles may have been used for
harvesting the crops. Gabarbands or
nalas enclosed by dams for storing
water were a feature in parts of
Baluchistan and Afghanistan, but
channel or canal irrigation seems to
have been absent. The Harappan vil-
lages, mostly situated near the flood
plains, produced sufficient foodgrains
not only to feed themselves but also

59

the town people. They must have

worked very hard to meet their own
requirements as well as those of the
artisans, merchants and others, who
lived in the city and who were not
directly concerned with food-produc-
ing. activities.

The Indus people produced wheat,

barley, rai, peas, etc. They produced
two types of wheat and barley. A good
quantity of barley has been discovered
at Banawali. In addition to this, they
produced sesamum and mustard. But
the position seems to have been dif- —
ferent with the Harappans at Lothal.
It seems that as early as 1800 BC.,
the people of Lothal used rice whose
remains have been found. Foodgrains
were stored in huge granaries in both
Mohenjo-daro and Harappa and pos-
sibly in Kalibangan. Probably, cereals
were received as taxes from peasants
and stored in granaries for the pay-
ment of wages as well as for use
during emergencies. This can be said
on the analogy of Mesopotamian cit-
ies where wages were paid in barley.
The Indus people were the earliest
people to produce cotton. Because
cotton was first produced in this area
the Greeks called it sindon, which is
derived from Sindh.

Domestication of Animals

Although the Harappans practised

agriculture, animals were kept on a
large scale. Oxen, buffaloes, goats,
sheep and pigs were domesticated. The
humped bulls were favoured by the
Harappans. From the very beginning
dogs were regarded as pets. Cats were
also domesticated, and signs of the feet
of both dogs and cats have been
noticed. They also kept asses and

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Harappans carried on considerable

trade in stone, metal, shell, etc., within
the Indus culture zone. However, their
cities did not possess the necessary

raw material for the commodities they

produced. They did not use metal

money. Most probably they carried on
all exchanges through barter. In re-
turn for finished goods and possibly
foodgrains, they procured metals from
the neighbouring areas by boats and
pullock-carts. They practised naviga-
tion on the coast of the Arabian Sea.
They knew the use of wheel, and carts
with solid wheels were in use. in
Harappa. It appears that the
Harappans used some kind of a mod-
ern.ekka but not the spoked wheel:

The Harappans had commercial

links with one area of Rajasthan, and
also with Afghanistan and Iran. They
had set up a trading colony in north-
ern Afghanistan which evidently facili-
tated trade with Central Asia. Their
cities also carried commerce with
those in the land of the Tigris and the
Euphrates. Many Harappan seals have
been discovered in Mesopotamia, and
it seems that the Harappans imitated
some cosmetics used by the urban
people of Mesopotamia. —

The Harappans carried on long-

distancé trade in lapis lazuli; lapis may
have contributed to the social prestige
of the ruling class. The Mesopotamian
records from about 2350 B.C. onwards
refer to trade relations with Meluha,
which was the ancient name given to
the Indus region. The Mesopotamian
texts speaks of two intermediate trad-
ing stations called Dilmun and Makan,
which lay between Mesopotamia and
Meluha. Dilmun can probably be iden-
tified with Bahrain on the Persian Gulf.

61

Thousands of graves await excavation

in that port city.

Political Organization

We have no clear idea about the po-

litical organization of the Harappans.
But if we take into account the cul-
tural homogeneity of the Indus civili-
zation it can be said that this cultural
homogeneity would not have been pos-
sible to achieve without a central au-
thority.

_ If the Harappan cultural zone is

considered identical with the political
zone, the subcontinent did not witness
such a large political unit until the rise
of the Maurya empire; the remarkable
stability of this unit is .demon-
strated by its continuity for nearly 600
years.

In sharp contrast to Egypt and

Mesopotamia, no temples have been
found at any Harappan site. We have
no religious structures of any kind
except the Great Bath, which may
have been used for ablutions. There-
fore, it would be wrong to think that
priests ruled in Harappa, as they did
in the cities of Lower Mesopotamia.
Perhaps there are some indications of
the practice of fire cult at Lothal in
Gujarat in the later phase, but no
temples were used for the purpose.
Perhaps the Harappan rulers were
more concerned with commerce than
with conquests, and Harappa was
possibly ruled by a class of merchants.
It may be noted that the Harappans
were lacking in weapons.

Religious Practices

In Harappa, numerous terracotta figu-

rines of women have been found. In

one figurine a plant is shown growing

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62

7.6 Mother-goddess, Mohenjo-daro

out of the embryo of a woman. Prob-

ably the image represents the goddess
of earth, and it was. intimately con-
nected with the origin and growth of
plants. The Harappans, therefore,
looked upon the earth as a fertility

ANCIENT INDIA

goddess and worshipped her in

the same manner as the Egyptians
worshipped the Nile goddess Isis. But
we do not know whether the
Harappans were.a matriarchal people
like the Egyptians. In Egypt the daugh-
ter inherited the throne or property,
but we do not know about the nature
of inheritance in the Harappan soci-
ety.

Some Vedic texts show reverence

to the earth goddess, although she is
not given any prominence. It took a
long time for the worship of the su-
preme goddess to develop in Hindu-
ism. Only from the sixth century A.D,
onwards various mother-goddesses
such as Durga, Amba, Kali, Chandi,
etc., came to be regarded as goddesses
in the Puranas and in the Tantra lit-
erature. In course of time every village
came to have its own separate god-
dess.

The Male Deity in the Indus»

Valley

The male deity is represented on a seal.

This god has three horned heads. He
is represented in the sitting posture
of a yogi, placing one foot on the other.
This god is surrounded by.an elephant,
a tiger, a rhinoceros, and has a buf-
falo below his throne. At his feet ap-
pear two deer. The depicted god is_

_identified as Pushupati Mahadeva. But

the identification is doubtful, because

horned gods also appear in other
ancient civilizations. We also come
across the prevalence of the phallus
worship, which became so intimately
connected with Shiva in later times.
Numerous symbols of the phallus and
female sex organs made of stone have
been found in Harappa. They were

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THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION

possibly meant for worship. The Rig

Veda speaks of the non-Aryan people
who were phallus worshippers. The
phallus worship which started in the
days of Harappa came to be recognized
as a respectable form of worship in
‘yndu_ society.

Tree and Animal Worship

The people of the Indus region also

worshipped trees. The picture of a
deity is represented on a seal in the
midst of the branches of the pipal. This
tree continues to be worshipped to this
day.

Animals were also worshipped in

Harappan times, and many of them
are represented on seals. The most
important of them is the one horned
animal unicorn which may be identi-
fied with the rhinoceros. Next in im-
portance is the humped bull. Even
today, when such a bull passes in the
market streets the pious Hindus give
way to it. Similarly, the animals sur-
rounding Pashupati Mahadeva indi-
cate that these were worshipped.
Obviously the inhabitants of the Indus
region worshipped gods in the form of
trees, animals and human beings. But
the gods were not placed in temples,
a practice which was common in an-
cient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Nor can
we say anything about the religious
beliefs of the Harappans without be-
ing able to read their script. Amulets
have been found in large numbers.
Probably the Harappans believed that
ghosts and evil forces were capable of
harming them and, therefore, used
amulets against them. The Atharva

Veda, which is associated with non-|

Aryan tradition; contains many

charms and spells, and recommends

63

7,7 Seal of Pashupati, Mohenjo-daro

amulets for warding off diseases and

evil forces.

The Harappan Script

The Harappans invented the art of
writing like the people of ancient
Mesopotamia. Although the earliest
specimen of Harappan script was
noticed in 1853 and the complete
script discovered by 1923, it has not
been deciphered so far. Some try to
connect it with the Dravidian or the
proto-Dravidian language, others with
the Sanskrit language, and still oth-
ers with the Sumerian language, but
none of these readings is satisfactory.
As the script has not been deciphered,
we cannot judge the Harappan
contribution to literature, nor can we
say anything about their ideas and be-
liefs. i
There are nearly 4,000 specimens
of Harappan writing on stone seals and
other objects. Unlike the Egyptians
and Mesopotamians, the Harappans

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64

did not write long inscriptions. Most

inscriptions were recorded on seals,
and contain only a few words These
seals may have been used by proper-
tiét people to mark and identify their
private property. Altogether we have
about 250 to 400 pictographs, and in
the form of a picture each letter stands
for some sound, idea or object. The
Harappan script is not alphabetical
but mainly pictographic. Attempts
have been made to compare it with the
contemporary ‘scripts of Mesopotamia
and Egypt. But it is the indigenous
product of the Indus region, and does
not show any connection with scripts
of western Asia.

Weights and Measures

The knowledge of script must have

helped the recording of private prop-
erty and the keeping of accounts. The
urban people of the Indus region also
needed and used weights and mea-
sures for trade and other transactions.
Numerous articles used for weights
have been found. They show that in
weighing mostly 16 or its multiples
were used; for instance, 16, 64, 160,
320, and 640. Interestingly the tradi-
tion of 16 has continued in India till
modern times and till recently 16
annas made one rupee. The
Harappans also knew the art of mea-
surement. We have come across sticks
inscribed with measure marks; one of
these is made of bronze.

Harappan Pottery

The Harappans were great experts in

the use of the potter's wheel. We come
across numerous pots painted in vari-
ous designs. Harappan pots were gen-

erally decorated with the designs of |

ANCIENT INDIA
rhs

7.8 Pottery, Lothal

trees and circles. The images of men

also appear on some pottery frag-

ments.
Seals

The greatest artistic creatigns of the

Harappan culture are the seals. About
2000 seals have been found, and of
these a great majority carry short in-
scriptions with pictures of the one-
horned bull, the buffalo, the tiger, the
rhinoceros, the goat and the elephant.

Images

The Harappan artisans made beauti-

ful images of metal. A woman dancer

‘made of bronze is the best specimen.

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THE HARAPPAN“CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION

sega see
;

7.10 Seals from Kalibangan

Except for a necklace she is naked.

We get a few pieces of Harappan stone

sculptures. One steatite statue wears .

an ornamented robe over the left

shoulder under the right arm, and its
short locks at the back of the head are
kept tidy by a woven fillet.

Terracotta Figurines

We get many figurines made of fire-

baked earthen clay, commonly called
terracotta. These were either used as
toys or objects of worship. They rep-
resent birds, dogs, sheep, cattle and

65

monkeys. Men and women also find

place, and the second outnumber the

first. The seals and images were manu-

factured with great skill, but the

terracotta pieces represent unsophis-
ticated artistic works. The contrast
between the two sets indicates the gap
between the classes which used them.
The first were used by members of the
upper classes, and the second by the
common people. The Harappan cul-
ture is poor in artistic works miade of
stone. We do not come across any
massive work of art in stone as we find
in the case of sculptures of ancient
Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Origin, Maturity and End

The mature Harappan culture, broadly

speaking, existed between 2550 B.c.
and 1900 B.C. Throughout the period
of its existence it seems to have re-
tained the same kind of tools, weap-
ons and houses. The whole style of life

appears to be uniform. We notice the

Same town-planning, the same seals,

the same terracotta works, and the
same long chert blades. But the view
stressing changelessness cannot be
pushed too far. We do notice changes
in the pottery of Mohenjo-daro over a
period of time. By the nineteenth cen-
tury B.C., the two important cities of
the Harappan culture, Harappa and

‘Mohenjo-daro, disappeared but the

Harappan culture at other sites faded

out gradually and continued in its
degenerate phase in the outlying
fringes in Gujarat, -Rajasthan,
Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

It is as difficult to explain the ori-

gin of the Harappan culture as its end.
Several pre-Harappan settlements
have been found in lower Sindh,

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66. a
4
Baluchistan and in Kalibaft
Rajasthan, but the connection >etween
them and the mature Haraprsn cul-
ture is not clear, though the Harappan
-culfure may have evolved out of these
indigenous settlements. Nor do we
have clear proof of outside influence
which helped the rise of the Harappan
cities in the subcontinent. Contact
with Mesoprtamian cities may have
provid: ~ .ae stimulus to the devel-
opment ot the Harappan culture. But
there can be no doubt about the
Indianness of the Harappan culture.
Certain elements distinguish it from
the contemporary cultures in western
Asia. It planned its towns with their
chess-board system, streets, drainage
pipes and cess pits. On the other hand,
the Mesopotamian cities show a hap-
hazard growth. Rectangular houses
with brick-lined bathrooms and wells
together with their stairways are found
in all Harappan cities. Such town-
planning is not to be found in the cities
of western Asia. No other people in
antiquity had built such an excellent
drainage system except perhaps those
of Crete in Knossos, nor did the people

of western Asia show such skill in the.

use of burnt bricks as the Harappans

show. The Harappans produced their
own characteristic pottery and seals;
the latter represented the local animal
world. Above all, they invented their
own typical script, which bears no
resemblance to the Egyptian and
Mesopotamian scripts. Although the
Harappan culture was a Bronze Age
culture, they used bronze on a limited
scale, and largely continued to use
stone implements. Finally, no contem-
porary culture spread over such a wide
area as the Harappan culture did. The

ANCIENT INDIA

structures of Harappa cover 5 km in

circuit, and in that way is one of the
largest of its type in the Bronze Age.
No urban complex of the Harappan
magnitude has been discovered sO
far.

While the ancient cultures of

Mesopotamia continued to exist even
after 1900 B.C., the urban Harappan
culture disappeared at about that
time. Various causes have been sug-

_ gested. It is held that the amount of

rainfall in the Indus region slightly

increased around 3000 B.c. and then
decreased in the earlier part of the
second millennium B.C. This may have
adversely affected agriculture and
stockbreeding. Some ascribe the de-
cline to the decreasing fertility on
account of the increasing salinity of
the soil caused by the expansion of the
neighbouring desert. Others attribute
it to a sudden subsidence or uplift of
the land which caused floods. Earth-
quakes caused changes in the course
of the Indus which led to the inunda-
tion of the hinterland of Mohenjo-daro.
And, still others point out that the
Harappan culture was destroyed by
the Aryans, but there is very little
evidence for this.

The consequences of the disinte--

gration of the largest Bronze Age cul-
tural entity are still to be clarified. We
do not know whether the urban eclipse
led to the migration of merchants and
craftsmen, and the dissemination of
the elements of Harappan technology
and way of life in the countryside.
Something is known about the post-
urban situation in Sindh, Punjab and
Haryana. We find agricultural settle-
ments inside the Indus region, but
their connection with the preceding

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THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION
4

culture is not clear. We need clear and

adequate. information.

Post-Urban Phase of the Harappan

The Harappan culture seems to have

flourished until 1900 B.c. Afterwards

its urban phase marked by system-

_ atic town planning, extensive brick-

work, art of writing, standard weights

and measures, distinction between the
citadel and the lower town, use of
bronze tools, and red ware pottery
painted with black designs practically
disappeared. Its stylistic homogeneity
disappeared,‘ and the - post-urban
Harappan stage was marked by sharp
stylistic diversity. Some traits of the

post-urban -Harappan culture are

found in Pakistan, and in central and

western India, in Punjab, Rajasthan,
Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi
and western Uttar Pradesh. They
broadly cover the period from 1900
B.C. to 1200 B.C. The post-urban phase
of the Harappan culture is also known
as the sub-Indus culture. This culture

was earlier considered post-Harappan

but now it is more popularly known

as. the late Harappan culture.

The late Harappan cultures are

primarily chalcolithic in which tools of
stone and copper are used. They do
not show metal objects requiring com-
plicated casting, although these con-
sisted of axes, chisels, knives, bangles,
curved razors, fish-hooks and spear-
heads. The chalcolithic people in the
later Harappan phase lived in villages

' subsisting on agriculture, stock rais-

XK,

ing, hunting and fishing. Probably the

dissemination of metal technology in
the rural areas promoted agriculture
and settlements. Some places such as
67

Prabhas. Patan (Somnath) and

Rangpur, both in Gujarat, are the
direct descendants of the Harappan
culture. But in Ahar near Udaipur only
a few Harappan elements are found.
Gilund. which seems to be a regional
centre of Ahar culture has even brick
structures which may be placéd
roughly between 2000 B.c. and 1500
B.C. Otherwise burnt bricks are not to
be found anywhere else excépt in the
laté Harappan phase at Bha, pura
in Haryana, but the dating of the layer
to which the bricks belong is uncer-
tain. Stray pieces occur at the OCP site
of Lal Quila in Bulandshahr district
in western Uttar Pradesh. It should be,.
however, emphasised that Harappan
elements appear véry little in the
chalcolithic culture of Malwa (c. 1700-

“C. 1200 B.C.), which had its largest

settlement at Navdatoli. The same is

the case with the numerous Jorwe
sites found in the valleys of the Tapi,
Godavari and Bhima. The largest of the
Jorwe settlements was Daimabad
which had about 22 hectares of habi-
tation with a possible population of
4000; it may be considered proto-
urban. But a vast majority of the Jorwe
settlements were villages.

The post-urban Harappan settle-

ments have been discovered in the
Swat valley. Here the people practised
a developed agriculture and cattle-
breeding together with pastoralism.
They used black-grey burnished ware
produced on a slow wheel. This ware
resembles the pottery from the north-
ern Iranian plateau during the third
millennium B.C. and later. The Swat
valley people also produced black-on-
red painted and wheel-turned pottery
which shows close links with the Indus

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“new pot forms appear. Some late —
Harappan pot forms are found inter- -

; outpdst

68

pottery curing the early post-urban

period. They show the connection with
a post-urban culture associated with
Harappa. The Swat valley, therefore,
may be regarded as the northernmost
of the late Harappan culture.
Several] late Harappan sites have been
excavated in- the Indian territories of
Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and
‘also in Jammu. Mention may be made
of Manda in Jammu, Chandigarh,
Sanghol in Punjab, Daulatpur and
Mitthal in Haryana and Alamgirpur
and Hulas in western Uttar Pradesh.
It seems that the Harappans took to
rice when they came to Daulatpur in
Haryana and Hulas in ‘Saharanpur
district of Uttar Pradesh. Ragi or the
finger millet is not known so far to any
Harappan site in north India. In
Alamgirpur the late Harappans prob-
ably produced cotton, as can be in-
ferred from the cloth impression on the
Harappan pottery.

The painted Harappan pottery

found in late Harappan sites in north-

: em and eastern areas-is replaced with

less intricate designs although some

_locked with Painted Grey Ware remains

at Bhagwanpura, but by this time the
Harappan culture seems to have

reached a point of complete dilution. .

In the late Harappan phase no

object for measuring the length is
noticed. In Gujarat, cubical stone
weights and terracotta cakes were
absent in the. later period. Generally
all late Harappan sites lack human
figurines and characteristic painted
‘designs. Although faience went out of
fashion in Gujarat, it was freely used

in north India. The post-urban phase

v ANCIENT INDIA
of Harappa saw the end of the Indus
trade with the West Asian centres.
Lapis lazuli, chert, carnelian beads
and copper and bronze vessels are ei-
ther absent or scarce as trade items..
All this was natural because most late
Harappan sites excavated in Punjab,
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are rural

‘settlements.

During the later phases of the

Harappan culture some exotic tools
and pottery indicate the slow percola-
tion of new peoples in the Indus ba-
sin. A few signs of insecurity and vio-
lence appear in the last phase of
Mohenjo-daro. Hoards of jewellery
were buried at places, and skulls were
huddled together at one place. New
types of axes, daggers, knives with
midribs arid flat tangs appear in the
upper levels of Mohenjo-daro. They
seem to betray some foreign intrusion.
Traces of new peoples appear in a cem-
etery belonging to the late phase of
Harappa, where new kinds of pottery
occur in the latest levels. New types of
pottery also occur in some Harappan
sites in Baluchistan. At several sites
in Punjab and Haryana, Grey Ware
and Painted Grey Ware, generally as-
sociated with Vedic people, have been
found in conjunction with some late
Harappan pottery dated around 1200
B.C. All this can be attributed to the
barbarian horse-riding people who
may have come from Iran through the
hills. But the new peoples did not come
in such numbers as to completely
overwhelm the Harappan cities in
Punjab and Sindh. Although the Rig
Vedic Aryans settled down mostly in
the land of the Seven Rivers, in which
the Harappan culture once flourished,
we have no archaeological evidence of

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THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION 69

any mass-scale confrontation between people may have encountered the

the mature Harappans and the Ary- people belonging to the late Harappan
‘ams. Successive groups of the Vedic phase between 1500 B.C. and 1200 B.c.

EXERCISK«S

1. Why is Harappan civilization called.a Bronze Age civilization? |

How were the Harappan cities Planned? Describe their distinctive
features. .

3. Describe thé main occupations of the Harappan people.

Mention the achievements of the Harappan people in the field of

technology and crafts. . .

5. ‘Terracotta figurines and seals throw a light on the religious

practices followed by the Harappan people’. Discuss.

How did-the Harappan civilization come to an end? Discuss.

Which Bronze Age Civilizations of other Parts of the world-were

contemporaries of the Harappans? With which of these the

Harappans had trade relations?

8. In what respects did the Harappan civilization mark an advance

on the chalcolithic cultures (even though it was more ancient
than most of the chalcolithic cultures)? Explain with examples,

9. On an outline map of India show the extent of the Harappan

civilization and the following sites: Mohenjo-daro, Harappa,
Chanhu-daro, Kalibangan, Banawali, Lothal, Rupar.

10. Work out a group project on various aspects of the Harappan |

civilization. Prepare:a chart of the Signs of the Harappan script
as a part of the project. Find out when, how and by whom. were
the scripts of other civilizations deciphered.

>

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