Indus Valley Civilization and town planning in indus valley civilization

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

The Indus Valley Civilization was a bronze age civilization in which urban culture was refined and technologically advanced.The Harappan Civilization refers to its first excavated city of Harappa, among other names for this civilization.More than 100 sites related to this civilization have been excavated.According to radio carbon, the year extends from 2500 to 1750 BC.The Mediterranean, Proto-Australoid, Mongolides and Alpeens formed the bulk of the population. The first two were too many. Copper, brass, silver, gold were known, but not iron.

(*)Geographical boundary

Indus Valley Civilization The Indus River and the Ghaggar-Halkara River which is now in Pakistan and was spread along the northwestern India. Most Hindu Valley sites have been found on the Halkara-Ghaggar River.Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, Gujarat, parts of Rajasthan and parts of western Uttar Pradesh. It extended from Manda in Jammu in the north to Daimabad in the south and from Alamgirpur in western Uttar Pradesh to Sutkangador in Baluchistan in the west.

(*)Major sites of Indus Valley Civilization

(a)Harappa

(1)Excavations at the site yield the following specific findings

•  On a platform made of bricks, two rows of six grain stores, 12 granary houses, in the same area as large granaries have been received at Mohenjodaro.
• The coffin cemetery for burial is evidence of "Harappan" culture (two deer and a sender's letter from a cemetery have the hunter's portrait discovered)
• Single Room Business
• Evidence of interaction of direct trade with Mesopotamia
• A red sandstone male torso
• Stone symbol of female genitals

(b)Mohenjodaro

(1)Also known as the mountain of the dead

(2)Specific findings during the excavation of Mohenjodaro include some

• One school, one multi-pillared assembly room
• Large bath room- (The most important public place of the city)
• A large granary (largest building of Mohan Jodaro)
• Evidence of direct trade contact with Mesopotamia
• A bronze dancing girl
• Evidence of violent death of some of the residents (put together to search for human skeletons)
• With a plant growing in her womb with a seal representing the Mother Goddess and a woman sacrificing a woman with a knife in her hand
• A stamp with a photograph suggesting Pashupati Mahadev.

(c)Kalibanga

The word Kalibanga means "black girl". A plowed area was the most important discovery of early excavation. Later the following specific discoveries were made in excavations at Kalibanga.

• A wooden pool
• Sacrifices were worshiped on a platform suggesting seven "fire altars" in a row.

(d)Lothal 

Lothal was an important trading center of Harappan culture, town planning in Lothal was different from Harappa and Mohenjodaro. Lothal's excavations include some specific discoveries including

• Rice Bran Remains (Another city other than Harappan city, Rangpur, where rice bran has been found, near Ahmedabad)
• Place to build an artificial ship
• Evidence of direct business contact with Mesopotamia
• A painting on a jar similar to the story of the clever fox heard in Panchatantra
• Evidence of double burial (burial of a man and woman in a tomb).

(e)Chanhudaro 

• Sindh, Pakistan
• It is a particularly important site for providing evidence about various Harappan factories. Seals, toys and bone tools were produced in these factories. It was a Harappan city without a citadel. Some notable achievements in Chanhudaro include bronze bullock carts and pictures of aces.

(f)Ropar

• Punjab India
• There is evidence of a human burying a dog under burial(this practice was prevalent in Burjholm in Kashmir, it was rare in the context of Harappan).

(g)Banwali

• Haryana, India
• Banwali is located in Hisar district of Haryana. The size of the town planning was based on a sample of chess boards or nets that were not followed in other Harappan sites. Roads were not always straight nor did they intersect at right angles. The Harappan civilization also lacked another notable feature - a systematic evacuation system.

(h)Surkotada

• It is located in Kutch (Bhuj) district of Gujarat. This site is especially important because here the first real remains of horse bones were found.

(*)Political history

There is no right idea of political organization of the people of Indus Valley.
Perhaps they were more concerned with commerce and they were probably governed by a class of merchants.

• There was also an organization like a municipal corporation that used to look after the civic amenities of the people.

(*)Economic history

(1) Agriculture

• Wheat, barley, rye, peas, rice (in Lothal), cotton, dates, watermelons etc. were grown. Indus people first produced cotton.
• In Kalibanga, fields were plowed with wooden plows.
• Animals were reared on a large scale. In addition to cattle, cats and dogs were also domesticated. Horses were not in regular use, but elephants were. In Ropar's tomb, the dog along with the men and the remains of the horse have been discovered in Surkotada. Sufficient production was made for their food.
• Food grains were stored in granary.

(2)Trade and commerce

• External and internal trade was well woven. There was no circulation of currency metal and trade was done through barter system. 
• Weights and measures of purity (found in Lothal) existed in the Harappan culture. The weights were made of limestone, spatite etc. and were generally cubic in shape.
• 16 units of measurement (16,64,160,320).
• Pearl making factories existed in Chanhudaro and Lothal. They used to export these goods.
• The location of building a ship has been discovered in Lothal.
• Each businessman or business family probably held a stamp with a symbol, often indicating a religious character and a name or a brief description on one side. The standard Harappan seal was a square or rectangular plaque made of steatite stone. Perhaps Mohr's initial motive was to mark the ownership of the property.
• Records of Mesopotamia dating back to around 2350 BCE refer to trade relations with Meluha. The Harappan seal and other materials have been found in Mesopotamia. Also did business with Sumer.

(3)Art and Craft

• Belongs to the Bronze Age of Harappan culture.
• Bronze was made from a mixture of tin and copper. The instruments were mostly made of copper and brass.
• The Harappans were also experts in making pearls.
• The potter's wheel was in use. The color of their utensils was red or there were black earthen pots. He used to play Pasha. His favorite entertainment was gambling.
• The most notable artistic achievement of Harappa is particularly the carving of animals on his seal. A man's red sandstone torso which is particularly impressive for its realism, however, the most impressive sculptures - perhaps on the bronze found in Mohenjodaro (Recognized as Devadasi) is the image of a famous dancing girl.

(4)Religious history

• The main Vaishno Devi mother of worship. But the upper class Pashupati preferred the naked deity with two horns like Shiva. In yoga posture, a picture with three round heads is presented on the seal.
• Penis (Shivling) and vaginal worship were also prevalent.
• Many trees (peepal), animals (bull), birds (ducks, pigeons) and stones were worshiped. Unicorn was also worshiped. Although no temple has been found, though idol worship was in vogue.
• Fire altars have been found in Kalibanga and Lothal.
• Bodies were kept in the north-south.

(5)Script

• The script is not alphabetical but graphical (about 600 images are unreadable).
• The script has not yet been read, but the first line has written letters from right to left and from left to right that hide the letters from view. This style is called 'two-sided writing'.

(6)Town Planning

• Detailed city planning.It followed the grid system. The road was well cut, dividing the cities into large rectangular or square blocks.
• The cities were divided into two parts: the upper part or citadel and the lower part. The citadel was a rectangular artificial platform. This statue (13 meters in Harappa) was surrounded by a wall of terracotta bricks. The citadel was a public building, grain store, important workshop and religious buildings. People used to live on the lower side.
• Good quality baked bricks were used as construction material. Elsewhere in the contemporary world, clay bricks were used.
• The houses were often of two or more storeys, varied in size but quite dull. There were no windows towards the road.
• There was a good drainage system. Drains were made of mortar, lime and gypsum and were covered with large brick planks for easy cleaning. Shows a feeling of health and hygiene.

(7)End of civilization

• The Harappan culture lasted for about 1000 years.
• Arya invasion, recurrent flood, Harappan social isolation, earthquake, etc. are listed as possible causes.

Important sites of Indus Valley Civilization and their location

Site	River	Spot	Excavation
Harappa	Ravi	Montgomery Punjab Mohenjodaro	Dayaram Sahni(1921)
Mohenjodaro	Sindhu	Larkana Sindh Pakistan	Rakhal Dus Banerjee
Chanhudaro	Sindhu	Nawabshah Sindh Pakistan	Mackay, NG Majumdar
Lothal	Ghaggar	Kathiawara Gujarat India	SR Rao
Kalibanga	Ghaggar	Ganga Nagar Rajasthan India	Amal Nand Ghosh
Banawali	Ghaggar	Hisar Haryana India	RS Bisht
Dholavira	Luni	Kutch Gujarat India	JP Joshi
Suktagendra		Pakistan
Alamgirpur		Uttar Pradesh India
Kot-Diji		Sindh Pakistan
Aamri		Sindh Pakistan