THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION

 

THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION

THE INDUS or the Harappan culture is older than the chalcolithic cultures which

have been treated earlier, but it is far more developed than these cultures. It arose in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent. It is called Harappan because

this civilization was discovered first in 1921 at the modern site of Harappa situated in the province of West Punjab in Pakistan. 

It extended from Jammu in the north to the Naramada estuary in the south, and from the Makran coast of Balcuchistan in the west to Meerut in the north-east. The area formed a triangle and accounted for about 1,299,600 square kilometers. Nearly 1500 Harappan sites are known so far in the subcontinent. Of these, the two most important cities were Harappa in Punjab and Mohenjodaro (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 Mohenjodaro 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 northern 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. The Harappan culture is noticeable in its mature and flourishing 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

distinguished by its system of town planning.

Harappa and Mohenjo-daro each had its own

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 followed

the grid system. According to it, roads cut

across one another alomost at right angles,

and the city was divided into so many blocks.

This is true of almost all Indus settlements.

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 × 7.01 metres
and 2.43 metres deep. Flights of steps at either

 end lead to the surface. 

There are side rooms for changing clothes. 

The floor of the Batch was made of burnt bricks.

 It is suggested that the Great Bath served ritual bathing, 

which has been so vital to any religious ceremony in India.

In Mohenjodaro the largest building is
a granary, which is 45.71 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
granaries. Each granary measured 15.23 × 6.03
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. Approximately it had the same area
as the Great Granary at Mohenjo-daro.
Harappa also shows two-roomed barracks,
which possibly accommodated laboures.
At Kalibangan also we notice in the
southen 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 Hrappan
cities is remarkable, because in the
contemporary buildings of Egypt mainly
dried bricks were used. 

We find the use of baked bricks in contemporary

 Mesopotamia, but they were used to a much larger 

extent 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. Sometimes these drains
were covered with bricks and sometimes
with stone slabs. The street drains were
equipped with manholes. Perhaps no other
Bronze Age civilization gave so much
attention to health and cleanliness as the
Harappan did