Rakhigarhi, capital of Indus-Sarasvati Civilization, links

riverine waterways of Brahmaputra, Ganga, Sarasvati,

Persian Gulf
Rakhigarhi is the capital because it is located on the water-divide along the Mt. Abu ridge (which
explains the hydrological patterns of east-flowing and west-flowing Himalayan rivers diverging
from this point), a paṭṭaṇa, a re-packaging, transhipment riverine port linking riverways for trade
transactions of the civilization. The transactions are recorded on Indus Script seals and
inscriptions. This is one reason why the Script has to be deciphered which will help document
the key components of the wealth of the Rāṣṭram of the Bronze Age.
See:
Rakhigarhi Indus script metalwork catalogues deciphered. Capital settlement of Sarasvati-Sindhu
civilization (224 hectares). Kudos to Dr. Vasant Shinde http://tinyurl.com/zat4ty2
S. Kalyanaraman, Sarasvati Research Centre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiQ9cB95wnk (10:07)
Mirror: https://www.facebook.com/Archaeology.org/videos/179434139612992/
Nimmi Singh
Published on Aug 22, 2018
A FILM ON THE LARGEST HARAPPAN SITE EXCAVATED IN HARYANA - NORTH
INDIA .SITE DATES BACK TO 5000 YERAS .Film for DEPARTMENT OF
ARCHAEOLOGY AND MUSEUMS HARYANA By NSB PRODUCTIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biySJJtpWxk (5:19)

HistoricallyUrs
Published on Feb 25, 2017
Hello Friends, we all must have heard about Indus Valley civilization & the famous sites of
Harappa & Mohenjo-Daro, but do you know that among the settlements there are total of 5 major
urban centers. Along with Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro & Ganeriwala that lie in present day
Pakistan, 2 sites of Dholavira & Rakhigarhi lie in present India.

Today we’ll have a peek at Rakhigarhi, the largest of all Indus River Valley sites. Rakhigarhi is a
village in Hisar District in the state of Haryana in India, situated 150 kilometers to the northwest
of Delhi. Most scholars believe it to be between 80 hectares to about 100 hectares in area. Some
Indian archaeologists, however, have claimed that the earliest settlements in Rakhigarhi predate
the Indus Valley Civilization, and the site itself is 300 hectares in area. Rakhigarhi is located in
the valley of the prehistoric Drishadvati River. In 1963, Archaeological Survey of India i.e. ASI
began excavations at this site. Further excavations were conducted by ASI between 1997 and
2000. However, recent excavations starting from 2011 till present have been proved to be the
most fruitful with findings of new pottery, seals, burials, etc. Deccan College and the Haryana
archaeological department have been jointly carrying out the excavation at the site from last
three years. Experts from the Seoul National University, College of Medicine in South Korea are
also involved in the excavation. There are nine mounds in Rakhigarhi which are named RGR-1
to RGR-9

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Archaeological findings and scientific data have indicated that Rakhigarhi had been the more
important centre of the Indus Valley Civilisation than the townships of Harappa and Mohenjo-
Daro located in Pakistan
The team of archaeologists revealed that the excavation at this site is all set to change the view
that Mohenjo-Daro was the capital city of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Instead, the scientific
data collected on the basis of excavations here have strongly pointed that Rakhigarhi, was a
metropolis and was perhaps the capital of its time about 5,000 years ago.

Evidences of massive manufacturing and trade activities in this town, which revealed the
economic organisation and the foreign links of people here, have been collected. People here had
trade links with people in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Baluchistan and even Afghanistan. The city
flourished during the early Harappan era dating back to around 3,300 BC and existed till 2000
BC. Moreover, the DNA samples collected from the skeletons at the cemetery here are set to
crack a major mystery surrounding their lives, character, diseases and race of the people who
lived here 5,000 years ago.
Since Rakhigarhi was turning out to be the biggest and most crucial Harappan site in the world,
the state government had decided to set up a museum, research centre and a hostel for the
researchers in the village.
The excavation work at the Harappan site has got a major breakthrough with the recovery of
around 15 human skeletons from mound no.7 during the ongoing excavation. The leader of the
research team and head of Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Vasant Shinde,
said that the deposits they have found in various layers at Rakhigarhi go as deep as 22 metre. No
other site has such extensive deposits. For example, deposits at Mohenjo-Daro go down to only
17 metre. This shows, Rakhigarhi area was a bustling metropolis as long back as 5000 to 5500
BC and continued to thrive. People continued to live there for long. There is an interesting
question arising nowadays, that whether people now living in Haryana's Hisar district is the
oldest continuous living habitat in the world. Scientists are anxiously awaiting complete results
of the DNA tests of samples taken from Rakhigarhi. Officials have taken DNA samples from
skeletons recovered from the archeological dig as well as residents of Rakhigarhi village of
today. Although initial results have been exciting, the full results of the research project are not
out yet. There are difficulties in excavating in this area for example take the case of mound
RGR-5 which is thickly populated by establishment of Rakhishahpur village and is not available
for excavations. However, these are definitely great moments in study of pre-historic India and
new excavations might reveal findings that might just shed new light about links between Indus
valley civilization & current Bharat. The size and uniqueness of Rakhigarhi has drawn much
attention of archaeologists all over the world. It is nearer to Delhi indicating the spread of Indus
Valley Civilization up to this distance of North India. Thanks for watching the video, I hope you
liked it. I’ll keep posting videos regarding historical figures & events. Please subscribe & guide
me with your constructive comments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_MfgJ6_Xcs (1:13:00)
Rajat Rakesh
Published on Mar 17, 2018
Deciphering Indus Valley Seals --Rakhi Garhi Session 7 part -2

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