INDUS VALLEY

CIVILIZATION
PRESENTED BY
- MEGHA SHARMA
- NIKHIL SHARMA
- K R I T I K A J U YA L
- MOHIT
INTRODUCTION
• The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age Civilization (3300–1300 BCE mature period
2600–1900 BCE) extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and
northwest India.
• At its peak, the Indus Civilization may have had a population of over five million.
• The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage
systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings.
• The Indus Valley Civilization is also known as the Harappan Civilization, after Harappa, the first
of its sites to be excavated in the 1920s.
• Among the settlements were the major urban center's of Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro (UNESCO
World Heritage site), Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan and Rakhigarhi, Lothal,
• The Indus cities were built on an uniform plan.
• A few cities have citadels to the West built on higher platform and to the east of which is the
hub of residential area.
• Both of them are surrounded by a massive brick wall.
• The cities without citadel are found on high mounds.
HARAPPAN
CIVILIZ ATION
INTRODUCTION
• It is spread over 450,000 sqm of space.

• The 1,400 settlements of this civilization discovered so far are distributed over a very wide
geographical area covering almost 1,600 km (east to west) and 1,400 km (north to south).

• About 1,400 settlements of the Harappan culture are known from different parts of India. About
925 settlements sites are now in India and 475 are in Pakistan.

• Harappa is located near the Ravi River, which is a tributary of the upper Indus region.
• Mostly, the Harappan settlements were located on river banks of which −
– Only 40 settlements were located on the Indus and its tributaries.
– About 250 settlements were found in India beyond the Saraswati River system; a number of them were located in
Gujarat, and a few in Maharashtra.
– The distribution pattern of settlements shows that the focus of Harappan civilization was not the Indus, but
the Saraswati River and its tributaries, which flowed between the Indus and the Ganga. Therefore, few researchers
prefer to call it as Saraswati civilization or Indus-Saraswati civilization
• The settlements belonging to this civilization can be classified as:
– Small villages (which were up to 10 hectares)
– Larger towns and small cities (10 to 50 hectares)
– Large cities settlements such as −
• Mohenjo Daro (+250 hectares),
• Harappa (+150 hectares),
• Ganawariwala (+80 hectares),
• Rakhigarhi (+80 hectares),
• Kalibangan (+100 hectares), and
• Dholavira (+100 hectares).

• The patterns of settlements were based on the behavior of rivers which is based around the flood
plain ecology, regional trade over rivers, favorable climate for daily life, access to trade routes and
natural resources etc.
• Cities were built on a uniform plan.
• To the west of each was a ‘citadel’ mound built on a high podium of mud-brick.
• To the east was the town proper the main hub of the residential area.
• The citadel and the town was further surrounded by a massive brick wall.

• Provision of fine drainage system, well arranged water supply system and proper planning- all possible steps
were carefully adopted to make the town ideal and comfortable for the citizenry.

• The areas are divided into lower (public) and upper (acropolis) areas.

• The Acropolis:

– It was namely a parallelogram that was 400-500 yards north-south and 200-300 yards east-west.

– The height is 40 feet from the flood-plain and both the cities are similarly oriented, with the major axis north-
south.

• The grid plan is indicative of an evolved civil engineering principle that had developed at the time.

• Although the plan at Harappa isn’t fully excavated, the general similarities mean that it was probably
the same as at Mohenjo Daro.
 MATERIALS USED IN BUILDINGS
• Most settlements were situated in the alluvial plains where the most common building materials were mud-bricks
and kiln-fired-bricks, wood and reeds.

• In the foothills and on the Islands of Kutch and in Saurashtra, dressed stone replaced bricks (due to an abundance
of stone).

• The sizes of bricks have been found identical proportions 1:2:4, that the width is double the thickness and the
length four times, the thickness.

• Doors and windows were made up of wood and mats.

• Floors of houses were generally hard-packed earth that was often plastered.

• Drains and bathing areas were made with baked bricks or stone.

• Roofs were probably made of wooden beams covered with reeds and packed clay.
 STREETS
• The most outstanding features of the Harappan civilization were the
streets and side lanes equipped with drains system.
• The streets cut each other on the right angles and the width of these
streets was in a set ratio.

• They were 13 to 34 feet wide and were well lined.

• The streets and roads divided the city into rectangular blocks.

• Archaeologists have discovered the lamp posts at intervals.

• Dustbins were also provided on the streets (proves the presence of

good municipal administration).
DRAINAGE SYSTEM
• One of the most remarkable features of the Indus valley civilization is that the city was
provided with an excellent closed drainage system.

• Each house had its own drainage and soak pit which was connected to the public drainage.
Brick laid channels flowed through every street.

• They were covered and had manholes at intervals for cleaning and clearing purposes.

• Large brick culverts with corbelled roofs were constructed on the outskirts of the city to
carry excess water.
• Indus people had a perfect underground drainage system.

• Burnt bricks were used to make drains.

• Small drains connected with bathing platforms and latrines of private houses were joined with
the medium sized drains in the side streets then these drains ran into larger sewers in the
main streets which were covered with bricks or dressed stone blocks.
TYPES OF BUILDINGS
• Excavations have uncovered many types of houses and public buildings at both large and small settlements.

• The architecture may be grouped into three categories with some variations as −

– Private houses

– Large houses surrounded by smaller units and

– Large public structures

• Doorways and windows rarely opened out into the main street, but faced side lanes.

• The view into the house was blocked by a wall or a room around the front door. This was done to protect
the activities in the central courtyard from the view of passers-by.

• The doors were made with wooden frames and a brick socket set in the threshold served as door pivot.
• Some of the doors seem to have been painted and possibly carved with simple ornamentation.
• The windows were small at first and second stories.
• The adjacent houses were separated by a narrow space of "no man's land".
• the majority ofthe Harappan cities and towns are composed of a series ofwalled mounds or sectors
oriented in different directions.
MOHANJO DARO
• Mohenjo-Daro, is an ancient planned city laid out on a grid of streets.
• The city probably had around 35,000 residents.
• An orthogonal street layout was oriented toward the north-south & east-east directions.
• the widest streets run north-south, straight through town; secondary streets run east-west,
sometimes in a staggered direction. Secondary streets are about half the width of the main
streets; smaller alleys are a third to a quarter of the width of the main streets.
• The street layout shows an understanding of the basic principles of traffic, with rounded
corners to allow the turning of carts easily.
• Other public buildings are temples and public baths.
• The drains are covered.
• The buildings were constructed of sun dried and burnt bricks.
• The bricks found in Mohenjo-Daro and other Harappan sites are all the same size 7cm x
14cm x 28cm.
• Sun-dried bricks were used for infill, and burnt bricks were used for the drain and
sewer linings.
• The Courtyard house :
• The house was planned as a series of rooms opening on to a central courtyard providing an open space
inside for community activities. Water supply and sanitation for water, the big houses had their own
wells, other wells would serve groups of smaller.
• Almost every house had a bathroom, usually a fine sawn burnt brick pavement, often with a surrounding
curb.
• Waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets.
• The house drains start from the bathrooms of the houses and join up to the main sewer in the street,
which was covered by brick slabs or corbelled brick arches.
• On the streets we can find manholes for cleaning; some drains flow to closed seeps, others flow out of
the city.
DHOL AVIRA
• Rectangular in shape.
• Spread over 250 acres.
• Citadel, lower town and middle town were three pre existing planned geometrical divisions
(similar to Harappa & Mohenjo daro).
• Middle town had its own defense mechanism, streets, gateways, wells and roads.
• Highlights of the town: castle, bailey (where imp. Officials resided)
• Most of the buildings were built in stone- one of the striking features of the building.
• The city is basically oriented in the traditional cardinal directions, but the layout of the settlement, especially of
the walls and sectors are quite different from that of the other Harappan settlements.
• The salient components of the full-grown cityscape consisted of bipartite citadel, middle town and lower town.
• These three sectors are set within gargantuan fortification constructed entirely of mud bricks, running on all
four sides.
• The citadel of Dholavira, unlike its counterparts at Harappa, Mohen-jo-Daro and Kalibangan was laid out in the
south ofthe city area.
• Dholavira too has conjoined subdivisions, identified as castle and bailey, located on the east and west
respectively, on the top of a low hill with fortification. Impregnable defences most zealously guard the former,
being the most important unit, while the latter is lower in height and enclosed by comparatively less thick walls.
A broad and long ground between the citadel and middle town has been interpreted as a ceremonial ground.
Further north, was located the enwalled middle town and to the east of it was 50 Mf jf \\ /, ' \ founded lower
town.
• The lower town though did not have its own fortification set within the general circumvallation
running around the entire city. These three major built-up divisions made together an L-shaped
design: the citadel and the middle " town forming the shorter line from the north-south and
the middle town and the lower town forming the longer stroke along the east west axis.
Besides, to the south of the castle, across the adjoining reservoir, there was raised another
built-up area running along the city wall.
LOTHAL
• Lothal, which is roughly rectangular on plan, with longer axis running north to south was
surrounded by a massive brick wall, probably to protect from flood, as the site is situated on
the low-lying area of Bhogava, a tributary of Sabarmati.
• A flood destroyed village foundations and settlements (c. 2350 BCE).
• Lothal planners engaged themselves to protect the area from consistent floods.
• The town was divided into blocks of 1–2-metre-high platforms of sun-dried bricks, each
serving 20–30 houses of thick mud and brick walls.
• The city was divided into a citadel, or acropolis and a lower town.
• The rulers of the town lived in the acropolis, which featured paved baths, underground and
surface drains and a potable water well.
• The lower town was subdivided into two sectors — the north-south arterial street was the
main commercial area — flanked by shops of rich and ordinary merchants and craftsmen.
• The residential area was located to either side of the marketplace.
• The lower town was also periodically enlarged during Lothal years of prosperity.
• Lothal engineers accorded high priority to the creation of a dockyard and a warehouse to serve the
purposes of naval trade.
• The dock was built on the eastern flank of the town, and is regarded by archaeologists as an engineering feat
of the highest order.
• It was located away from the main current of the river to avoid silting, but provided access to ships in high
tide as well.
• The warehouse was built close to the acropolis on a 3.5-metre-high podium of mud bricks.
• The rulers could thus supervise the activity on the dock and warehouse simultaneously.
• There was an important public building opposite to the warehouse whose superstructure has completely
disappeared.
• Throughout their time, the city had to brace itself through multiple floods and storms.
• Dock and city peripheral walls were maintained efficiently. The town's zealous rebuilding ensured the growth
and prosperity of the trade.
• However, with rising prosperity, Lothal people failed to upkeep their walls and dock facilities, possibly as a
result of over-confidence in their systems. A flood of moderate intensity in 2050 BCE exposed some serious
weaknesses in the structure, but the problems were not addressed properly.
RAKHIGARHI
• The site is more than 300 hectares making it the largest Indus valley civilization site in
India, Pakistan & Afghanistan.
• In size, dimensions, strategic location and unique significance of the settlement, Rakhigarhi
exceeds Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro at every level.
• Three layers of Early, Mature and Late phases of Indus Valley civilization have been found
at Rakhigarhi.
• Rakhigarhi settlement witnessed all the three phases: the site’s antiquities, drainage system
and signs of small-scale industry are in continuity with other Indus sites.
• Rakhigarhi was occupied at Early Harappan times. Evidence of paved roads, drainage
system, large rainwater collection, storage system, terracotta brick, statue production, and
skilled metal working (in both bronze and precious metals) has been uncovered. There are
nine mounds in Rakhigarhi which are named RGR-1 to RGR-9, of which RGR-5 is thickly
populated by establishment of Rakhishahpur villages and is not available for excavations.
RGR-1 to RGR-3, RGR6 to RGR9 and some part of RGR-4 are available for excavations.
• The site has thick deposits of ‘Hakra Ware’ (typical of settlements dating back before the
early phases of Indus Valley and dried up Sarasvati River valley).It also has ‘Early and
‘Mature’ Harappan artifacts.
• The Hakra and the Early phases are separated by more than 500–600 years and the Hakra
people are considered to be the earliest Indus inhabitants
• A granary belonging to mature Harappan phase (2600 BCE to 2000 BCE) has been found
here. Granary is made up of mud-bricks with a floor of ramped earth plastered with mud. It
has 7 rectangular or square chambers.
• Significant traces of lime & decomposed grass are found on the lower portion of the granary
wall indicating that it can also be the storehouse of grains with lime used as insecticide &
grass used to prevent entry of moisture. Looking at the size, it appears to be a public
granary or a private granary of elites.
• A Cemetery of Mature Harappan period is discovered at Rakhigarhi, with eight graves
found. Often brick covered grave pits had wooden coffin in one case. Different type of
grave pits were undercut to form an earthen overhang and body was placed below this; and
then top of grave was filled with bricks to form a roof structure over the grave.
• the settlement of Kalibangan is confined to two separate mounds with the citadel on the west,
represented by a smaller mound and the lower city towards the east, marked by a fairly
extensive mound.
• Harappa is remarkably similar to that of Kalibangan in layout having fortifications—
parallelogram on plan