Harappa Culture Of The Indus V Essay

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Description : Harappa Culture of the Indus Valley The Harappa civilization flourished in the Indus Valley during India+s Bronze Age of

Body of Essay :

Harappa Culture of the Indus Valley The Harappa civilization flourished in the Indus Valley during India+s Bronze Age of the

third millennium b.c. This thriving culture was all but completely descimated in 2500 b.c.

by invading Aryan groups from the west. The archaeological evidence that has been produced

by the famous sites of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro suggest that the people of the Harappa

Culture may have in fact, contributed more substantially to modern Hindu culture than was

previously believed.The Harappa Culture of the Indus valley saw it+s peak during the Bronze

Age of India. It stretched from it+s northern capital, Harappa, in the Punjab, to the

southern city, Mohenjo-daro, on the Indus in Sind (Piggott, 134). These two sites together

comprise the most well known and best excavated representatives of Bronze Age Harappan

culture. However, it should be noted that in addition to these two famous sites, there are

fourteen smaller villages in Harappa+s +Northern Kingdom+, and seventeen smaller sites in

Mohenjo-daro+s +Southern Kingdom+;together, these sites comprise the remains of the once

extensive Harappan culture (Piggott, 136). Both main sites have certain striking features

in common; in particular, both are, or were, located on the banks of major rivers –

Harappa on the Ravi, and Mohenjo-daro on the Indus. Additionally, the plan and lay-out of

the two cities is quite similar, consisting of: +an irregular series of mounds toward the

east and a recognizably higher and more compact mound placed more or less centrally and on

the edge of the site[s] to the west,+ (Piggott,159). These mounds are now recognized as the

remnants of fortified citadels in which stood +certain buildings of peculiar plan defended

by a battered wall of baked bricks… with towers and great gateways,+ (Piggott,159).

Unfortunately the majority of the evidence at Harappa has been destroyed by +brick-robbers+

and has been rendered largely incoherent. Luckily, Mohenjo-daro has been better preserved

and we can turn to it as a model in interpreting Harappa.At Mohenjo-daro, one of the most

striking features is the presence of a remarkable complex of buildings centering on a great

bath, +built of very fine brickwork,+ nearly 40 by 24 feet across, and eight feet deep. Around this central bath was a cloister, and small +changing-rooms+ on three sides (Piggott,

163). If one considers the +tank+ ancillary to every Hindu temple of the middle-ages, the

Great Bath can easily be seen as a sacred site. Also present at Mohenjo-daro were two other

outstanding architectural features: the Collegiate Building and the Pillared Hall. The

Collegiate Building was a large building measuring 230 by 78 feet,with an arrangement of

rooms suggesting a +college+ of some sort, and a cloistered court resembling that which

surrounded the Great Bath. The Pillared Hall was located to the south of these buildings,

and although much altered since it+s original erection, it apparently once consisted of a

+nearly square hall about 80 feet each way, with a roof supported on twenty rectangular

brickwork pillars,+ (Piggott,164). These buildings have led archaeologists to conclude that

Mohenjo-daro was once +a centre of religious or administrative life on a significant scale,+

(Piggott,164). The buildings of Mohenjo-daro followed normal +oriental custom+ of the

time, with the outside walls of the houses being as featureless as possible, save the

presence of doorways (Malik, 83). Most of the buildings were either shops, houses, or a

combination of both. The houses seem to have been built around a central courtyard, and on

two or three sides were grouped rooms of varying sizes — including bathrooms (Piggott,

168). The bath probably would have been taken by pouring water over the body from a large

jar, as it is still done in many parts of India. In addition to the presence of bathrooms,

beneath the city was an elaborate drainage system to which access was gained through brick

man-hole covers (Piggott, 168). This entire system shows a concern for sanitation

unparalleled in the Bronze Age, or even modern Asia. The water supply for both cities was

obtained from brick-lined wells, some of which served private homes, but others were meant

for public use, serving the purpose of the water stall, or piau, of modern India

(Piggott,177). Around these wells numerous fragments of little, mass-produced, clay cups

have been found (Malik,97). This evidence suggests that, as in modern Hinduism, there may

have been a taboo against drinking from the same cup twice.Toward the north of the

Mohenjo-daro site, behind the area known as the +workers quarters+, a collection of grain

mortars were found. These +orderly rows of circular working floors carefully built of baked

brick, …. , and

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