Bricks, Beads and Bones [The Harappan Civilisation]

Explore the Class 12 History chapter “Bricks, Beads and Bones”—a detailed study of the Harappan Civilization, its urban planning, craft production, trade networks, and archaeological discoveries. Ideal for exam preparation and conceptual clarity.

The Harappan Civilisation

• It is called Harappan civilisation because first of all Harappan site is discovered.
• Other names: Indus Valley Civilisation or Harappa Civilisation or Saraswati–Sindhu Civilisation.

✦ Dayaram Sahni: → First discovered Harappa in 1931
• He has discovered under leadership of John Marshall (Director General of Archaeological Survey of India: 1902–1928)
• R.D. Banerjee discovered Mohenjodaro or Mound of dead in 1922
✦ Subsistence strategies: • Harappan people mainly depend on plant and animal including fish for their food requirement.
• Grains found at Harappan site include (wheat, barley, dates, peas, sesame, millets, mustard from Gujarat) Rice husks (Lothal and Rangpur).
• They used stone sickles for harvesting, wooden plough (Kalibangan) and oxen were used for ploughing.
• First to provide cotton in the world and sugarcane was not known to Indus people.
• Camel bones are reported at Kalibanga and remains of horse from Surkotada.
• Evidence of canals has been found at the Harappan site of Shortughai in Afghanistan (not in Punjab or Sindh) and wells were used for irrigation.
• Animals which are domesticated – buffalos, oxes, sheeps, asses, elephants, cats, goats, pig etc.

➤Mohenjodaro: A planned urban centre:

• Towns were divided into two parts – upper part or citadel and lower part.
• Citadel was in height as compared to lower town and constructed on mud bricks and walled around it which is different from lower town.
• Houses were made with burnt bricks with dimensions 4:2:1.
• Underground drainage system.
• Streets with drains made first, then houses built along them.
• Town planning was in the form of grid.

➤Domestic Architecture:

• Courtyard at centre with rooms all around.
• No windows at the ground level.
• Every house has its own bathroom with drains connected to street drains.
• Some houses have staircase to reach on the roof.
• Many houses had wells in a room which is used to go outside, estimated 700 wells in Mohenjodaro.

➤The Citadel:

• Generally used for public purposes including with warehouses, having lower part with bricks and upper part probably of wood and the Great Bath.
• The Great Bath was a rectangular tank in a courtyard surrounded by a corridor on all four sides.
• There were two stairs in the north and south.
• There were rooms on three sides and large well on fourth side.
• Water from tank flowed into the drain.
• Across a lane to the north having a smaller building with 8 bathrooms with drain 4 on each side of corridor.

➤Tracking Social Differences:

(a) Burials

• General practice was placing the dead body in north to south direction.
• In Harappan sites, dead were generally laid in pits.
• In some cases some pits are made with bricks which indicated social differences.
• Some graves contain pottery and ornaments, perhaps they believed in afterlife.

➤Looking for “Luxuries”:

• First category includes objects of daily use – combs, pottery, needles, flesh rubbers (body scrubbers).
• Archaeologists assume luxuries are objects which are rare and costly.
• Faience pots (made with sand or silica and gum and fired) is precious because very difficult to make.

➤Finding out about Craft Production:

• In craft production, generally made bead making, shell cutting, metal working, seal making and weight making.
• Material used to make beads like Carnelian (Red colour), Jasper, crystal, quartz, and steatite and metal used like copper, bronze and gold.
• Shell, faience, and terracotta or burnt clay also are used for making beads.
• Some beads were made of 2 or more stones and gave these shapes like: disc, cylindrical, spherical etc.
• Some were decorated with painting and designs.
• Technique for making beads – Steatite (soft stone) powder used with moulded paste.

Strategies for Procuring Raw Materials:-

• Transportation – Terracotta toy suggests importance of transporting goods and people across land routes.
• Ships and boats on seals suggest river routes for transporting people and goods.

➤Materials from the Subcontinent and beyond:

• Harappa got materials from Nageshwar and Balakot for shell, Shortughai for Lapis Lazuli and blue stone, Lothal – carnelian and steatite and from Rajasthan and Gujarat they bought metals.
• Another strategy for getting raw material – to send expeditions to Khetri region of Rajasthan for copper and South India for gold.
• Harappan steatite micro beads found in Khetri area indicate people of Ganeshwar–Jodhpur culture supplied copper to Harappan.
• What is Ganeshwar–Jodhpur culture? In the Khetri area, archaeologists found a new culture and call it as the Ganeshwar–Jodhpur culture.

➤Contact with Distant Lands:

• Copper brought from Oman (Arab).
• Analysis shows Omani copper and Harappan copper artifacts have traces of nickel.
• A large Harappan jar created with black clay has been found at Omani sites.
• Mesopotamian sites also contain traces of nickel. Other archaeological finds – Harappan seal, weight, dice and weights.

➤Seals and Sealings:

• Seals and sealings are used for long-distance communications.
• A bag full of goods being sent from one place to another and its mouth was tied with rope and on the knot was fixed with wet clay on which one or more seals were pressed leaving an impression so that the bag could be reached with its sealing without touching.

➤SCRIPT:

• It was pictographic in nature.
• It was written from right to left in the first line and then left to right in the second line. This style is called boustrophedon.
• Number of signs between 375 to 400 which are not readable.
• Mostly lines are short, longest line containing about 26 signs (shown on seals, copper jars, jewellery and beads).

➤ Weights:

• Weights made up of chart stone and in cubical form.
• Lower denomination of weights were binary (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32…) — generally used in jewellery and beads.
• Higher denomination in decimal system and used for food grains.
• Metal scale pans have also been found and probably used for measuring cloth and other materials.

➤ Ancient Authority:

1. Evidence of weights and seals, pottery in Harappan were extraordinary.
2. Bricks size throughout the region from Jammu to Gujarat was same in ratio.
3. They have also been settlement from one place to other for beds, stone.
4. Labour was brought for making bricks and for construction of massive walls and platforms.
5. Probably the king organised all the activities.

➤ Palaces and Kings:

1. A large building found at Mohenjo-daro and labelled as palace by archaeologists but no proof found regarding it.
2. A stone statue was labelled and known as Priest King because archaeologist were familiar with Mesopotamian History and its priest king.
3. Some gave their opinion that Harappan society had no ruler and everyone enjoyed equal rights.
4. Other thought many rulers would be there, Mohenjodaro had separate ruler, Harappan another and so on.
5. Yet other archaeologists argue that single state and single ruler because similarly in artefacts there were same ratio of bricks, establishment of settlement near source of raw material.

➤ The End of the civilisation:

• Famine, hunger, drought
• Natural disaster (Flood, Typhoon, Earthquake, volcanic eruption etc.)
• Periodic flooding of Indus leading to desertion of cities
• Invasions of Aryans civilisation
• Deforestation
• Climate change
• Shifting or drying up of rivers

➤ Cunningham’s Confusion:

• First director general of ASI used the accounts left by Chinese, Buddhist pilgrims who had visited the subcontinent between 4th and 7th centuries to analyse early settlement.
• A Harappan seal was given to Cunningham by Englishman but could not find any evidences.

➤ John Marshall’s Ignorance:

• Director General and first professional archaeologist to work in India and brought his experience of working in Greece.
• He was interested to find precious things and patterns.
• Marshall excavated artefacts from different layers and mixed all together. As a result, valuable information lost forever.