The First Cities of India-1

FIRST CITIES - 1

The first civilization of South Asia was Harappan Civilization, more often known as Indus Valley Civilization, contemporary to the Egyptian and Mesopotamian Civilization. Before it was known as Indus Valley Civilization just because all the cities discovered were found on the banks of river Indus but later with the discoveries of more cities away from the river it was named after Harappa

which was the first city to be discovered.

All the famous cities of Harappan Civilization are as listed below:

  1. Harappa - Punjab(Pakistan)

  2. Mohenjo-Daro - Sindh(Pakistan)

  3. Lothal - Gujrat(India)

  4. Kalibangan - Rajasthan(India)

  5. Chanhu-Daro - Sindh(Pakistan) 

  6. Rangpur - Gujrat(India)

  7. Banawali - Hisar(India)

  8. Alamgirpur - UttarPradesh(India)

  9. Koti-Diji - Sindh(Pakistan)

 10. Amri - Sindh(Pakistan)

  And a few more.

Discovery of Harappan Civilization :

Daya Ram Sahni, an Indian archaeologist, in 1921 started excavating the site where A. Cunningham, a British engineer explored a seal back in 1853. And after the excavation, he found a well flourished ancient city named Harappa. A year later, in 1922, R.D. Banerji, an officer of the Archaeological Survey of India, stumbled upon the remains of an ancient city in Mohenjodaro. Both the sites were on the Indus Valley Plains and discovered same type of pottery and town planning.

Later on many other ancient cities were discovered by many other archaeologists which included S.R.Rao (Lothal), B.B.Lal and A.K.Thapar (Kalibangan), N.G.Mazumdar (Chanhudaro), R.S.Bist (Banawali), etc.

Dholavira was discovered by J.P.Joshi in the year 1990 where an inscription comprising ten large sized signs of Harappan Script similar to sign board was found. The most noteable thing is that the Harappan script is yet to be deciphered thus we still don't know what is written on that inscription.

Town Planning in Harappan Civilization

All the cities had a same kind of town planning except Lothal as it was not having the key features that all the other cities of Harappan Civilization had.

Most of the cities were divided into two parts one was Citadel and the other was the lower part (only Lothal was not divided into two parts). The citadel was the small raised area of the town which contained public buildings, granaries, and imporatant workshops. It is assumed that the rulers were used to live here. Lower Part of the city was for common citizens and all the professional activities were carried out here including the trade with other contemporary civilizations. Mainly all the cities followed a grid pattern and had streets which ran north to south.

Burnt Bricks were known to the people and the bricks had an identical ratio of 1:2:4 in terms of thickness:width:length. All the cities even had excellent drainage system. Double storey houses were very common in the entire civilization.

The most unique feature which almost all cities had was that none of the house had entrance opened on the main street and none of the windows faced on the street.

Popular Structures of Harappan Civilization

  Great Bath :

      An important structure was found while excavating at Mohenjodaro which was named as
      Great Bath just because of it's hugeness. A large pool type structure was made at
      mohenjodaro which was a few feet deep and was made of closely packed bricks. A thick
      layer of natural tar was applied to stop seepage and the floor had five layers of packed
      bricks and mortar. Around the Great Bath, there were some changing rooms. The proper
      use of the bath is not known so far but it is guessed that it may have been used for some
      religious bath but there are many other views also presented by many archaeologists.
      The built quality of the bath is so good that it even holds water today. Can you imagine,
      even today we can't make such an awesome quality of structures. Lothal had a few dam
      like structures which might were used to store water for summers and were also used as
      the Great Bath.

  Granaries :

      There exist large and big Granaries in every city of the Harappan Civilization. They were

      probably used for holding up surplus grains. It was the largest structure in Mohenjodaro
      and there exist six granaries in row at Harappa. There were some circular structures made
      near the granaries for threshing grains, even some remains of rice husks were found in
      Lothal.

  Drainage System :

      Along the streets goes one parallel drain with them in order to take all the waste water and

     sewage from the city to the river just like today's city drainage system. There exist a well
     laid out drainage system in each city of the civilization. The drains were made to tightly
     packed bricks to prevent any leakage. Also the drains were covered by slabs of the stone
     which were removed while cleaning it. There were wooden screens at some distance just to
     prevent solid waste from flowing away with water. This existence of such a good drainage
     system suggest that the people at that time were really concerned about hygiene and health.
     So guys, we should also keep our city clean, just as our ancestors used to keep it.

Streets and Houses :

     A 10 meter broad main road dividing the whole city into two with which all the sub-roads
     and major streets were joined making an exact right angle. Roads were generally paved
     with bricks and the corner were rounded just for the easy passage of the traffic.

     A central courtyard around which the rooms and other entities were built was the basic
     design for the houses of the civilization and many were even double storeyed. All the
     houses had a bathing area and kitchen along with dustbins. Walls were plastered and the
     floors were paved. The number of rooms in a house varied from 2 to 20.

Please read 2nd part of this series to know about economy, lifestyle, decline of Harappan Civilization.

These notes can be helpful for UPSC Preparation, Board Exams, and other competitive exams.