Town Planning and Structure In Indus Valley Civilisation

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The Indus Valley people, unlike the Aryans, were primarily urban people.

Harappa

Harappa is a ruined city situated in Montgomery district (Pakistan). It is about hundred miles from Lahore. This city is believed to have been bigger than Mohenjodaro. The houses found at Harappa are smaller in size, but its remains are otherwise similar to those found at Mohenjodaro.

Mohenjo-daro

It was first discovered in 1922 by R.D. Banerjee and is one of the most important ancient cities. It is situated 300 miles north of Karachi in the Larkana district of Sind. In pre-Aryan period of Indian history it was the chief centre of the social activity of the Indus Valley people. Mohenjo-daro literally means mound of the dead. It is about one square mile in area.

It may have been bigger but the extremities of present excavation do not show the end of the city. It appears that this city was built and abandoned seven times or even more. Although seven distinct town levels have already been unearthed. The city, as it stands now, is in two mounds; one is 1,300 yards long and 600 yards wide; and the other on the west is 400 yards long and 300 yards wide.

Other Sites

Other than Mohenjo-daro and Harappa several sites in the Punjab, Sind and Gujarat regions share some of the features of the two cities. Like Harappa, Kalibangan, in the district of Ganganagar in Rajasthan, has a citadel and lower town. Chanhu-daro lacks the citadel, but like the two cities, it has produced evidence of the use of drains and baked brick houses etc.

At Lothal, 450 miles south-east of Mohenjo-daroin the district of Ahmedabad (Gujarat), has been revealed a great artificial platform with streets and houses of regular plan. In addition to the urban settlement a brick dockyard connected with the Gulf of Cambay by a channel has also been discovered there. Sutkagen-dor, 30 miles from the Arabian Sea coast, has a formidable citadel and lower fortified settlement.

Drainage System

The most striking feature of this town is its drainage system. Drains were made of mortar, lime and gypsum. They were further covered with loose bricks which could be lifted easily to clean the drains. Smaller drains from houses on both sides came and joined the main drain. Bigger drains which carried the rain water varied in circumference form 2 and half feet to 5 feet.

Care was also taken that house-wives did not throw the ashes and other refuse in the drains. The drainage system is one of the most impressive achievement of the Harappans and presupposes the existence of some kind of municipal organization. The drainage system of the Indus Valley people shows that they certainly had a fairly developed sense of health and sanitation.

Houses, Kitchen, Bath etc

Houses of all size are found in the Indus Valley cities. At Mohenjo-daro the size of the houses varies from one-roomed quarters to a palatial building which is 220 feet by 115 feet. There is a general lack of decoration in masonry. The houses look monotonously similar to one another. The doors of the houses opened into the narrow streets.

They varied from 3 feet to 7 feet in breadth. How the doors were fixed is not known as no wooden material has survived these 5000 years. There are no sign of windows. Provision for kitchen and bathrooms were made in every house. In one corner of the house there was a kitchen. The bathroom formed an essential part of most of the houses and deserves special mention.

Town Planning

The extent ruins show remarkable skill in town-planning. The streets, varying in width from 9 to 34 ft., were regularly aligned, sometimes running straight for half a mile.

The principal streets were duly oriented to the points of the compass and interested at right angles, dividing the city into square or rectangular blocks, each of which was divided lengthwise and crosswise by a number of lanes.

Great Bath

Great bath of larger buildings, other than dwelling houses, the most remarkable is the Great Bath measuring 180 ft. wide, and 108 ft long.

The bathing pool, 39 ft. long, 23 ft. wide, and 8 ft. deep, occupies the centre of a quadrangle, surrounded by verandahs with rooms and galleries behind them. Near the Great Bath was a big granary originally 150 ft. by 75 ft. with massive construction and provision of loading facilities.

The exact nature or object of the other public buildings cannot always understood. A pillared hall, 80 ft. square, with long corridors and low benches, probably served as an Assembly room. Some other buildings were at first taken to be temples, but this is now regarded to be very doubtful.

The largest buildings at Harappa has been named Great Granary. It measures 169 ft. by 135 ft. and is divided into two blocks, with a passage, 23 ft. wide, between them, each block having six halls with five intervening corridors. Harappa and a few other sites show strong fortifications of which only slight traces have been found at Mohenjo-daro.

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