The Harappan Civilisation

(A) is true but (R) is false.

Explanation — The Harappan Civilisation, also known as the Indus Valley Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation.

(A) and (R) are independent of each other

Explanation — The Harappan Civilisation, also known as the Indus Valley Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia.

(R) is the reason for (A)

Explanation — The terms “Harappan Civilisation” and “Harappan Culture” are often used interchangeably to refer to the same Bronze Age civilisation. The term ‘Culture’ refers to a group of distinctive objects such as seals, weights, stone blades and baked bricks that were found within the Harappan civilization.

(A) and (R) are independent of each other

Explanation — The seals often featured beautifully carved animal and human figures, along with inscriptions. Despite many attempts, the ‘script’ used in the Harappan Civilisation, also known as the Indus script, has not yet been deciphered.

(A) is true but (R) is false

Explanation — The water for the Great Bath was provided by a well in adjacent room.

(R) is the reason for (A).

Explanation — The massive structure of the Great Bath indicates the existence of a ruling class which could mobilise labour, collected taxes and build such a huge structure.

(A) is true but (R) is false

Explanation — The seals were mainly used by traders to stamp their goods.

(A) is true but (R) is false.

Explanation — Some scholars believe that the Bearded Man might represent a figure of authority, possibly a priest or yogi. The sculpture is of high artistic value.

(R) is the reason for (A)

Explanation — Lothal was the port city of Harappan civilization and was used to carry out overseas trade.

(A) is true but (R) is false

Explanation — The houses of ruling class were built on a high mound to protect them from floods.

Chalcolithic Period

Culture

There were public buildings for specific purposes.

Presence of mud brick platform

Both (1) and (2)

All of the above

lost wax process

Written from right to left

All of the above

society

a shawl

heavily-bangled left arm

The two important sources of information about the Harappan Civilisation are:

1. The Great Bath which indicates the high degree of perfection of the art of the building.
2. The Citadel which points to the planning and development of cities in Harappan civilisation.

The Great Bath is an important public building of Indus Valley Civilisation. The importance of The Great Bath lies in the fact that it indicates the perfection in the art of building, religious, economical and social development of the society and efficient planning of structures.

Two important characteristic features of the citadel are:

1. Citadel was built on mud brick platform and hence it was a raised area.
2. Citadel had important buildings like the houses of ruling class, the great bath, the granary and the assembly hall.

The seals were used by the traders to stamp their goods. The goods were packed and tied and the knot was covered with wet clay and the seal was pressed on it.
The seals indicate that the Harappan trade had spread over a vast area.

The granaries at harappa were built on raised platforms to protect them from floods. There were two rows of six granaries each. To the south of granaries there were rows of circular floors which probably were working platforms for threshing. The granaries also had two-roomed barracks which possibly accommodated labourers. The granary had ventilation to prevent grains from becoming mildewed.

Ornaments were worn by both men and women. The ornaments were made up of gold, silver, precious stones and ivory. Some common ornaments were necklaces, finger-rings, bangles, armlets, anklets, fan-shaped head dress and earrings.

The statue of a dancing girl, made up of bronze was found at Mohenjo-daro. The right hand of the dancing girl rests on the hip and the heavily bangled left arm, holding a bowl rests on her left leg. The statue is a masterpiece of art and shows the high degree of development in field of art of sculpture. The figurine shows vigour, variety and ingenuity.

The Indus Valley men used to wear a dhoti and a shawl was used to cover the upper part of the body. The women wore a skirt and used a cloak to cover arms and shoulders. The discovery of needles and buttons at some sites show that they wore stitched clothes too.

The features of the internal trade in the Indus Valley Civilization were:

1. All exchanges carried through barter system.
2. There were important centres of different products, for example Lothal, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were centres for metallurgy; Balakot and Chanundaro were centres for bangle-making.

The evidences that show the Harappans had trade relations with foreign countries are:

1. The Mesopotamian records from about 2350 BC onwards refer to trade relations with Meluha, which is the ancient name given to Indus region.
2. The depictions of ships and boats on seals also indicate foreign trade. Mesopotamian texts refer to Meluha as a land of seafarers.

The four animals depicted on the Pashupati seal are an Elephant, a Tiger, a Buffalo and a Rhinoceros.

Two causes that led to the decline of the Harappan Civilisation were:

1. Floods and Earthquakes
2. Deforestation

The Indus people used a set of cubical stone weights. The basic unit was 16 (equal to 14 grams). Larger weights were multiples of 16 like 32, 48, 64, 128 and so on. The smaller ones were all fractions of 16.

Two ways in which the seals serve as a source of historical information are:

1. Harappan seals give information about foreign trade, as many were found in Mesopotamia, showing contact with other civilizations.
2. The Gods, symbols and animal figures on seals help historians understand Harappan art, religion, and script.

Harappan Civilisation is our greatest heritage as:

1. The Harappan way of making baked pottery, bricks, beads, jewellery, textiles, etc. was adopted by the later civilisations. Cultivation of cotton was the biggest achievement of Harappan civilisation which adopted by Egyptians after several centuries.
2. In the religious sphere, the worship of Pashupati Shiva, the female deity as Mother Goddess, sacred trees, animals, serpents, religious symbols, etc. which were prevalent during the Harappan period, some of them have continued to this day.

Harrappans produced their own characteristic pottery which was made glossy and shining. Earthen vessels and pottery, crafted on the potter's wheel, were decorated with black geometrical designs. The large jars with narrow necks and red pots with black decoration bear evidence of potters's artistic skill.

The sculpture in metal was done through the special lost wax process. In this process wax figures were covered with a coating of clay. Then the wax was melted by heating and the hollow mould thus created was filled with molten metal which took the original shape of the object.

The city of Harappans were divided into two parts — the raised area called citadel and the lower town. The Citadel had the houses of the ruling class and all important buildings like the Great Bath, the granary, the assembly hall and the workshops. The lower town had the residential buildings where the people lived and worked. This shows some sort of political organisation and social classification of Harappans.

(a) The Harappan Civilisation had its roots in Indian soil.The civilisation evolved in areas near the Indus river and expanded over the time.The urban culture which has been observed was just the extension of local village culture along with effect of trade relations with Mesopotamia.The historians found some marked similarities between the pre-Harappan and proto-Harappan culture at Kot Diji, Amri and Kalibangan in terms of granary, defensive walls and long distance trade in these settlements.

(b) The Harappan Civilisation was the largest of all ancient civilisations covering a triangular area of 1.3 million sq.km . It extended from Suktagendor (Baluchistan) in west to Alamgirpur (U.P.) in the east and from Manda (Jammu) in the north to Bhagatrav (Narmada Estuary) in the south. The Harappan Civilisation covered parts of Punjab, Haryana, Sindh, Baluchistan, Gujarat, Rajasthan and fringes of western Uttar Pradesh.

(c) The four important cities of the Harappan Civilisation are:

1. Harappa — It is situated in Montgomery district of Punjab on the left bank of Ravi river. It was the first site to be discovered in 1921. It measured around 5 km in circuit and was an important centre of Metallurgy.
2. Mohenjo-daro — It is situated in Larkana district of Sindh on the right bank of Indus river. It was the second site to be discovered in 1922. The main feature of this city is it's drainage system and it's roads. It is linked to Harappa through Indus river.
3. Chanhudaro — It lies about 130 km south of Mohenjo-daro. It was probably the industrial hub with bangle and beads making industries. Copper and Bronze models of carts with seated drivers were also found from this city.
4. Lothal — It is situated in Gujarat. A rectangular dockyard was discovered here. Lothal was an important trading and manufacturing centre of the Indus Valley Civilisation and was used for carrying out overseas trade.

(a) Three Characteristic features of town planning of Harappan Civilization are:

1. Each city was divided into two parts- the raised area (citadel) and the lower town.
2. House drains emptied all waste water into the street drains.
3. The streets crossed the main road at right angles, dividing the roads into square or rectangular blocks.

(b) Three special features of the houses of the people are:

1. The buildings had a deep foundation and were constructed according to a set plan on high mounds in order to protect them from floods.
2. The houses were made of brick and wood. Each house had doors, windows and ventilators. Doors and windows opened on the side of the streets and not on the main roads.
3. The size of houses varied from a single room tenements to bigger houses with courtyards, upto twelve rooms, private wells and toilets. Each house had covered drains connected to street drains.

(c) The two common elements between Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are:

1. Both cities are located on river banks — Mohenjo-daro on the right bank of the Indus, and Harappa on left bank of the Ravi.
2. Both measured around 5.0 km in circuit.

(a) The given structure is the Great Bath. Its two characteristic features are:

1. It has a large rectangular tank in a courtyard surrounded by a corridor on all four sides.
2. There are two flights of steps one in the north and the other in the south leading into the tank.

(b) The Great Bath is an important source of information about the life of people and their culture. The design of the Great Bath reflects an efficient planning and drainage system. It also suggests that there was a ruling class which could mobilise labour, collect taxes and build such large public buildings.

(c) The Citadel was the other structure of this period. It was a raised area of the city on which the important buildings like the houses of ruling class, the granary, the Great Bath and the assembly hall were made. The Citadel shows that there was a classification or stratification in Harappan society. It also indicates that the Harappans were developed and their civilisation was an urban one.

(a) The given picture shows the Pashupati seal.
The seal depicts Pashupati Mahadeva shown as a three-faced deity wearing a buffalo-horned head-dress, seated cross-legged on a throne and surrounded by an elephant, a tiger, a buffalo and a rhinoceros, with two deer at his feet.
The Pashupati seal reveals that Harappans believed in Shiva.

(b) These seal were made up of terracotta, steatite, agate etc.
These seals were used by traders to stamp their goods. After a bag of goods was tied, a layer of wet clay was applied on the knot, and the seal was pressed on it.

(c) The seals provide useful information about the script, trade, religion and beliefs of Harappans. It also shows the extent of trade in that region.

(a) The "Forgotten Age" refers to the Indus Valley Civilization, with Harappa and Mohenjo-daro being the Indian equivalents of the ancient cities of Tiryns and Mycenae.

(b) Indus Valley Civilization was discovered by the combined efforts of Sir John Marshall and two ASI archaeologists Daya Ram Sehni and Rakhal Das Banerji. Daya Ram Sehni found seals, painted pottery, beads at Harappa in 1921-22, and Rakhal Das found seals, pottery, copper products, and crucibles at Mohenjo-Daro in 1922. Marshall interpreted the similarities between objects found in the two cities and announced the discovery of the "civilization of the Indus Valley" in "The Illustrated London News" newspaper.

(c) The significance of Indus Valley Civilization can be seen by:

1. Planned Urban Layout — Cities like Mohenjo-daro had grid-pattern roads, citadel, and standardized bricks.
2. Drainage System — They had an excellent drainage system with covered drains in the houses connected to the street drains.
3. Religious Practices — Worship of nature, animals, and fertility symbols reflects early religious beliefs.
4. Script and Seals — The undeciphered script on seals gives insights into administration, religion, and communication.
5. Art and Craft — The Harappans produced fine seals, pottery, beads, and sculptures, showing their skill in art and craftsmanship.
6. Trade Practices — They had internal and external trade, including contact with Mesopotamia, shown through seals and other objects.

I would collect articles like seals, weights, pots, toys, tools etc. I would study the buildings and their possible uses. Materials used for building houses should also be studied. Engraved walls, scripts and pictures can be studied. All these things provide information about the civilisation and help to trace the development of a civilisation.

The granaries of Harappan Civilisation are arranged in rows and has ventilation to prevent grains from becoming mildewed. This shows that the structure has planned construction. Working platforms consisting of rows of circular brick platforms are present to the south of the granaries. Wheat and Barley grains were found in the crevices. These platforms were used for threshing of grains by the labourers. Special barracks are also found where these labourers might be living. The location of Harappa near river suggests that foodgrains were brought to this place by boats.

Similar features:

1. All these civilisations had the concept of metallurgy.
2. They knew the art of Handicraft, pottery.
3. Trade was a common feature of all the civilisations.

Dissimilar features:

1. Town planning of Harappan civilisation was most distinct.
2. Excellent closed drainage system was present in Harappan civilisation.
3. Brick-lined drains, Brick paved streets with manholes was present in cities of Harappan Civilisation.

The following features of Harappan town planning prove that the Harappans had a deep understanding of civic needs, making them far ahead of their time:

1. Grid Pattern Streets — Harappan cities had streets laid out in a perfect grid, showing advanced urban planning.
2. Efficient Drainage System — Every house was connected to a covered drainage system, ensuring cleanliness and hygiene.
3. Zoned City Structure — Cities were divided into the Citadel (for administration and religion) and the Lower Town (for residences), showing organized planning.
4. Standardized Bricks — Uniform bricks were used for buildings, indicating technological advancement.
5. Water Management — Wells and reservoirs were built for water storage and daily use.