Harappa Civilization

A Project By Lakshay Sharma

Student Of Class 9 th D
Roll No. 51
 Acknowledgement
First of all I would like to thank my teacher
Mrs. Sunita Charles for giving the golden opportunity
to each one of us for making this project.

Secondly I would like to thank My Parents for

gathering all the information and trying their best to
help me.
 Content
Introduction To The Harappan Civilization
Geography Of The Harappan Civilization
Architecture of the Harappan Civilization
The Great Bath
Water Reserves
Art And Crafts
Bibliography
 Introduction To The Harappan
Civilization

 Harappa is known to be a 4700 years old city in the subcontinent which was
discovered around the time 1920. Soon after the discovery of cities like Lothal,
Dholavira, Mohenjodaro, and Kalibangan have also been discovered and were
come to be known as the Harappan cities or also the advent of Harappan
Civilization. These cities were discovered around the river Indus, henceforth
proving the existence of the civilization.
 The Geography Of The Harappan
Civilization
 One of the important aspects of the Harappa civilization is its apparent
mobility and proliferation over a large area consisting of number of
ecozones with diverse environmental variables and economic
incentives.
 Number of sources has affirmed that environment of the regions
covered by the peoples of Harappan civilization during the period was
quite different from today
There may have been little climatic change between then and
now, but the environment, and hence the ecology, of this vast
region is none less the different (Possehl 1999).
The remains of the Harappan civilization, dating from 2600
B.C. to 2000-1800 B.C., include cities and villages, craft
centres, river stations, camp sites, fortified palaces and
probable ports, spread over a vast geographic area of 1.25
million Square Kilometers.
Extreme cardinal limits of this civilization were Sutkagendor
(Makran) in the west, Alamgirpur (Uttar Pradesh) in the
east, Manda (Jammu and Kashmir) in the North and
Daimabad in South Gujarat. But, when we talk of the
scenario of Indian Subcontinent (entire Harappan culture
domain) we will see that Shortughai on the left bank of
Oxus, in Badakhshan, is the extreme northern limit.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE
HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION
 There was a sophisticated concept of town planning in the Indus Valley
Civilization. From the excavated remains, it is clear that it possessed a
flourishing urban architecture.  There were well-planned grids with broad main
roads and smaller lanes intersecting at right angles. There were large networks
of hundreds of wells, which supplied water to the residents. A sophisticated
drainage system was in existence and even the smallest houses were connected
to it. Houses were made of bricks. The standardised dimensions of these
bricks, found in the many cities across this civilization, are remarkable. The
houses had several storeys.
Salient Features of Indus Valley Town Planning
Grid Pattern
Harappa and Mohen-Jo Dero were laid out on a grid pattern and had provisions for
an advanced drainage system. Streets were oriented east to west. Each street was
having a well organized drainage system.
City Walls
Each city in the Indus Valley was surrounded by massive walls and gateways. The
walls were built to control trade and also to stop the city from being flooded.
Each part of the city was made up of walled sections. Each section included
different buildings such as: Public buildings, houses, markets, craft workshops, etc.
The acropolis and the lower cities
A typical city would be divided into two sections, each fortified separately.
One section was located on an artificially raised mound (sometimes
called acropolis) while the other level was on level ground.
The acropolis contained the important buildings of the city, like the assembly
halls, religious structures, granaries and in the great bath in case of Mohenjo-Daro.
The lower section of the city was where the housing for the inhabitants was located.
It was here where some truly amazing features have been discovered. The city was
well connected with broad roads about 30 meters long which met at right angles.
The houses were located in the rectangular squares thus formed.
The Residential Buildings
The residential buildings, which were serviceable enough, were mainly
made of bricks and consisted of on open terrace flanked by rooms. These
houses were made of standardized baked bricks (which had a ratio of
length to width to thickness at 4:2:1) as well as sun dried bricks. Some
houses even had multiple stories and paved floors.
In-house wells
Almost every house had its own wells, drains and bathrooms. The in-house
well is a common and recognizable feature of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Drainage System
 Each house was connected directly to an excellent drainage system, which indicates a
highly developed municipal life.
 The drainage system of the Harappan cities was the best known to the world in
ancient times. The brickwork prevented the dirty water from leaking. Wooden
screens stopped the solid wastes from being washed away with the
water. Drains were built on either side of the roads
 The Great Bath
The Great Bath is part of a large citadel complex that was found in the 1920s
during excavations of Mohenjo-daro, one of the main centres of the Indus
civilization. The bath is built of fine brickwork and measures 897 square feet (83
square metres). It is 8 feet (2.5 metres) lower than the surrounding pavement. The
floor consists of two skins of sawed brick set on edge in gypsum mortar, with a
layer of bitumen sealer sandwiched between the skins. Water was evidently
supplied by a large well in an adjacent room, and an outlet in one corner of the
bath led to a high corbeled drain that disgorged on the west side of the mound. The
bath was reached by flights of steps at either end, originally finished with timbered
treads set in bitumen.
The significance of the structure is unknown, but it is generally thought to be
linked with some sort of ritual bathing. Indeed, while lacking impressive palaces or
monuments, Mohenjo-daro featured numerous baths—most homes had
washrooms—and an extensive  sewage system , suggesting that a priority was
placed on cleanliness and sanitation.
Water Reserves
 Depending upon the geographical position and environmental setting of the site, wells, tanks and
reservoirs were built to ascertain various necessities related to water. Jansen estimated that Mohen-jo-
Daro may have had more than 700 wells (Jansen 1989: 252). Comparatively, Harappa may have had as
few as 30 wells. In the same manner excavations at Chanhudaro, Kalibangan, Lothal and Dholavira
also had furnished evidence of wells restricted to very few in counts. Majority ofthese wells were lined
with specially made wedged-shaped bricks to form a structurally sound cylinder, with the depth of
almost 10-15 meter, which would not cave in under pressure from the adjacent earth. On the top edge
of the well made of bricks had deep grooves, except that of Dholavira where such marks are seen on
the basal stone slab of the trough, indicating use of ropes to lift the water, probably with leather bags.
At Mohen-jo-Daro, diameter ofthe wells ranged from 60 centimeter (being the smallest) to 2.1 meter
(the largest one). Whereas, in the castle area ofDholavira, with highly skilled masonry work employed
in the construction of the well is the largest, of which the inner diameter measures 4.12 meter.
Art And Craft
 Many of the sites of the Harappan domain were engaged in craft production activities.
They produced tools, beads, bangles, inlay objects, ceramics, seals, toy objects, house
hold utensils etc., using various raw materials. The diversity of stones and other raw
materials used by the Harappans include steatite, alabaster, shell, camelian, agate, jasper,
lapis lazuli, copper/bronze, gold, silver, amazonite, crystal, chrysophrase, bloodstone,
milky quartz, opal, onyx, plasma, sandstone, chert, granite, chalcedony, feldspar,
hornblende, schist and dolerite (Lahiri 1992).
 The Harappan art reflected in the form of pottery paintings, decoration in the beads,
engraving in the seals and sculptural art forms. Due to the uniqueness of Harappan seals
and sculptures/figurines, special emphasis is given to them.
 Biblography
All The Information That I Have Taken Is From
Google And All The Pictures Taken Are From The
Clipart In PowerPoint.
All The Links Are Below:-
https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilisation
https://
www.harappa.com/sites/default/files/pdf/Rediscoveri
ng_Harappa.pdf
https://
www.lkouniv.ac.in/site/writereaddata/siteContent/202
003241550006972anil_kumar_HARAPPAN_CIVILIZAT
ION%201.pdf