Part A

Engineering and Architecture in Ancient India

The achievements of Indian people in the field of engineering began in the proto-historic times,
from the third millennium B.C. or even earlier. The ancient Indian civilization like those of
Iran, Iraq, Mesopotamia, and Egypt showed skill in the construction of buildings and granaries,
in town-planning, and in the provision of civic amenities like community baths and other
sanitary conveniences.

Prehistoric Period:
The earliest evidence of the technical skill of the ancient Indian lies perhaps in the numerous
tools he carved out of stone in the course of his struggle for existence. A long period of trial
and error requiring power of observation and the application of what was observed in his
natural surroundings must have intervened between this period of the fashioning of crude
pebble tools and the development of the hand-axe. The early Paleolithic age was followed by
the middle Paleolithic age when he made tools on fine-grained flakes, which were smaller in
size and included scrapers, points, awls or borers, blades, etc. These tools, archaeologists think,
might have been used for dressing animal skins and barks of trees, smoothing the shafts of
spears, cutting, chopping, etc. They may be classified into two groups-core and flake-according
to the way in which they were made. Core tools were made by chipping or flaking away a stone
until the desired shape was obtained. Flake tools were made, however, by detaching a large
piece from a stone and then working it into the requisite shape. A third classification put
forward by some archaeologists is the chopper-chopping tool group; these tools were made
from pebbles by knocking off a portion to make the cutting edge.
The Mesolithic age saw the growth of what is called the small stone microlithic industries of
India. At Langhnaj in Gujarat have been discovered pottery and tools as well as sandstone
slabs, flattened on one side and used for grinding. The next stage in the growth of man‘s skill
in India is termed the Neolithic revolution when he started settling down, making tools from
bones of animals he hunted. Excavations at Burzahom near Srinagar have revealed that the
earliest inhabitants of this valley lived in circular or oval pits dug into the Karewa soil.
Evidence of postholes along the edge of the pits indicated a timber superstructure covered over
by a thatched roof. The pit-dwellers provided landing steps to reach down the floor of their
house, where stone hearth and small-sized storage pits were met with. In the succeeding period,
red ochre was found used as a colouring material for the floor‘. Such pit-dwellings have also
been found at Nagarjunakonda in the Krishna valley.

Architecture- Indus Valley Civilization

Remains of the Indus valley civilization (fourth-third millennium B.C.) unearthed at
Mohenjodaro and Harappa now in Pakistan, Lothal in Gujarat, and Kalibangan in Rajasthan
amply testify to the well-developed technical skill of ancient Indians. Mohenjo-daro in Sind
and Harappa in the Punjab are deemed to have been the capital cities of the Indus valley. Each
of the towns was approximately three miles in circuit. The dwellers of Mohenjo-daro were
among the world‘s pioneers in city construction. The largest buildings unearthed in Mohenjo-
daro measure more than 73 m X 34 m. Road alignments were from cast to west and from north
to south, each crossing the other almost at right angles in a chessboard pattern. The width of
the roads varied from approx. 10 m. to 5.48 m., depending on the requirements of traffic. There
is evidence of attempts to pave the roads at some places.
The houses unearthed are commodious and well built, indicating the civil engineering skill of
the people. The bricks were well burnt and of various proportions, such as 1.2.4. The bricks
were cast in open moulds by the open stack method with wood fuel to burn them. Although the
Indus valley people acquired considerable mastery over brick-making they have left us no
evidence of decorative brick work. Most of the houses had more than one floor, although the
number of rooms on the first floor was presumably limited. Nevertheless, the technique of load
distribution must have been mastered by them. The houses were closely built. The average
middle class dwelling was about 9.14 m. X 8.22 m., consisting of four or five living rooms.
These houses were constructed with due provision for sanitary amenities. A typical house
included a central courtyard; a well-room; a paved bath; a sewer pipe protected by brick work
which ran beneath the floor into the public drain in the street, providing drainage from the
courtyard; and a pipe running vertically in a wall to carry sewage from the upper floor. The use
of a pulley wheel for drawing water from the wells was known as may be inferred from certain
depictions in terracotta. Among the ancient remains found in the Indus valley are two
remarkable structures, viz. the Great Bath situated in the citadel mound at Mohenjodaro and
the Great Granary at Harappa. The overall dimension of the Great Bath is 54.86 m. x 32.91 m.,
while the swimming pool, situated in the centre of a quadrangle with verandahs on all sides,
measures 11.88 m. x 7.01 m. The massive outer walls of the building are 2.13 m. to 2.43 m.
thick at the base with a batter on the outside. There are at either end of the swimming pool a
raised platform and a flight of steps with another platform at the base of each flight of steps.
The pool is lined with finely dressed brick laid in gypsum mortar with an inch of damp-proof
course of bitumen. From an analysis of samples of bitumen at Mohenjo-daro.

The Great Granary at Harappa consists of a series of parallel walls, each 15.9 m. long standing
in two sections divided by a passage 7. 01 m. broad. The building thus comprises two similar
blocks, together measuring 51.51 m.X41.14 m. The walls are about 2.74 m. thick. In each block
there are six halls alternating regularly with five corridors. Each of the halls is partitioned into
four narrow divisions by three equidistant, full-length walls terminating in broader piers at the
ends. The piers are made of burnt brick, while the partition walls are of mixed construction.
The remains of Lothal, nearly 3.2 km. in circumference, remind one of Mohenjo-daro in
miniature. The town was more or less designed after the patterns of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa
with streets constructed at right angles. An important feature was a thick mud wall, reinforced
with burnt bricks on its northern periphery, which served as a defense against floods. The
blocks of the town were raised on mud bricks to further provide a degree of security against
floods. There is evidence of civic amenities like brick-built wells, underground sewers,
cesspools, and brick-paved baths. Among the important structures are a dock with a wharf and
a warehouse. The dock is a testimony to the engineering skill of its builders and was the first
ever venture made by man to build an artificial basin for sluicing ships at high tide‘. In its
conception and engineering it surpasses the Roman and Phoenician docks of later times. Its
embankment walls measure 212.4 m. on the west, 36.4 m. on the north, 209.3 m. on the east,
and 34.7 m. on the south. The basin and walls are lined with burnt bricks. It was built off the
main stream in order to reduce the likelihood of silting and flooding, and incorporated a water-
locking device and a spillway to ensure floatation of ships during low tide. Ships would enter
the dock at high tide. The inner walls were made perfectly vertical so that cargo could be loaded
and unloaded directly between the ships and the wharf. The wharf, measuring 260 m. ran along
the western wall of the dock. From the wharf goods could be taken to the warehouse adjacent
to it. The warehouse had a floor area of 1,930 sq. m., larger than the granaries of Mohenjodaro
and Harappa. The structure stood on a 4-metre high platform on which were raised sixty-four
blocks of mud bricks, each block 3.6 m. square and 1 m. high. The blocks were interspersed
with 1-metre wide passages to allow ventilation and easy access to the goods. On top of the
blocks a superstructure of timber was raised.
Archaeologists have found in Kalibangan ruins of a town and a fortified citadel on an artificial
platform of mud and mud-bricks six to seven metres high. Though smaller than Mohenjodaro,
Harappa, and Lothal, Kalibangan was a well-planned town with houses built in oblong blocks
flanking the arterial streets, running in cardinal directions. Lack of street drains suggests that
the sanitation of Kalibangan was not as rigorously maintained as in the other Harappa towns
and cities. There-were, however, private baths, soakage jars, and drains. Excavations reveal
evidence of the use of copper axes, which clearly shows the beginning of metallurgy as early
as 2450 B.C.
The Indus valley people thus achieved considerable proficiency in engineering and technical
skill, as shown by their use of building materials and their construction of roads, drains, etc. A
system of weights and measures was in vogue. Weights found at Mohenjodaro and Lothal are
normally of cut and polished cubes of chert. Finds of graduated scales made of shell at
Mohenjodaro, of bronze rod at Harappa, and of ivory at Lothal indicate their knowledge of
practical geometry and land surveying. The average distance between the successive divisions
of the scales is 6.70 mm., 9.34 mm., and 1.70 mm. respectively. Terracotta plumb-bobs and an
instrument made of shell for measuring angles of 45°, 90°, and 180° were also found at Lothal.
PART B

HARAPPA IN DETAIL

Discovery of the Site

Harappa is a large village presently in Punjab. The modern town is a part of and lies next to the
ancient city. The site of Harappa is important in that it has provided proof of not just the Indus
Valley Civilization as it was in its prime, but also of preceding and succeeding cultures as well
and is the only site included in this category. The old path of the Ravi rivers runs to the north
of the site, which has since shifted 6 miles further north. (Wheeler, 1997)

Perhaps its oldest mention is in the Rigveda, as the scene of the defeat of the Vrcivants by
Abhyavartin Cayamana. The name is recorded as Hari-Yupuya. The previous inhabitants were
probably non-Aryans. Thus it might be said that this site is one of the famed sites where the
Aryans overcame the local population and established their dominance. However until further
proof is uncovered this is mostly conjecture. (Chaudhry, 2002)

The first visit to Harappa was made in 1826 by James Lewis, who was a British army deserter
and roamed the Punjab and North West areas in search of antiquarian remains. On his journey
to Multan he approached Harappa and had the following words in description for it, as recorded
by Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry in his book:

“East of the village was an abundance of luxuriant grass, where along with many others, I
went to allow my nag to graze. When I joined the camp I found it in front of the village and
ruinous brick castle. Behind us was a large circular mound, or eminence, and to the west was
an irregular rocky height crowned with remains of buildings, in fragments of walls, with niches,
after the eastern manner. The latter elevation was undoubtedly a natural object; the former
being of earth only, was obviously an artificial one …The walls and towers of the castle are
remarkably high, though, from having been long deserted, they exhibit in some parts the
ravages of time and decay. Between our camp and it, (there) extended a deep trench, now
overgrown with grass and plants. Tradition affirms the existence here of a city, so considerable
that it extended to Chicha Watni, and that it was destroyed by a particular visitation of
Providence, brought down by the lust and crimes of the sovereigns.”(Chaudhry, 2002)
Lewis related the city to Sangala from the age of Alexander (1300 years previos) by which he
was mistaken in his assumption. Later in 1831, an emissary from King William IV, namely
Alexander Burnes, recorded the extensive remains at Harappa while travelling from Multan to
Lahore to deliver gifts of horses from the King of England to Ranjit Singh. He has also
described Harappa while on the same route:

“About fifty miles eastward of Toolumba, I passed inland for four miles to examine the ruins
of an ancient city, called Harappa. The remains are extensive, and the place, which has been
built of brick, is about three miles in circumference. There is a ruined citadel on the river side
of the town; but otherwise Harappa is a perfect chaos, and has not an entire building: the
bricks have been removed to build a small place of the old name heard by tradition fixes the
fall of Harappa at the same period as Shortkot (1300 years ago), and the people ascribe its
ruin to the vengeance of God on Harappa; its governor, who claimed certain priveleges on the
marriage of every couple in his city, and in the course of his sensualities, was guilty of incest…I
have found coins in these ruins, both Persian and Hindu, but I cannot fix its era from any of
them.” (Chaudhry, 2002)

However their records were noticed by Alexander Cunningham who visited the site in 1853
and 1856 resulting in a small excavation in 1872 who then identifies the site with that of Malii,
which Alexander had ordered to be blockaded when he invaded the subcontinent. That city was
near extensive marshes and to the east or south-east of Kot Kamalia, and Harappa lies exactly
in such a place on the banks of the old course of the Indus and 16 miles east-south-east of Kot
Kamalia. (Chaudhry, 2002)

The site even at this time was used as a brick quarry by brick robbers working on the Multan
Railway, same way that Mohenjo-Daro and Kalibangan became quarries for the Sind and
Bikaner Railways respectively. During his excavations Cunningham found pottery, chert
blades and a seal. Cunningham termed the seal foreign to India at that time. Also according to
locals the citadel hill was the site of a major Hindu temple that was destroyed and was at the
time the site of a tomb of Nur Shah. Some artifacts were found with this tomb. The bricks taken
from the site were more than enough to furnish 100 miles of the Lahore Multan Railway,
testifying to the scale of the buildings that existed there. Despite several excavations,
Cunningham found very little to preserve as the majority of the settlement had been stripped
of bricks. Subsequent excavations at Kalibangan, Suktagendor and Mohenjo-Daro revealed the
extent of this civilization, but it wasn’t until 1922 that extensive investigations were carried out
at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa and the corresponding sites were labelled as the Indus Valley
Civilization. (Joshi, 2008)

John Marshal then sent a deputy, Harry Hargreaves, on an inspection of Harappa in 1914 to
determine if it should be further excavated, and it was his work that allowed the acquisition of
the Harappan mounds for further study. Further seals were found and similar seals were found
in Mesopotamia which pushed the age of these sites beyond even what had been previously
considered into the 3rd-4th millennium BCE and this was attested by Dr Ernst Mckay as well
who was working at Kish in Sumeria. John Marshal abandoned his Taxila digs to work on the
sites in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in 1923-24 and this is considered the point where the Indus
Civilization is finally considered to have been identified. Other archaeologists who worked on
the IVC at this time were Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni, Madho Sarup Vats, Rakhal Das
Banerjee, Ahmad Hasan Dani, Aurel Stein and E. J. H. MacKay. Mortimer Wheeler then took
over the excavations in 1944 and continued this into the post partition era when he was
archaeological adviser to the government of Pakistan. The later work of Dales, Meadow and
Kenoyer specifically in Mound E has pushed the historical dates back to the early 4th
Millenium BCE.. (Joshi, 2008) (Chaudhry, 2002).
Details of Architecture and Town Planning at Harappa

Town Planning

Harappa is located near the Ravi River, which is a tributary of the upper Indus region. The
patterns of settlements were based on the behavior of rivers which is based around the flood
plain ecology, regional trade over rivers, favorable climate for daily life, access to trade routes
and natural resources etc. Easy access to water table near rivers and arable land due to alluvial
soil encourages human habitation. Cities like Harappa which lie on the periphery of the known
Indus Valley Civilization served as gateway cities into the main region where that civilization
held sway and were hence more robust or powerful than smaller cities. It is spread over 450,000
sqm of space. (Joshi, 2008)

Ransacked by local housebuilders and mostly demolished during the 19th century construction
of the Lahore Multan railway during the British Raj, the ruins at Harappa now stand in a fragile
state but nonetheless still have a host of information to provide us. Most obviously what we
see is the same general layout as at Mohenjo Daro in Larkana, Sind. The circuit of both cities
spreads to about 3 miles, and both have the same differentiations of areas in terms of town
planning as well. These areas can simply be divided into the lower (public) and upper
(acropolis) areas. Both had the same shape where the acropolis is concerned namely a
parallelogram that was 400-500 yards north-south and 200-300 yards east-west. The height is
40 feet from the flood-plain and both the cities are similarly oriented, with the major axis north-
south. The grid plan is indicative of an evolved civil engineering principle that had developed
at the time, which is not seen in the older towns of Mesopotamia such as Ur which have a
meandering street layout that is more natural. Although the plan at Harappa isn’t fully
excavated, the general similarities mean that it was probably the same as at Mohenjo Daro.
(Wheeler, 1997) (Joshi, 2008)

Massive defensive walls on all sides have been partially exposed. Sections reveal post
Harappan cultures linked with Rana Ghundai to be at the very base of the structure, after which
some time of no occupation is followed by a fully mature Harappan culture. A tapered
bankment to protect against floods was made along the outer defensive wall as well. This was
formed by filling up the previous alluvial deposits that had been washed away by rains with
more mud bricks and mud. 6 variants of the internal plan are seen made using baked bricks and
spreading over a considerable period of time. Bastions are seen at regular intervals as well with
the main entrance seen at the north end. There is also an entrance to the west end next to a
bastion. This leads to ramps and terraces outside the gates and supervised from guardrooms.
Ramps are in evidence in many places and the existence of stairs is also known from the
accounts of Alexander Cunningham but those stairs have been removed since that time by
brick-robbers. The fortifications themselves have been built and rebuilt even in antiquity, first
utilizing simple brick bats and once those had worn down they were replaced nearly from the
ground up by baked bricks of refined Harappan style. (Wheeler, 1997) (Joshi, 2008).

In terms of the orientation, the cities were probably oriented based on the rising sun and moon,
certain stars in the sky whose movements were known (not the North Star as it was not in the
same position as it currently is) or other methods involving tracing the sun path on the ground
with a stick and string. The slightly lopsided angled plan of the town may indicate that many
hundreds of centuries worth of planning and re-planning based on older sighting techniques
resulted in a skewed direction of the plan due to the changing position of stars in the sky that
led to slightly different cardinal points being determined by the ancients. The star Aldebaran
and the constellation of Pleiades were used as measuring benchmarks for determining the
cardinal points. (Kenoyer, 2011). The town planning was achieved through the development
of compass, plum bob and scale, tools which are still found to be in use today. (Joshi, 2008).

Streets and External Drainage

The most prominent feature of Harappan era architecture is the drainage system. It shows how
important cleanliness was for them and it was achieved through having a series of drains
running along the streets that connected to larger sewers in the main streets. Smaller drains
from household latrines and bathing areas connected to these larger drains, which had corbelled
roofs so they could be buried underneath the main streets when required without caving in.
Some sections had removable brick paving or dressed stones on top to allow cleaning when
required. Drains exiting the city even had wooden doors that were probably closed at night to
prevent vagrants or negative elements from entering the city through that access. Sump pits
were found at intervals along the drains which allowed heavier solid waste to collect at the
bottom. These were regularly cleaned to avoid blockages. There is evidence in some places of
drains being blocked for a long period of time, possible 100 to 150 years after which new drains
were made by a new incoming authority. Coupled with this new construction the entire street
level ended up rising to the extent that after consecutive re-constructions, entire stories of
buildings had to be covered over and the ground level raised in order to bring it on par with the
new street so there wouldn’t be sewage backflow.
Houses

Varying types of houses and buildings are found in both large and small settlements. Rural
areas tend to have exclusively mud brick buildings whereas urban areas have buildings partially
or wholly made of baked bricks. Small and large houses and public buildings are the main
categories. (Kenoyer, 2011). Houses range from 1-2 stories in height, with a central courtyard
around which the rooms are arranged. The interior is not visible from the street, shut off using
corridors or walls in the inside. Openings are also restricted to side streets to maintain privacy
on the inside of the houses. Stairs led to the upper stories through a side room or the courtyard
and the size of foundations has shown that a third floor might also have existed at one point.
Average thickness of walls was 70cm and average ceiling height about 3 meters. Doors were
made of wood with wooden frames and the pivot was a brick socket set in the threshold. Door
frames were possibly painted and simply ornamented and also had holes at the base and two at
the top of the door to secure and hang curtains respectively. The windows had both shutters
and grills, which were embedded into the building itself. Grills might have been of reed or
matting but alabaster and marble latticework has also been found suggesting that although it
was a common feature of houses, the more refined ones were obviously kept for the more
affluent homes. This element continued to be used through historical era into modern times as
well. Larger houses had smaller dwellings connected to them and evidence of repeated
rebuilding in the interior shows that the internal spaces were constantly reorganized. Whether
the adjoining dwellings were for extended family or servants cannot be accurately ascertained
at this time. Large public buildings are the third major category and include both public spaces
such as markets, squares and courtyards and administrative buildings including granaries. The
great hall or great bath structures are also a part of this serving possibly a religious as well as
social function. Groups or clusters of houses are also in evidence, which probably housed
several families together and had their own facilities such as latrines and bathing areas as
opposed to using the communal facilities.