What are the features of Indus Valley towns ?

The Indus Valley Civilization had its beginnings in Chalcolithic Age and had its maturity phase in Bronze Age. Indus Valley Civilization was discovered in the Harappa excavations of 1921 when Sir. John Marshall was the head of Archeological Survey of India.

Indus Valley Civilization flourished in an area of 1.3 million sq.km, extending from Suktazendar (Baluchistan in Pakistan) in the West to Alamgirpur (Western U.P. near Meerut) in the East and from Manda (J&K) in the North to Diamabad (Maharashtra) in the South.

Town Planning is one of the most characteristic features of Indus Valley Civilization. All the cities have grid system with streets and lanes intersecting at right angles, dividing the entire city into several rectangular blocks. The cities have two distinct part – a Citadel, which is a mound built on a high podium of mud bricks and the Lower Town, which is the main residential area. Standardized burnt bricks were used for construction in all the cities of Indus Valley. There was an excellent underground drainage system connecting all houses into street drains equipped with manholes.



Harappa, the first city to be discovered, is located on the bank of river Ravi and contains 12 granaries arranged in 2 rows of 6 each. Mohenjodaro, located on the left bank of Indus, has a Great Bath, a huge Great Granary and a multi-pillared Assembly Hall. Chanhudaro, located on the right bank of Indus, is the only city without a Citadel and ink-pot type pottery was unearthed here. In Kalibanghan, located on the bank of river Ghaggar (Saraswati), both the Citadel and Lower Town were fortified and the worship of Mother Goddess was absent here.

Lothal located on the banks of river Bhogava, has an artificial brick dockyard and evidence of extensive rice cultivation are found here. Other port cities were Suktazendar, Balakote, Rangapur etc. Rakhigarhi in Haryana is the most recently excavated Indus Valley Town in India.

The predominantly uniform features in all the towns of Indus Valley Period, despite a few regional variations, indicate a highly evolved centralised administrative system.



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