Celebrating the centenary of a civilisation, deciphering its discoveries

In 1924, The Illustrated London News published the first images announcing the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). It has been one hundred years since names like ‘Harappa’ and ‘Mohenjo-daro’ (two prominent sites in IVC) have been part of our cultural and historical consciousness. The discovery gave a new twist to the ideas of age and origin of Indian civilization. The scholars, who conducted excavations and scientific studies over 1400 IVC sites spread across today’s Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, found a sophisticated urban civilization existed in this vast geographical area in various phases of maturity between 3300 BCE and 1300 BCE.

A century of research and studies, however, remain incomplete because the signs and symbols of IVC are yet to be deciphered. Despite this shortage, archaeologists have answered questions like ‘who were the Harappans' and how they grew their food’, ‘who they traded with and what was their marketing strategy?’ and ‘their skills in crafts and metallurgy,’ To celebrate the centenary of the IVC discovery, the Chennai-based Tamil Heritage Trust recently organised its Indology Festival 2024, Harappan Civilization: A Century of Discovery in which 12 scholars from India as well as abroad spoke about the progress in the studies on one of the oldest civilisations in the world.

When we talk about IVC, the seals come first because they are yet to be deciphered. Seals are objects engraved in intaglio with script and/or iconography, usually carved from soft stone and perforated. Even though scholars have ‘interpreted’ the mysterious seals of the IVC in their own terms, they have not been deciphered. The seal production during the Indus tradition was variable as many different kinds were made and used in many different places. “This variation can be seen at multiple scales: chronological, regional, local and individual,” according to Gregg Jamison, associate professor of anthropology in the College of General Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “Seals were made and used in the Indus for a long time and they served many functions. Diversity of seals demonstrates they were made and used for many purposes and it also suggests Indus people and cultures were diverse. Variation in seals helps us understand organisation and change in the social, political, economic and ideological systems existed during various phases of the IVC,” said Gregg Jamison, whose main research interest include the Indus Civilization (2600-1900 BCE), inscribed seal production and use, craft production and origin of cities and states.

Indus seals are usually described as uniform and highly standardised. Jamison who studied the seals in detail found that the ones with geometric motifs exhibit continuities with the pre-urban and post-urban traditions. However, coexistence of geometric and animal seals highlights diverse, complex nature of use during the urban period. Jamison did a formal stylistic and metric analysis of animals and inscriptions to study idiosyncratic variation in the carving styles of seals. Most Indus seals of the urban period were square but there were also circular, cylindrical and rectangular seals. The seals of the pre-urban period (3500-2600 BCE) were made using different materials.

“Stealite (soapstone) was dominant in the seals produced in the northern region (Bannu, Gomal, Punjab and the Ghaggar) with more iconography (including animal motifs). At the same time, terracotta was dominant in the southern region (Mehrgarh and Kutch) with more morphological variation. Examples of northern groups demonstrate interregional connections,” he said. How did they carve the seals? “We are not clear about the tools used to carve the seals. Multiple types that could have been used recovered from various sites. Studies of different replica tools indicate differences in cut-marks and other signatures seen microscopically,” said Jamison, while speaking on “Seals of the Indus tradition and what they tell us about the people and cultures who made and used them.”

Even though thousands of sites dating back to IVC have been discovered, some attain significance because of their rich sources of information hidden under the earth in the form of structures and objects. Dholavira is one among them. Why? Considered one of the five largest Harappan cities in the subcontinent, Dholavira shows the rise and fall of an ancient civilization with its advanced urban settlements occupied continuously over 1500 years from the 3rd to mid-2nd millennium BCE.

“The ancient people had exquisite urban planning and a keen sense for monumental architecture and water management. The ruins of dams and reservoirs stand testimony to their efficient water management. There were unique funerary monuments and signboard inscriptions and stone inscriptions. It shows the town underwent a transition of ideological shift, preferably from the classical Harappan era to late Harappan period,” said R S Bisht, former Joint Director General of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), who is best known for excavating and interpreting Dholavira, which brought to light many new facets of Harappan Civilization.

Located on Khadir bet island in the Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary in the Great Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, Dholavira underwent several cultural shifts and seismic events. The excavations, according to Bisht, were challenging. The team found many stone images, some with heads and some without heads and genitals. “We found a headless stone image possibly of divinity. A large headless sculpture with its genitals removed shows it was vandalised. Dholavira was a great centre of copper-and-stone working, bead-making and shell industry. Evolution of seals and signs shows how the town underwent ideological shifts,” he said. The ruins of dams, reservoirs, wells and tanks in Dholavira, according to him, show that an urban settlement existed there continuously for a long time. There were step wells and rock-cut wells. Tunnels, canals and two multi-purpose grounds (stadiums).

Dholavira was also a major craft centre. Apart from various craft activities, bead manufacturing was the most dominant one. It started during the Harappan times, and continued well up to the late Harappan period,” said VN Prabhakar, associate professor (archaeology) at the IIT, Gandhinagar. “The Harappan ceramics were unique. They had a wide range of designs and patterns. These ceramics also showed the differential status of the community. They also used different techniques for firing and there were sophisticated kilns to do it. The largest collection of stone drills indicate their superiority in the art. Agate carnelian beads were an important item of export those days,” said Prabhakar while speaking on “Harappan crafts and their role in long distance trade.”

Where did the Harappans come from? Harappan civilization is certainly local, said Mayank Vahia, a retired professor from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. “Its (Harappan) architecture is unique. Its technology is unique. Several good and bad features of the Mesopotamina culture were not taken into the Harappan culture. Genetic and archaeological data suggest that the Harappans had close contact with the farmers of Iran but then went on to urbanisation that outpaced anything else that time. They were not the people who wrote the Vedic literature. There are no horses in Harappa. Many animals common to the Harappans are not even mentioned in the early Vedic literature,” said Vahia.