INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION This is the chapter from which questions appear every year in one form or the

ot her. They are mostly short questions, and even the bigger questions are formed b y joining two or three short questions. The areas that are covered to make the q uestions are as follows: Origin and its extent Urban Elements in the Harappan culture- appraisal of town planning. Salient features of the Indus valley civilization. Details of important cities Religion of the Indus people- burial customs of them Political, Social customs and economic practices followed by the Indus people. Pattern of trade Decline of Indus civilization - different views about the end of the civilizatio n Similarities and differences between Indus valley and Vedic cultures Continuity of the Indus civilization into later ages Origin: With regard to the origin the following are to be noted: There are different theories of origin- foreign origin, indigenous origin, and d iffusion theory. Indigenous theory is supported by the majority in India. There are no literary evidences, only limited archeological evidence available to reco nstruct the origin of IVC (Indus valley civilization). The evidences point to a few conclusions: it did not appear abruptly; it was evo lved from early food producing cultures represented in site like Mehrgrah, and p roto-Harappan cultures represented in sites like Amri, KotDigi, and Kalibangan/S othi cultures. They were indigenous and were multi ethnic--proto-Austroloid, Med iterranean, mongoloid and Alpine. The civilization had evolved over centuries an d had a tradition called Indus tradition with various phases. Harappan phase rep resents the city civilization/urbanization. This phase lasted for about 700 year s. Brief overview of the Indus tradition: Basic chronology Foraging Era Mesolithic and Microlithic 10,000 to 2,000 BC Early food producing Era Mehrgrah phase 7,000 to 5,500 BC Regionalization Era Early Harappan phases Ravi, Hakra, Sheri Khan Tarakai, Balakot, Amri, Kot Diji, Sothi, 5,500 to 2,600 BC Integration Era Harappan phase 2,600 to 1,900 BC Localization Era Late Harappan phases Punjab, Jhukar, Rangapur 1,900 to 1,300 BC From the above table, it is evident that the Harappan culture was evolved throug h different phases of development --from food producing era to the early Harappa n period-and to the urban phase represented by Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and other major cities. For the Indus tradition, only one cultural phase (Mehrgarh) has been identified for the early food producing Era- Mehrgarh is located near Quetta in Baluchistan . It provides the evidence of continuity of the settlement over a few millennia and the gradual evolution of settlement from agriculture towards urbanization. T he domestic animals and plants first used at Mehrgarh, especially humped cattle, wheat and barley became the foundation for the subsistence economy of the later Indus cities. The roots of major technological tradition, such as shell working , stone bead making, chipped and ground stone and even mud brick architecture ca n be traced to this era. The proto/ early Harappan phase is represented by sites such as Amri, KotDiji,

and Sothi and they are called formative urban sites and this is the transiti onal phase to the urban phase/Harappan phase. The chief characteristics of this phase sites are as follows: the building of walled cities, the use of specific t ypes of painted pottery, and ornaments. The appearance of seals and rudimentary writing and the expanded trade net works represent the emergence of complex chie fdoms and incipient urbanism. (Further details about each site is provided at th e end of this chapter) Integration era is commonly referred to as the Indus civilization has only one p hase (Harappan phase) that dates from approximately 2600 to 1900 B.C. During thi s phase, there is a synthesis of major regional politics in to a larger integrat ed economic, political and ideological system. A relatively uniform range of pot tery styles and other types of material culture including ritual symbols have be en found at more than 2600 sites spread through out the greater Indus valley. Indus urbanism is defined on the basis of large central cities surrounded by an irregular net work of pastoral communities. Most cities such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were built with fired brick, while Dholavira was constructed extensivel y with shaped stone combined with mud brick. Smaller satellite settlements were generally built with mud brick. Most Indus se ttlements had north- south and east-west oriented streets with brick lined drain s for disposal of waste water. A formalized writing system, the use of standardized weights and measures indica tes uniformity. The architecture and settlement pattern and artifact styles indicate social stra tification and the organization of technological production. The main domestic a nimals were cattle, sheep and goat with some use of water buffalo. Harappan represents the first state level political organization but no single s ettlement dominated the region and there is no indication hereditary monarchies of highly centralized territorial states existed. There is a conspicuous absence of central temples, palaces and elaborate elite burials. Localization era: it is a period of cultural transformation connected with chang es in local environments, socio-political organization, changing population dist ribution and settlement problems. Some urban centers decreased in size, and othe r regions showed increasing numbers of smaller settlements. The Harappa phase ec onomic and political structures and associated artifacts such as inscribed seals and weights disappeared. Beginning around 1900 B.C. this transformation continu ed around 1300 BC and overlaps with the regionalization era of the larger indo-g angetic tradition. This phase is called late Harappan phase represented by numbe r of sites such as Jukkar, Punjab, Rangapur, etc. Major changes occurred in the burial practices, painted pottery styles and ritua l objects. During this time period, literary sources indicate that indo-Aryan la nguages and Vedic ideology and culture were spreading through out the northern s ub continent. In contrast to these changes the earlier Indus techniques of farmi ng and herding continued to be used along with many of the technologies such as ceramics bead making, shell working and metallurgy, new technologies that emerge d at this time include higher temperature kilns and glass bead making. Geographical extent of the Indus valley civilization: Indus civilization covers an area of approximately 1.5 million square kilometers . The area covered by the civilization was much more than that covered by contem porary civilizations in the Egypt or in the Sumerian. The western most Indus si te is Sutkagen-dor in south Baluchistan, and the eastern most site is in Alamgir pur in Meerut district in U.P. it extends over 1550 km. In the north Shortughai in Afghanistan and in south Lothal and further up to Mumbai, and this distance m ay be around 1100km. A recent account showed that as many as 1400 Indus sites ha ve been found, of which 917 are in India, 481 in Pakistan and one in Afghanistan . Apart from Mohenjodaro and Harappa there are other major cities like Dolavira, Rakhigarh, Ganeriwala, and the port cities like Lothal and Sutkagendor and othe r port cities on makran coast. The principal regions are Baluchistan and North-West Frontier, the mountainous e astern end of the Iranian plateau; the plains of Indus valley, the Pakistan and

Indian Punjab, Haryana and Ganga-yamuna doab are included. The northern and west ern tracts of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, the sandy north Gujarat plain, Kutch and the hilly savanna of Saurastra were occupied by the people of Indus. Indus valley sites most often have been found on two major rivers namely Indus a nd Ghaggar-Hakra. The Induss ancient name is Sindu. 86 sites were found in the In dus region. Indus River originates from Himalayan snows and river winds its way across dry, hot plains until it empties in a grand delta into Arabian Sea. The f looding of the Indus that brought fertile alluvial soil and deposited in the pla ins of Indus. It also supplied ample drinking and irrigation water to them. It h ad supported Indus people in trading and commerce activity through river transpo rtation. With regard to Sarasvathi River: this river was in the Great Indian Desert that it is mostly dry now. Today it is generally called Ghaggar in Indian part of the river and Hakra in Pakistan part. Rig Vedic Sarasvati is identified with the Gh aggar-Hakra. It was a holy river and a great river in the rigveda, and was menti oned several times in early Veda. There are large numbers of mature Harappan sit es on this river. Over 175 sites were found along the plains of this river. It i s proposed, after partition of India, by some archeologists that IVC be renamed as Sarasvthi river civilization. The majority oppose such a move as they conside r Indus was indeed the nucleus of the civilizations growth.

Salient features of Indus civilization: 1. Town planning- fortified citadel-lower town with residential buildings- grid pattern streets- important buildings at Mohenjo-daro: great bath, college, assem bly hall etc; at Harappa great granary, work men quarters, pounding platforms. S tone usage at Dholavira -divided into 3 parts-Citadel, Middletown and lower town . 2. Use of burnt bricks- the buildings at both the Harappa and Mohenjo-daro used standardized kiln-burnt bricks with 4:2:1 ratio; different masonry techniques we re followed. 3. Cities with imposing buildings. 4. Use of red ware pottery- bright and dark red -both plain and painted. 5. Terracotta figurines and seals--short horned bull from Mohenjo-daro and one f rom Kalibanga are the highlights of terracotta figurines. Many types of seals ar e found -square type with a carved animal and inscription and rectangular type w ith inscription only 6. Possessed highly developed art of making stone-sculptures -the best specimen is steatite image of a bearded man wearing an ornamented robe from Mohenjo-daro. Out of the two sculptures at Harappa one is a tiny male nude torso of red sands tone, and the other is also small nude dancing figure made of grey stone. Majori ty of these sculptures are made of soft stone like steatite, limestone or alabas ter. 7. Use of pictographic script-the script largely glyptic in content, has around 419 signs. The writing system is believed to be based on syllables. The Indus pe ople wrote from right to left and from right to left (boustrophedon) style of wr iting. The dominant animal to be featured is the unicorn, the mythical beast fol lowed by the short-horned bull. Among lettering, a jar shaped alphabet is the mo st common. 8. Use of weights in binary system and measures-weights were usually made of che rt and are in cubical shape. 9. Bronze Age but the use of chert blades too continued. 10. Agriculture was the back bone to the Harappans11. Worshippers of mother goddess, trees, animals, phallic and Pasupathi. 12. A belief in life here after is evident from burial system. Urban elements in Harappan civilization: Urbanization reflected in the growth of towns and cities and its interlinked cul ture; towns grew out of earlier settlements. Towns grew because of different rea sons:

1. Towns grew out of political and administrative requirements. 2. Some grew from local markets nearby a cluster of villages where agricultural produce gets exchanged. 3. Towns also grew from the sacred centers. 4. Central location of the places, nearness to river, and availability of other transportation facilities. Above all, concentration of people, and social stratification with related varia tions in occupations and products, obviously contributed to the growth of towns. With this, we can now identify the urban elements in Indus civilization: Craft production and technology. Trade with outside world. Social stratification in the harappan society along with its multi racial popula tion. Imposing buildings of the citadel. Uniform weights and measures. The most important one is literacy and their script. Town planning: The town planning of the harappan people can be seen in the structural remains a t the cities such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, which were considered earlier to be the two capital cities of the Indus imperial power. These two cites were buil t on a similar plan. Most of the cities were parallelogram in shape. To the west of each city was a citadel which is smaller in area, and was built on top of a mo und of bricks almost 12 mts high. To the east of it lays lower town, and it is b igger in size. The main streets are running from north to south and the cross la nes are running at right angles to them like grid, thus the city appeared to hav e divided in to larger blocks with in which were narrow unplanned lanes. In neither of the two great cities, has any stone buildings been found; the stan dardized kiln-burnt bricks were used for the construction of residential houses and public buildings as well. The houses, often of two or more stories, with var ied sizes.the plan of the house generally are a central courtyard, round which w ere number of rooms. The entrances were usually in side alleys, and no windows f aced on the streets. The houses had bath rooms and kitchens. Most of the houses were provided with wells, and there are public wells also. The bath rooms were p rovided with drains, which flowed to sewers under the main streets, leading to s oak pits. The sewers were covered through out their length by large brick slabs. They used kiln burnt bricks for drainage system construction. Buildings in the citadel of Mohenjo-daro: the citadel contained number of imposi ng buildings and all were made of kiln burnt bricks with uniform size and shape. The following are important buildings: the great bath, the college, the granary and an assembly hall. The great bath- measures 12 mt lengths from north to south, 7 mt in width, 2.5 m t deep. It can be approached through the steps on both north and south sides. Th e floor and side walls were made water tight with bitumen. The tank is fed with water from a large well located in the complex while for the discharge there was corbelled drain in the south-west corner. The purpose of the bath: whether the bath had purely secular use or had a religi ous function is very difficult to say, however it has been suggested by historia ns that this great bath cant have been for more cleanliness, for every house had excellent bath rooms and good wells and Indus flows past the citadel mound ther efore the purpose was surely for elaborate ritual considered vitally by the inha bitants. There is another large building which is 83 mt long and 24 mt wide with large nu mber of rooms, and with big court yard. It is suggested that this building might be residence of the high priest or of a college of priests. There is yet another structure called the granary with 27 blocks of solid brick work, arranged in 3 rows of 9 each. There is one more striking building with 6 aisles from north to south and 5 from

east to west with 20 piers of kiln burnt bricks. The building was probably an a ssembly hall. Buildings at Harappa: the great granary and its associated buildings were the st riking structures that can be seen at Harappa city. The work men quarters, their working platforms, granaries are the buildings that can be detailed. The workmen quarters stood in two rows, running from east to w est. Each dwelling house comprised two rooms, and there was a remarkable uniform ity in these buildings and which reminds us of the barracks of modern times. Fiv e east-west rows of working platforms made of kiln burnt bricks in circular plat form. Each circular ring was measured about 3.5 mt in diameter, the central hol e to which wooden mortar might have been fitted for pounding the grain. Unlike i n Mohenjo-daro, the granaries at Harappa located outside the citadel. There six granaries, comprising two blocks. Each block contained six storage halls. The observations made by the historians on cities and buildings:1. The cities de monstrate a sophisticated scene of civic planning and organization; 2. On the b asis of thriving agriculture, husbandry and well organized commerce, the Indus p eople could build such an unimaginative, but comfortable civilization; 3. Their monuments symbolized the ability of the ruling class to mobilize labour and coll ect taxes. The huge brick constructions also impressed the common people with th e prestige and influence of their rulers; 4. The drainage system of the Indus pe ople is almost unique and it must have been maintained by some municipal organiz ation. Perhaps no other Bronze Age civilization gave so much attention to health and cleanliness as that of Indus people; 5. The remains of work men dwellings, bear a striking resemblance to the coolie lines of modern Indian tea and other e states; 6. The granary at Harappa might have been used to store the grain collec ted as land tax from the peasants; 7. The brick work shows experience and expert ise. Important cities and their relics that are recovered: Mohenjodoro: (literally mean mound of the dead) situated on the right bank of th e Indus river. It was discovered by R.D.Benerjee in 1922, it is situated in Lark ana district of Sind. It is the largest of the Indus cities. Grid system of town planning was followed - city was divided in to two parts-the citadel and lower town. Relics: great bath, granary, college, assembly hall- all of these made with kiln burnt bricks. Steatite figure of bearded priest, bronze dancing girl and bronze buffalo. A piece of woven cloth, evidence of cotton etc. were the relics recove red. Harappa: it is the first excavated site; Excavated by Dayanand Sahani and it was discovered in 1921.situated on the left bank of the Indus River in Montgomery d istrict of west Punjab. Town divided in to two parts: citadel and lower town. Id entified as Hariyupiya of Rig-Veda. Relics: evidence of coffin burial; granaries-six each in two rows- working platf orms; single room barracks; cemeteries- cemetry37; two stone sculptures-nude mal e Torso of red sand stone and nude dancing male figure of grey stone. Dholavira: discovered by J.P.Joshi, excavation was carried out by R.S Bist in 1 990-91.it is situated in the Rann of Kutch district in Gujarat. City was divided in to 3 parts- citadel, middle town, and lower town, 4 stone gate ways with rou nded columns. All surrounded by gigantic reservoirs. A sign board with Indus scr ipt has been found in the citadel-probably the worlds first hoarding. Kalibangan: (literal meaning is black bangles) situated in Rajasthan, was on the river Ghaggar. Both citadel and lower town fortified; houses mostly built by su n dried bricks; furrow field (evidence of ploughing); fire altars, and a bangle factory. Lothal: excavated by S.R.Rao in1957- port town is at the head of the Gulf of Cam bay; an artificial dockyard, built of burnt bricks. Relics -evidence of use of rice; Persia gulf seals; shell ornament makers shop, bead makers shop, metal workers shop; fire altars; a doubtful terracotta horse, and tusks of elephants. Chan hudaro: lies on the left bank of the Indus, excavated by M.C.Majumdar in 19

31. A big city for bead making, shell and bone working and seal making. The only city, without a citadel. Relics- ink pot, carts with seated driver, and models of bullock carts and ekkas of bronze. Banwali: situated on the Sarasvati River in haryana. Surkatoda :( Gujarat) is at the head of the Rann of Kutch Social organization: From the skeletal remains it appears that the people lived in Harappa were cosmo politan and were consists of proto-Australoid, Mediterranean, Mongoloid and Alpi ne. Bronze dancing girl seems certainly proto-australoid, the bearded steatite h ead (thought to be priest) belongs to both Mongolian and alpine type. The presence of hierarchical classes in the Harappan phase cities is supported b y the lay out and organization of the cities. Many other evidences such as ritua l objects, ornaments, seals and weights provide additional evidence for social s tratification. Although there appears to have been occupational specialization i n the Indus cities, the lack of separate burial areas or highly differentiated h abitation areas and material culture suggest that rigidly defined social strata such as the later Varna system, or hereditary castes were not the norm. Indus people were literate is fully borne out by the inscriptions on the seals. The occurrence of seals even on pottery shows that literacy was not limited to a select few. They wore robes which left one shoulder bare, and the garments of upper classes were richly patterned. Beards were worn, and men and women alike had long hair. Elaborate head dress-coiffeurs, and pig tails were popular among women. They lov ed jewellery, and wore heavy bangles in profusion, large necklaces and earrings. House hold article comprise potters wheel made earthen vessels of rich variety, a nd vessels made of copper, bronze, and silver (rarely found). Children toys included, in addition to familiar articles, small wheeled carts an d chairs, and dice pieces. Political organization: There are different views and hypothesis about the political organization of the Harappan society. With regard to the form of the government, there are differen t views. They are as follows: The earlier view is that Harappan state was a single centralized authoritarian state with imperial nature which had Harappa and Mohenjo-daro as two capitals. This view is based on uniform artifacts that were used in the major cities; wel l fortified citadel, the regular planning of streets and layout of cities; Unifo rmity in script. But this uniform artifact can be explained through the presence of common belief systems or conservative ideology that required specific symbols and artifacts f or ritual purposes as well as for defining class affiliations. These symbolic ob jects also would reinforce the hierarchy of the society and help to legitimize t he socio-economic and political order. The role of kin related learning process and the diffusion of craft specialists from specific communities to all of the m ajor settlements is also an important mechanism for maintaining uniformity in te chnologies and style. The notion that Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were twin capitals was losing ground. A s there are no striking imperial monumental graves like pyramids of Egypt or wel l demarcated sacred centers like ziggurats of Sumerians. Even in the fortified c itadel no build could be identified as palace. In view of the above, this hypoth esis is difficult to be accepted. The second view is proposed by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer based on comparisons with e arly historic politics. He envisages that the Harappan cities were probably comp rised of several competing elites like merchants, ritual priests and individuals who controlled resources such as land, livestock and raw materials. The elites, whose centers of power would have been with in each of the separate walled moun ds at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, or in the acropolis at Dholavira. These walled m ounds would have served to reinforce the distinct communities of ruling elites a nd allow total economic control of specific goods being produced by artisans in specific sectors. Probably these elites and their supporting communities maintai

ned different levels of control over their respective regions. Instead of one so cial group with absolute control, he speculates that the rulers included the com peting elite classes. May be, he is visualizing an ancient democracy. There is a nother view that it was ruled by the priest king. There is little evidence to show that the Indus people were ruled by them. There is some other view like the control being exercised by half a dozen princi pal cities that functioned as regional capitals. That there was social stratification is evident from the way the towns were plan ned, and were also well managed, but there is difficulty to specify which form t hey adopted, and to which class they belonged to in the absence of solid evidenc es, or at least till the Indus script is deciphered. Till that time, however, we can speculate that either the merchant class or the priest class or the individ uals who controlled land, livestock etc were the ruling communities. Religious structure: Points: 1. Worshippers of mother goddesses. 2. Horned god on the seals considered to be proto-Siva. 3. Sacred animals played a big part--humped bull was venerated. 4. Certain trees were sacred to them- Pipal, Banyan and Acacia. 5. Phallic worship was an important element of the Harappan religion. 6. They used amulets against warding of ghosts and evil forces. DISCUSSION: Religious practices and beliefs are represented in symbols and narrative scenes depicted on seals, pottery and other objects. The most important narrative scene show sacrifice and worship. The worship of trees and deities in trees suggests that most rituals were carried out in the open or at the foot of a sacred tree s uch as Banyan, Pipal, and Acacia. Some large buildings may have been used as tem ples, but their precise function cant be confirmed. Terracotta figurines of possible horned male deities and elaborately decorated f emales may represent deities or worshippers. Stone sculptures of male figures who are sitting on one bent leg, with other leg bent in front have been widely referred to as representing deities or priest ki ngs. Abstract symbols such as swastikas and end less knot motifs, and other enigmatic symbolic objects are also thought to reflect ideology, but their precise meanin g cant be known without the aid of readable texts. Harappan religion or socio-ritual belief systems reflect a multiplicity of level s ranging from local cults to what could be called an established state religion practiced by the elites of the different cities and emulated by the lower class es. Examples of local cults may be seen in regional styles of female figurines or ri tual symbols on pottery. The practice of more unified state religion may be refl ected in the wide spread use of mythical unicorn as a motif on seals and other o bjects. The distinctive offering stands found on unicorn seals also suggests a uniform r itual. Many narrative seals depict ceremonies or rituals that may have been part of state sponsored religious festivals. Indus burial traditions: The Harappans in general practiced unostentatious simple earth burials. There ar e no hoards of gold kept in the grave or pyramids constructed, and what left wer e ceramics, some food materials, and some personal ornaments. The grave goods that are kept in the burials indicate the belief they had in an afterlife. Scattered burials as well as discrete cemeteries have been found in e ach of the major Indus sites such as Lothal, Rupar, Harappa and Kalibangan. The small size of the cemeteries indicate that only certain groups practiced burial while others disposed their dead by other means. There is some minor variation in the mode of burial and the quantity of grave go ods but no indication that different classes of people buried in the same cemete ry. Indus people carefully buried their dead in wooden coffins or wrapped in a shrou

d with their heads facing towards north and the feet pointing to south; rectangu lar pit with burial pottery placed in the bottom. The corpse, with head to the n orth was laid out on top of the pottery. Burial pottery may have contained food offerings. Other burial goods include personal ornaments such as a copper ring, occasional beads of agate, carnelian or jasper, steatite bead necklaces and ankl e bracelets, shell bangles on the left arm of females, and copper mirrors with f emales. No inscribed objects or high value items such as seals, gold ornaments, long carnelian beads and large copper tools were included in the burials. Post Harappan burials of the late 2nd millennium B.C. in what has been called ce metery H culture largely confined to Harappa and Punjab plains were accompanied by pottery that was different from the Harappan. The ritual of burial continued. These burials may point to new arrivals or emergence of new traits in the cultu res of the region. Economic activities: Agriculture: The nature of Indus valley civilizations agricultural system is stil l largely a matter of conjecture due to paucity of information. However, Histori ans believe that IVC agriculture must have been productive enough to feed urban population who were not primarily engaged in agriculture. The main food crops were wheat, barley, peas and sesamum. Harappan people grew a nd used cotton. It is not certain that irrigation was unknown, although this is possible; however some historians are of the opinion that the Indus people didnt practice canal irrigation nor did they have heavy plough. With flood irrigation alone, not much can be cultivated, though the yield on the soil where the floods have deposited the rich alluvial silt is excellent with out deep ploughing. Thu s the harrow can be recognized as a common Indus ideograph symbol, while there i s no plough symbol. The Indus seems to have increased the flooded area, not by c anals but by dams that impeded the flow. Domestication of animals: humped bull and hump less cattle, buffaloes, goats, sh eep, pigs, asses, dogs and domestic fowl were known and domesticated. The elepha nt is known, and may also have been tamed. The existence of the horse is doubtfu l. The bullock was probably the burden of the beast. Science: Indus people achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass and time . They were the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. Their smallest division which is marked on an ivory scale found in lothal, was approx imately 1.704 mm. harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measuremen t. The chert weights were in perfect ratio of 4:2:1. The engineering skills are remarkable, especially in building docks after a careful study of tides, waves, and currents. Early Harappans had the knowledge of proto-dentistry. Eleven drilled molar crown s from nine male adults were discovered in a graveyard in Mehragarh. A touchston e bearing gold streaks was found in banwali which possibly used for testing the purity of gold. Technology and crafts: Harappan people belong to the Bronze Age. They were very well acquainted with t he manufacture and use of bronze. It was made by mixing tin with copper. For mak ing bronze, Copper might have been imported from Khetri mines of Rajasthan. Tin was possibly brought from Afghanistan. Since availability of these metals was sc arce, the use of bronze tools appears to be less abundant. Bronze smiths constit uted an important group of artisans in the Harappan cities. With bronze they mad e vessels, weapons, images and other tools-the best specimen are the famous danc ing girl with right hand on hips; the little models of bullock carts or ekkas fr om Harappa and Chanhudaro; the saw with undulated teeth was their invention; the other tools made with bronze were knife-blades, sickles, chisels, Fish hooks et c. four unique bronzes of elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo and chariot each weighin g 60 kgs from the recently excavated site of Daimabad have thrown further light on the bronze work of Harappans. The people of Harappa used many tools and implements of stone, Along with the br onze tools especially chertblades, and other tools. Several other important crafts were also flourished in the harappan cities such as shell working, ceramics, and Agate and glazed steatite bead making etc.

A piece of woven cloth has been recovered from Mohenjo-daro, and textile impress ions were found on several objects. Huge brick structures suggest that brick lay ing was an important craft. They also attest the existence of a class masons. Th e Harappans also practiced boat making. Seal making and terracotta manufacture w ere also important crafts. Seals have been found at Mohenjo-daro depicting a fig ure standing on its head, and another sitting cross legged in what some call a y ogi-like pose. The gold smiths made jewellery of silver, gold and precious stone s. Harappans also experts in bead making- beads of semiprecious stones and faien ce. The potters wheel was in full use, and the harappans produced their own character istic pottery, which was made glossy and shining. Some made toiletry items such as combs. They also made various toys and games, among them cubical dice with on e to six holes on the faces which were found in Mohenjo-daro