Art and Architecture of Indus Valley Civilization

Art and Architecture of Indus Valley Civilization (Harappan Civilization)

Indus Valley/Harappan civilization was the first urban civilization in South Asia existing with Mesopotamia and Egypt. The Harappan civilization was located in the largest area (around 8,00,000 sq km) out of the three civilizations. It was the art and architecture of the ancient history of India that the Harappan civilization made noteworthy contributions to the most.

Nature of the Art and Architecture of the Indus Valley Civilisation

Arts: During the Indus Valley civilisation, the artists showed great artistic inspiration and imagination as they included the anatomical details in which the peculiar arts were amazing. Their drawings of human and animal figures were very lifelike and, especially in terracotta art, the modeling of animal figures was very skilful.
Architecture: The architecture of the Indus Valley Civilization was very interesting. The architecture of the time, was not only practical but was not made for beauty or decoration, nor was it designed for them. The development of the architecture of civilization comes into play with the lack of external influences. It has been affected by the local cultures that were present in the areas before the first farming and pastoralist settlements started.

Architecture of Harappan Civilization

The Harappan culture was distinguished by its system of town planning on the lines of the grid system – that is, streets and lanes cutting across one another almost at right angles, thus dividing the city into several rectangular blocks.

The Pattern of Houses: Many of the cities of the Indus Valley civilization were divided into two or more parts: the citadel and the lower town.
- It is believed that the citadel was a fortified settlement and comprised of some chief structures, such as the great bath and the warehouse, while the lower town consisted of houses and workshops.
- Only 6 citadels have been found, showing that only priests or higher classes used to live there.
The pattern of streets and roads: Indus Valley streets and roads were straight and cutting each other at a right angle. The roads were built using burnt bricks.
Drainage system: The drainage system of Indus Valley civilization connected all houses to the street drains, which were covered by stone slabs or bricks. Houses with single, double, and more rooms attached with a very good drainage system were found in many of the sites of the Indus Valley.
Burial sites: At burials in Harappan sites, the dead were generally laid in pits. Some graves contain pottery and ornaments, indicating a belief that these could be used in the afterlife. Jewellery has been found in burials of both men and women. In the excavations at the cemetery in Harappa in the mid-1980s, an ornament consisting of three shell rings, a jasper (a kind of semi-precious stone) bead and hundreds of microbeads was found near the skull of a male.

Architecture	Feature
Great Bath at Mohenjo Daro	The Great Bath was an incredibly large rectangle tank , located in a courtyard that was enclosed on all four sides by a passageway. There were two sets of stairs, on the north and south quadrants, which lead into the tank, and the tank was made waterproof by placing bricks all around the perimeter and using gypsum mortar.
Great Granary	The place called Mohenjo Daro is where one of the largest granary sites in the Indus Valley was found. Fortunate, most excavations represent the granary system or a warehouse. Almost all staple food such as rice, wheat, and barley had been stored at these places.
Dockyard at Lothal	Lothal was a port city of the Harappans. It covers the low deltaic zone at the Saurashtra peninsula. They supposed in times past the sea was closer to the site. This place might have been an offshoot of the main trade with contemporary West Asian societies. A dockyard has been revealed in Lothal by the researchers.

Arts and Artifacts of the Indus Valley Civilization

During the second half of the third millennium BCE, the arts of the Indus Valley Civilisation emerged. Sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewellery, terracotta figures, and other forms of art have been discovered at various sites throughout the civilisation.

Arts
Sculpture	Feature
Stone statues	Harappa and Mohenjo Daro are places where 3D stone statues are found at. There have been discovered two male statues made of stone: Red sandstone torso A bearded man’s bust made of steatite.
Bronze Casting	Using the ‘lost wax’ method, the bronze sculptures were created. Copper animal figures have also been created. Both human, as well as animal figures, were made out of bronze. ‘Dancing Girl’, Buffalo, and Goat. Copper dog and bird of Lothal, as well as the bronze figure of a bull from Kalibangan, are the objects that have been found Copper Tablet/Slabs marked with a human or an animal figure on one side and a text on the other side, or text on both sides have also been excavated.
Terracotta figures	The terracotta representations of the human form are crude in the Indus Valley. In the Indus Valley, terracotta representations of the human form are very rough. We noted more realistic motifs were found at the Gujarat sites and Kalibangan city. A terracotta mask of a horned deity Besides the mother goddess who was also applied in the terracotta, other important terracotta motifs included the bearded males with coiled hair. Toy carts with wheels, whistles, rattles, birds and animals, gamesmen and discs – these are the toys children have fun playing. More realistic motifs were found in Gujarat sites and Kalibangan.
Seals	Many examples of seals were located at different places in the Harappan desert around 2500-2000 BC and were made from steatite, a mineral usually occurring in a soft stone type of soapstone. Each object could have totally different prominence and composition.Animal motifs on the seals: The seals had carvings of beautiful figures of animals, such as unicorn bulls, rhinoceros, tigers, elephants, bison, goat, and buffalo. Purpose: The main uses of the seals were: Primarily for business uses. In addition to this, they were also dealt with as a kind of talisman: kept as identity cards in present times Most distinctive seal: the Pashupati Seal, is said to be a female deity as well. It contains many animal pictures such as elephant, tiger, rhinoceros, buffalo and antelopes.
Pottery	The art of the pottery was the one that saw many stages of the decorative motifs used while the shapes and styles of it were changing. Features: The IVC Pottery earthenware is almost entirely composed of the finest craft wares branded as very few by hand . Earthenware plates and pots made of red clay were the most commonly used types instead of the decorated ones. This potery was limited to the vases, base of pans, and the top dishes of offering stands. Although Polychrome and incised pottery were less available, they were still produced on a much smaller scale. Perforated pottery had numerous tiny holes on its wall, and a big one in the bottom. It probably served as a kind of liquor-filter.
Ornaments used by the Harrapans	Beads and Ornaments: Both men and women of the Harappan people used to put on different ornaments which were produced from almost all kinds of materials. Ornaments and materials: Necklaces, fillets, armlets and finger-rings, girdles, earrings and anklets were made in gold and copper. Beads were made of cornelian, amethyst, jasper, crystal, quartz, steatite, turquoise, and lapis lazuli. Major sites: Beads making industry at: Chanhudaro and Lothal. Spindle whorls: The spindle whorls were made of terracotta and faience. These were primarily used for spinning thread.
Literature
Script	The Harappan script is not yet completely deciphered. The Harappan script is not fully understood. The number of signs ranges from 400 to 600, with 40 or 60 being the main ones and the rest being changes. Most originally the signs were written from right to left The script format of the Indus Valley Civilization is Boustrophedon, which means it is written right to left in the first line and left to right in the second line aspect.

What is the Significance of Harappan Art and Architecture?

Foundation for civilisations: The Harappan civilisation that is often quoted as one of the very first urban civilisations, played a critical role in setting the routines, perspectives, responses, and standards that eventually became the groundwork for the eras to come in Indian history.
Brotherhood: The Harappan civilisation was a peaceful society as we can judge from the evidence of artifacts that there was minimal intergroup violence despite the million-year-long history marred by immigration, climatic changes, and the situations like social, political and economic upheavals. Hence, the art of brotherhood was reflected in this culture and monies were not allocated to the economic divisions that soon followed.
Urban architecture: The Harappans have always been a world-class civilization with their brilliance in the different environmental problems that they had, such as drainage and town planning the indispensability of which must be mentioned. The Harappans had no equal when it came to the design of urban drainage systems which then were implemented as the bedrock of the methods of urban planning now.
Sanitation: The fact that they were able to completely execute the sewage system and that every house had its own bathroom also demonstrates the important role that cleanliness and hygiene played in the Harappans. Finally, the Harappan civilisation took the steps necessary to teach the residents to practice good hygiene, thus, it can be said that it is the start of both individual and societal hygiene in city planning.
Secular: It is self-evident that religious discrimination was minimal at least in terms of the social life of the people living at the Harappan sites as we can understand from the finds at every Harappan location and the strong social ties and the fraternity idea.
External relations: Harappan culture was the first one to develop sociocultural and trade relations with foreign countries in the Indian subcontinent. Therefore, it facilitated the growth of the newcomers in this field to build up their connections abroad. Accordingly, it made the ground for the first phase of globalization.

HOT READS

Mohenjo-daro reveals the ancient Indus Valley Civilization

The archaeological site of Mohenjo-daro holds World Heritage status from UNESCO and represents one of the most important historical discoveries ever made by humans. The ancient city of Mohenjo-daro situated in present-day Sindh, Pakistan reveals critical information about the sophisticated urban planning and governance system of the Indus Valley Civilization which peaked around 2500 BCE. UPSC aspirants need to study Mohenjo-daro’s history, culture, and society because it appears regularly in both Prelims and Mains exams.

Historical Significance

R.D. Banerji discovered Mohenjo-daro in 1922 when it stood as one of the major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization together with Harappa, Lothal, Dholavira and Kalibangan. The term “Mohenjo-daro” means “Mound of the Dead” which reflects the ancient ruins’ significant historical layers. Experts consider Mohenjo-daro to have been an active metropolis that demonstrated advanced expertise in multiple areas of daily existence.

Urban Planning and Architecture

The city of Mohenjo-daro stands out due to its sophisticated system of urban planning. The city planners established a structured grid pattern where streets ran in straight lines intersecting at perpendicular angles. Key architectural highlights include:

The Great Bath: The Great Bath was a rectangular water tank constructed from watertight bricks which served as a ritual bathing facility. The structure demonstrates READ MORE…