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Jagbir Singh

The Author Jagbir Singh, RAS, MBA, M.A. 1956 {Ancient Indian History, Culture & Archeology, University Of Allahabad}

Index

Chapter Page

Book Cover Page : 1 The Author : 2 Index : 3 Introduction : 4 Chapter One : Visit History 5 - 39 Chapter Two : Archeology Artifacts 40 - 110 Chapter Three : Rakhigarhi Bead Industry 111 -131

Introduction Interest in history and archeology is a natural instinct with me. For quite some time I was fascinated by the idea of visiting Rakhigarhi in Hissar district of Haryana. Rakhigarhi is the largest of all the Harappan archeological sites which has so far been excavated in the subcontinent. It relates to the heyday and glory of the greatest of rivers, the Saraswati. Rakhigarhi, like other similar habitations of the Indus Valley Civilization, was situated on the banks of the great Saraswati. Its flow of fertility in its peak run was about twenty two kilometers in width. Saraswati has been eulogized as mother in the Rgveda. My daughter Rekha made all the arrangements for the much awaited tour. I began my journey on 2nd August, 2015, and returned on 5th August 2015, travelling by road, a distance of more than three hundred and fifty kilometers one way from Jaipur. I made two visits to Rakhigarhi on 3rd and 4th August 2015. A local villager from Rakhigarhi, Sri Surendra Valmiki, who became very friendly with me helped me to obtain the prehistoric artifacts of antiquity about the place I was looking for. The articles included pottery ware as well as the beads of various sizes and stones. Besides these the most important items I obtained were three pieces of the hand tools made by human ingenious of the hard stones. I also obtained a broken tooth of a wild boar, and a shankh {conch shell} which should have lived in the sweet waters of the great Saraswati river. It was an important find. I have tried to portray the extraordinary craftsmanship of the people of Rakhigarhi some 6,000 to 8,000 years back in time that needs to be preserved. Rakhigarhi boasts of a civilization that equals or even betters the sophisticated culture of the people of the IVC. I am indebted to the reports by the great archeologists of the Archeological Survey of India and others who had worked and visited Rakhigarhi prior to me, for this brief write up. Jagbir Singh

Chapter One : Visit History

In the wilderness of the most ancient village inhabited on earth in India on the banks of the old great dried Saraswati river more than six thousand years back, Rakhigarhi, 26 kilometers from the district town of Jind in Haryana, to see its topography I have travelled more than 350 kilometers from Jaipur, and am putting up in the restful Haryana Tourism tourist bungalow Bulbul just adjacent to the Rani Talab, a famous tourist place of this town, I automatically revert back to the sacred memory of Chaman, my soul mate. I never travelled without her anywhere till 2013, when she was with me. It's nostalgic to recollect her in the present tour without her being here to illumine the tour that is my destiny. I talk of this body in sansar as Jagbir Singh; only then can I talk about her. Otherwise in the milieu of millenniums of ancient historical past archeology that I have come here to study, hundreds of thousands of persons, similar to me in the body and mind, might have lived the kind of life I am living, loving their spouses, acquaintances, beloveds, lovers or whatever they may have called themselves, and perished in the wave of the immortal time, which never stops. This perspective somewhat unburdens my predicament; it reduces my grief that never stops visiting me, particularly in situations when I am all alone by myself. It percolates the idea of my MBA { mind+body+ambience} living in sansar where the first rule is change; whatever is born shall, in course of time, decay and die. So they all, Indus valley people, the earliest civilized humans as a cohesive and enterprising social group, lived their tenures and died. So was my wife Chaman who spent 76 years of her life mainly with me passed out? So also very soon I shall pass out, leaving a legacy like of which everyone else, similar or different than the one I shall leave for the posterity.

This is the romance of history. It brings you out of your grief and provides a very vast vision of how things happen in the world we live in. Your grief becomes a tiny fraction in the whole wilderness, and is lost in the enormous perennial change occurring incessantly. I am again engrossed in my present existence and environment, though I as the turia witness all that is happening. It is me as turia which moves and illumines this body and mind of mine and in between constantly realise that I am separate from the body and mind. The feeling is amusing. Turia is beyond the senses. This body is all made up of the senses. I recognise me as turia which is unaffected by senses and looks someone like a sanyasi in human ambience, unaffected by physical sense perceptions, serene, without any pain or suffering, exactly as Adi Sankar visualised in the atmshatakam: 'chidanand rupah, shivoham shivoham'.

August 3, 2015

After a comfortable restful night at the tourist bungalow Bulbul at Jind, I, along with Hanuman, my old caretaker, travelled to our destination with some curiosity. The road and the landscape were routine and familiar. A single road runs into the village. Rakhigarhi village is now divided into two adjacent villages Rakhikhas and Rakhi Shahpur. The ancient Rakhigarhi was situated on the banks of River Drishadvati, a tributary of the ancient river Sarasvati. The site is as ancient as Firmana, Bhirrana, Kalibangan on the banks of the same river system. Bhirrana and Rakhigarhi show continuous occupation from 8th millenium BCE, making them early urban settlements of Drishadvati-Sarasvati valley civilisation {what used to be called Indus Valley or Harappan civilization, a characterization continued to be used by some writers despite the evidence that earliest settlement in Bhirrana dates back to 7380 BCE}.

Attempts have been made to trace these channels originating from the Sub-Himalayan region. The channel of Rakshi has been identified with the Drishadvati (Cunningham 1882:88, Bal Bhadra 1976: 37). Thereby it may be construed that the toponym of Rakhi (Rakshi) garhi seems to have been derived after the topographical feature of the place located in the flood bed of the Rakshi river.

On reaching the village your confusion gets confounded; there are no sign posts or indicators of any sort to inform you where is what you have come to see. We roam about and come across a statute of a meditating yogi, on the outskirts of the village. No one knows who build it or when. We could see from the distance an iron fencing of some very vast area in between the two

7 adjacent villages. That we suppose is done by the ASI, who conducts excavations here. And over the entire fenced enclosure we could see only the dung cake conical structures, so common to all rural areas, where cow dung is used to make cakes and store them in an enclosure, mainly for fire during all seasons. This happens to be one of the main activities for village women in northern India. While we are on a look out for someone to get more information, a chance bike rider comes our way and I engage him in some kind of verbal communication. He is a laborer of the village; I make friends with him. He is Surender Valmiki of this village. He took us to the prehistoric mounds and collected some pottery artifact sherds lying scattered all over the place.

rakhigarhi as you see over the surface today

I asked him if he and other villagers had the knowledge of the place's antiquity from their ancestry or it came after the ASI came here to excavate the site. He informed they had vague knowledge of its antiquity; however, to them to earn for their livelihood is more relevant than acquiring the knowledge about their antiquity. Poverty is writ large. People strive to survive. Who bothers for the history or the archeology? I could understand. I am a villager too; and to survive in the present and find more better avenues and openings to earn more money is the real concern than bothering to learn about their past.

We come across a statue of a meditating yogi. No one knows its history. We proceed without bothering for the statue. Surender takes us to the mounds where ASI does excavations and explains to the best of his knowledge. As per the tradition the area was under the hegemony of Arjun. He killed sage Jamadagini in fight. Parashuram took the revenge by killing Arjun by his battle axe. Parashuram is said to have split the blood of Kshatriyas here. Later he cleaned his battle axe at Rama-hrad {sar} lake, this place has been identified as the pilgrimage center of Ramray { after Saraswati Omanand }, which lies on Jind-Hansi road 15 kilometers to the east of Rakhigarhi. As per tradition Ram-hrad Lake was part of the land of Kuru. It is said that Kuru became an ascetic on the banks of the great lake situated on the south of Kurukshetra. Kuri was exceedingly virtuous, and was made king by his people, the founding of the Kuru dynasty and the Kuru Kingdom. The field called Kurujangala is named after him and is where after becoming devoted to asceticism, he there practiced asceticism. Probably the yogi in meditation statue on the outskirts of the village Rakhi Shahpur is that of Kuru, who

statue over traditional house top - a saint, gyani - reminiscent of Rakhigarhi's antiquity

11 became an ascetic, on the bank of the great lake near Kurukshetra. Alternately the statue could be of Parashuram, the innate killer of Kshatriyas. Rgveda refers to river Saraswati as ambitame, best of mothers, devitame, best of goddesses, and naditame, best of rivers. Along the dry courses of the mighty river Saraswati and its tributaries, a number of archeological sites have been reported showing data on performing sacrifices where many rhymes were chanted. The ancient sites dotted in the flood plains range from the early Harappan, late Harappan, Painted grey ware to Rangmahal times. Other than Rakhigarhi important sites located in the Saeaswati - Drishadvati divide are Kalibanga, Kunal, Banwali, Bhirrana, Mitathal, Siswal, Balu, Bhagwanpura, Raja Karan-Ka- Kila, and Rangmahal. The mounds we visited were not fenced. Various artifacts were scattered all around over the surface level of the mounds. These may have no value for the villagers; majority of it included pottery ware in broken pieces, bricks, and other fragments dating back to 6000 years in time. We collected a few seemingly valuable stones, pottery ware, beads and weights.

pot sherd from bhirrana-replica of mohanjodro dancing girl I have not visited Bhirrana in Fatehgarh district of Haryana, but the potsherd from Bhirrana, as discovered by the Archeological

Survey of India experts during excavations, certainly informs us that these ancient habitations in Haryana were all interconnected to what is generally called the Indus Valley Civilisation on the banks of the river Saraswati and its tributaries. I suggest to all concerned that this most ancient civilisation of ancient India should be named and called as the Saraswati Vally Civilisation, instead of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The statue led to two important discoveries about the civilization: first that they knew metal blending, casting and other sophisticated methods, and secondly that entertainment, especially dance was part of the culture. The bronze girl is made from 'lost wax' technique and shows the expertise of the people in making bronze works during that time. L.S. Rao on Bhirrana site: 'paradigmatic site … to put it in a nutshell, the importance of the excavation at Bhirrana lies in the fact that we have strong evidence for the first time of an unbroken cultural sequence, starting from the village culture represented by Hakra ware and its evolution gradually into semi-urban and urban cultures till the site was finally abandoned…In the present state of knowledge the Hakra ware culture belongs to the fourth millennium B.C., or 6,000 years before the present…For the first time now, in post- Independence India, stratigraphically positioned Hakra ware culture deposits have been exposed at Bhirrana. They show a typical early village settlement, wherein dwelling pits were cut into the natural soil'. Hakra ware was also found in Jalilpur excavations on the banks of River Ravi and in Cholistan, Bahawalpur province excavations.

The samples from the earliest levels at Bhirrana have C14 dates determined in the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany which are 7570-7180 BCE...6689-6201 BCE...6200-5850 BCE...5316- 4775 BCE...4714-4360 BCE...and 3970-3640 BCE..."(Dikshit & Mani 2012:266)...The new chronology for Bhirrana is:

Period 1 Pre Harappan c 7500-6000 BCE Period 2 A Early Harappan c 6000-4500 BCE Period 2 B Late Early Harappan 4500-3000 BCE Period 3 Mature Harappan 3000-1800 BCE This makes the Chalcolithic Bhirrana in Haryana, on the Saraswati river, contemporary or even earlier than Neolothic Mehrgarh. The difference between the two sites is that Bhirrana has clearer continuity than Mehrgarh from the lowest levels to the mature Harappan phase. The same is true about Rakhigarhi which was the largest site of this antiquity. After 1900 BC, the political constellations changed again. Magan lost its importance as supplier of copper to Mesopotamia, the Indus {Saraswati valley} Civilization disintegrated as a centralized state, and large regions in southeastern Iran, Baluchistan, and Sindh were abandoned for almost 1000 years for reasons as yet unknown.

The vibrancy and exuberance of this wonderful civilization moved on towards the Ganga-Jamuna river valley system, mainly because of the drying out of the great Naditame Saraswati. It was in that region and era that Mahabharat was fought and the main scriptures were written, after they were

14 carried on for thousands of years by memory and oral tradition from one generation to the other. It includes the Rgveda, and other Vedas, Puranas, and Upanishads. Veda appeared before human was created, that is the Hindu tradition. First came the rules to live and then appeared the human, was the way the creator made it.

That civilization continues till today. It applies to Rakhigarhi as well. The vibrancy of Rakhigarhi moved out as the Saraswati valley civilization dried with its provider the Naditame Saraswati. However, life didn't stop here. People lived and ordinary life continues even today. There were no dancing girls, no outstanding craftsmanship of the bead making industry, and no potters like the ones who crafted masterpieces out of the most easily available material the earth. There was no intercontinental trade that imported the raw materials from places as far as Badaskhan and Baluchistan, Egypt and Iran which was known as Mesopotamia. And there was neither the export of the finished goods from Rakhigarhi to these far off places, as the demand decreased and business shifted its course to other areas and different concepts.

Today Rakhigarhi is an average looking village with its own problems of poverty, unemployment, backwardness. I am surprised the ASI has not yet brought up a museum here which might create a regular tourist flow that might improve the village surroundings and give employment to poor people. It will improve the aptitude to better preserve the treasure trove of the great past of Rakhigarhi.

Having seen the location and external features of the place I called my new friend aside and asked him if he could help me obtain some old culture's articles for further study of the place. He told me school going children do collect some such artifacts. The school will be over by 2 PM. If you come tomorrow after school time is over, he will try to collect as many boys as possible. He will ask the boys to bring in their picks and I could deal with them directly. With that promise we bade good bye to Surendra and Rakhigarhi, to return tomorrow in the afternoon and meet the

18 holders of the most valuable archeological finds belonging to the place. I ensured that there was no trickery in showing forged duplicates. I was satisfied the stuff would be original; there was no room for forgery, looking to the poverty ridden innocent children, so deep in the remote rural set up of Rakhigarhi, and my own sense of appraisal.

August 4, 2015

It was a hectic day but very satisfying and successful. First I went to the local market to buy some old coins. I was looking to obtain some coins or artifacts from the original Rakhigarhi excavated site. Nothing was available about Rakhigarhi; however, I purchased two silver coins of British India belonging to King Edward and Queen Victoria. I proceeded to Rakhigarhi around 3 PM. There I met my new friend Surender Valmiki. He takes me to his home, though people who are with me in the tour, does not relish the idea of going to his residence. I sit inside his house; meet his wife and his small daughter. All boys in school dress collect and watch me in amazement. My hostess offers tea and snacks. I drink water, very clean and cool, perhaps brought out of a refrigerator. Some other ladies and older people also arrive with their kitty. Then the treasure starts opening. In rough old plastic bags, small and big, they show me the earthen pottery, the fine beads, and other articles recovered from the archeological site of Rakhigarhi, mainly by the school going boys, with the sole purpose and intention that someday someone will come looking for the historical site, and take these precious articles, giving money in return. That way they will earn some big pocket money. The effort is obviously encouraged by their parents, for when the articles dug out or collected from the debris are more precious to the acquiring aspirants, the amount of money exceeds the limits of the pocket money and it turns out to a family fortune.

I begin negotiating with the sellers. Although it was all arranged by Surender, he puts all sellers directly to me. I offer Rupees ten for each article I take. They offer Rupees twenty per article. I said no, and offer 15 instead. The deal is finalised. The largest collection was from a boy, almost an adult, consisting 146 articles; its cost came around 2175/-, but he negotiated with a total of 2500/-, I agreed and paid him. Everybody present started counting their kitty. The bulk of articles included beads, made of lapiz lasuli and other precious stones, varying in sizes of tiny, small, and big. The earthen pottery articles included toys, vases, diyas, mugs, and fragments of larger earthen ware. Beads also included minutely carved gold and other metal, made with exceptional expertise, by the great craftsmen, the people of Rakhigarhi, more than six thousand years, ago. Besides gold other stones used for bead making, which was the largest manufacturing activity, were lapis lazuli, turquoise, and banded agate. Besides gold silver and laps lazuli, shell was extensively used for ornament making. Some of the articles I obtained showed outstanding levels of craftsmanship.

Surender Valmiki and his wife at his house in Rakhigarhi

Harayane is referred to in Rgveda. It is referred as the place where oxen driven chariots are in use. It is also recognized as the place where the best cow born oxen are populated and help grow rich field crops. The tradition is carried to the modern times where the oxen driven carts still ply for various personal and agricultural transport of people, food grains and fodder, as would be evident from the picture I shot near Rakhigarhi. The other picture on the next page is a bull I photographed while on a visit to Dholavira in 2009. I put it with a Harappan seal with a bull and some script written in the language which is yet to be deciphered. The aim of putting the two bulls, one that roamed Dholavira some 8000 years ago, and the other that walks majestically in the modern environs of Dholavira, is to show the continuity of tradition and life, be it the animals, the

21 human beings, the cultural milieu, a landmark of the great Indian civilization.

The birth of Indian civilization is a subject I have been studying from my university days, first of all because I find it fascinating: to explore the roots of a great and living civilization spanning over 8,000 years is something we can probably do only in India, since all other ancient civilizations have long disappeared. Indus Valley (or Harappan) civilization, one of the world’s oldest. It was certainly the most extensive by far, since it covered today’s Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, much of Rajasthan,

Maharashtra and Kashmir, western Uttar Pradesh, the whole of Pakistan, even parts of Afghanistan ; it was also one of the most sophisticated in terms of urbanization, industry, technology, trade and sailing. Its art and crafts were varied and refined, though much less abundant than in contemporary Egypt or Mesopotamia. However, its hallmarks were a remarkably peaceful civic organization based on cultural integration, and the care it bestowed on its humblest inhabitants. Its sanitation and water management, for instance, were of such a level that one wishes our municipal corporations would follow them today. In its fully developed phase (the “mature phase,” as archaeologists call it), it lasted from about 2600 to about 1900 BC ; its early phase dates back to at least 3500 BC (J. M. Kenoyer opts for 5000 BC). A few sites, such as Mehrgarh, even show a continuity of preceding cultures going back to 7000 BC. So far, over 2,600 sites have been identified, over half of them in India, with 700 along the dry bed of a mighty river to which we will soon return. While the best-known cities, Mohenjo-daro (on the Indus river) and Harappa (on the Ravi), now lie in Pakistan, Indian archaeologists have since Independence unearthed a number of important settlements, such as Dholavira and Lothal in Gujarat, Kalibangan in Rajasthan, Rakhigarhi and Banawali in Haryana In this chain of continuity I must mention the Rock Shelter Caves of Bhimbetka, in Madhya Pradesh, which I and Chaman visited in the year 1993, precisely on 4th October, 1993, after my retirement. There is evidence of a very long cultural continuity: In at least one of the excavated shelters, it is said in the nomination that continued occupation is demonstrable from 100,000 BCE (Late Acheulian) to 1000 AD. An interesting cave painting depicts war scene where a warrior is depicted in the position of throwing a missile, which by some gyanis have been adduced to Mahabharat war, when as an exception, Krishna beheld a wheel to hurl at Bhishma, when he was about to strike Arjun, whose despondency to fight his grandfather made him inactive and confused.

Additional evidence that can help establish the time of Lord Krishna was in Mohenjodaro, where a tablet dated to 2600 BCE was found which depicts Lord Krishna in His childhood days. This shows that Lord Krishna was popular at least prior to this date.

A steatite tablet unearthed from Mohenjo-daro, Larkana district, Sindh depicting a young boy uprooting two trees from which are emerging two human figures is an interesting archaeological find for fixing dates associated with Krishna. This image recalls the Yamalarjuna episode of Bhagavata and Harivamsa Purana. In this image, the young boy is undoubtedly Krishna, and the two human beings emerging from the trees are the two cursed Gandharvas, identified as Nalakubara and Manigriva. Dr. E.J.H. Mackay, who did the excavation at Mohanjodaro, compares this image with the Yamalarjuna episode. Prof. V.S. Agrawal has also accepted this identification. Thus, it seems that the Indus valley people knew stories related to Krishna. This lone find may not establish Krishna as contemporary with Pre-Indus or Indus times, but, likewise, it cannot be ignored.

we visited bhimbetka rock shelter caves in 1993

Elderly Nani, well dressed and bejeweled, was resting on a cot in the narrow lane I was returning from my friend's house, I asked her if I could photo her; she happily agreed and taking a glance at her attire she posed. I shot her and paid her ten rupees for her kindness; she hugged me affectionately, I would never forget that love of Rakhigarhi.

Chapter Two : Archeology Artifects

The Harappan site of Rakhigarhi was subjected to location analysis to assess its potentialities as the regional center. The excavations and explorations around Rakhigarhi (1997-2000) put extent of the site around 124 hectares, and if the land between different mounds is taken into account it exceeds beyond 240 hectors. Hence, it becomes not only largest site in India; but also the most extensive site of the Harappan domain. This phenomenon has led to further location analysis of the site. The artifacts I acquired are shown and listed below.

harappan game find

modern bridge pieces resemble with harappan game artifect

Conch shells at the pottery yard. Between 2600 BCE and 2200 BCE the Harappans made bangles with the shells at the industrial site. Harappa

Similarity of the two deevalas, { nhoyk } pottery articles, one belonging to a period some 6,000 years back in time, and the other of modern present 2015 make, is exactly matching and same. We are happily following the innovations made by our ancestors more than 6,000 years ago. Their intelligence and craftsmanship was exceptionally outstanding, there is no doubt about it.

a modern rakhigarhi potter and his wife Rakhigarhi, India - May 8, 2015: Mahavir, with his wife Manju, is a potter. The current patterns in pottery resemble those that are found in the Harappan pottery. The excavations by Deccan College have lead to path breaking discoveries in Rakhigarhi, Haryana, India, on Friday, May 8, 2015. (Photo by Saumya Khandelwal/ Hindustan Times)

Harappan Civilization Excavation Archaeology The potter, kumbhakar, could verily be the oldest surviving craftsman and craftswomen.

Role of Women in pottery making

It is one of the serious errors of the statistics including the census to lose the sight of the role of women in productive activities like pottery and other crafts. According to the statistics the proportion of women is 48 percent in pottery making. By tradition the wheelwork and igniting the kiln are the only two processes with which women are not associated. But the numerous other processes, like the preparation of clay before wheel work, making designs and cutwork, painting, loading the dried wares into the kiln and unloading the baked wares, stacking the ware, preparing dung cakes to be used as fuel for the kiln are all process of pottery in which women are fully associated along with men. In the case of making cutwork design also women are doing different cut designs and models after it was wheel turned.

A stone potter's wheel found at the Mesopotamian city of Ur in modern-day Iraq has been dated to about 3129 BC, but fragments of wheel-thrown pottery of an even earlier date have been recovered in the same area. However, southeast Europe and China have also been claimed as possible places of origin.

The earliest forms of the potter's wheel (tourneys or slow wheels) were probably developed as an extension to this procedure. Tournettes, in use around 4,500 BC in the Near East, were turned slowly by hand or by foot while coiling a pot.

Only a small range of vessels were fashioned on the tournette, suggesting that it was used by a limited number of potters. The introduction of the slow wheel increased the efficiency of hand- powered pottery production. Later the fast wheel was developed, which operated on the flywheel principle. It utilized energy stored in the rotating mass of the heavy stone wheel itself to speed the process. This wheel was wound up and charged with energy by kicking, or pushing it around with a stick, providing a centrifugal force. The fast wheel enabled a new process of pottery-making to develop, called 'throwing', in which a lump of clay was placed centrally on the wheel and then squeezed, lifted and shaped as the wheel turned. The process tends to leave rings on the inside of the pot and can be used to create thinner-walled pieces and a wider variety of shapes, including stemmed vessels, so wheel- thrown pottery can be distinguished from handmade. Potters could now produce many more pots per hour, a first step towards industrialization.

two graphic depictions of ancient potter's wheel

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The artifacts found at Rakhigarhi including both the terracotta and pottery artifacts and the amazing tiny to larger beads of various stones and terracotta reveal a very advanced civilization. The replica of the dancing girl of Mohanjodaro over a pottery shred at Rakhigarhi not only shows the itinerary of the Indus-Saraswati valley civilization, it also proves the social ambience of the age some 6000 years ago, when people enjoyed such level of entertainment and amusement like of which the modern theater and cinema provide. The pottery artifacts lead us to believe the use and existence of a rotary wheel to give shape to desired pots, jars, lighting diyas, deevalas, and the like. Pottery shreds found indicate huge size pots were made for storage purposes. The practice still continues in the rural to store all kinds of grains, materials, money both in currency and paper currency in earthen pots of varying sizes. I felt the legacy of this heritage needs to be preserved for the posterity in India.

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Chapter 3 : Rakhigarhi Bead Industry

Bead manufacturing is one of the oldest craft skills of the Indus valley civilization. These beads were made from semi precious stones, shell, metal and terracotta. In the early years beads were made with simple technique using stone to cut shape and perforate relatively soft raw material. Drilling was done with hardened copper drill or tapered cylindrical stone drill made from chert or jasper. This bead making technique was very popular throughout the Indus valley region. With the rise of the Indus habitations making beads become highly specialized industry, stone bead making continued at many places using the old technique; however, in larger townships, such as Mohanjodaro, Harappa, Chanhudaro, or Lothal, specialised bead making workshops began to manufacture unique style of beads using new raw materials. The new methods included decoration of stone beads and to make imitation of turquoise, agates, or carnelian beads from artificial materials such as faience or steatite. A good number of beads of different materials have been collected from the excavation at Rakhigarhi. Besides finished beads and unfinished beads in various stage of manufacture indicates that Rakhigarhi have been an important centre of bead manufacturing, not only for the consumption of the local people but also for trading beads to other places. It is very important to point out that most of the raw material were not locally available, so the lapidaries at Rakhigarhi must have brought them from outside. The ASI report on Rakhigarhi enumerates bead activity at this prehistoric site as something extraordinary in terms of the period it all existed. At Rakhigarhi, they found a well established bead manufacturing factory having thousand of bead roughouts, waste flakes and cores, tools and implements and beads polishers.

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Major metals and materials used for bead making in Rakhigarhi: terracotta, steatite, agate, lapis lazuli, shell, copper, bronze, silver, gold. All of this is set to change. The Global Heritage Fund (GHF), a non-profit organization based in the US that works to preserve the world's most endangered heritage sites, put Rakhigarhi on its project in 2012. This makes the Harappan site one of GHF's 13 projects worldwide, which include Ping Yao Ancient City in China and Ur in Iraq.

'The scope of this site should be emphasized,' says Dan Thompson, director, global projects, Global Heritage Network. 'It is large and was occupied for a long period. The potential for research and knowledge is amazing, and I think that with skilled archaeologists, historians and designers, you can craft that knowledge into a compelling narrative that people will want to see.'

GHF will not only coordinate an ambitious excavation and conservation project at the site, led by Prof. Shinde, beginning this month, it will also work with the local community to develop home stays, train tour guides, and establish an on-site lab and museum with the help of the ASI, Deccan College, and other government agencies to turn Rakhigarhi into a heritage tourism hot spot.

'In our experience around the world, local communities are eager to cooperate and preserve the cultural heritage in their midst when they are included in the discussion and their concerns are addressed,' Thompson says. 'The economic benefits that can come from heritage preservation are a great incentive to save these sites, as is the pride that communities derive from saving their past.'

For the few villagers in the know, like Saroae, this is a dream come true. 'I have been hoping for something like this from the time I

112 began to understand the importance of this place,' says Saroae. 'This work can't come soon enough.'

Rakhigarhi is about to rewrite the 5000 year old history of our civilization. Recent excavations at Rakhi Garhi in Hissar district of Haryana may push the history of the civilization back by over a thousand years. It could change the commonly held view about the Indus Valley civilization, as Rakhigarhi is situated on the bank of the now dry, Saraswati river. Archaeologists and historians are excited about the findings from Rakhigarhi, the largest Indus Valley site after Mohenjodaro. Senior archaeologists consider this to be no ordinary Harappan site and say it is the most important of all the archaeological sites of India. The unearthed clues may yield answers to questions that have remained unanswered so far. Rakhigarhi findings have already started showing new civilization contours.

The area and dimensions of the site are far wider than assessed by archaeologist Raymond and Bridget Allchin and J M Kenyer. It is 224 hectares, the largest in the country. In size, dimensions strategic location and unique significance of the settlement, Rakhi Garhi matches Harappa and Mohenjodaro at every level. Three layers of Early, Mature and Late phases of Indus Valley civilization have been found at Rakhi Garhi. What has so far been found uncannily indicates that Rakhi Garhi settlement witnessed all the three phases.

The site has trick deposits of Hakra Ware (typical of settlements dating back before the early phases of Indus Valley). Early and Mature Harappan artifacts. The solid presence of the Hakra Ware culture raises the important question: "Did the Indus civilization come later than it is recorded?" The Hakra and the Early phases are separated by more than 500-600 years and

113 the Hakra people are considered to be the earliest Indus inhabitants. Although the carbon-14 dating results are awaited, based on the thick layers of Hakra Ware at Rakhi Garhi, it is said that the site may date back to about 2500 BC to 3000 BC. This pushes the Indus Valley civilization history by a thousand years or more.

The climate and environment in this area was very diverse. The region varied from desert, to mountains, to wooded highlands all with variable rainfall (Possehl 5). People had to deal with unpredictable periods of floods, droughts, monsoons, earthquakes and changes in the course of rivers (Allchin 11). The mountain ranges and the surrounding oceans played a role in monsoonal rainfall. In some places the climate was moist and humid, supporting dense forests and grass land, where animals such as tigers, rhinos and elephants roamed (Allchin 13). The western highlands afforded excellent grazing to sheep, goats, cattle and wild ibex (Chakrabarti 169). Today, the Thar Desert is arid and covered in sand. However, soil analysis shows that there could have been substantial vegetation cover in the past, supporting surface water and wild game (Allchin 19).

These varied geological and environmental features played an important role in the development of the Harappan civilization. This diversity provided a large number of raw resource deposits, allowing the Indus to be exporters of items such as shells, ivory, jade, beads and semi-precious stones (Chakrabarti 172). Furthermore, the surrounding mountain ranges and desert provided protection from invaders from the north, west and east, isolating the Indus Valley from others. The rivers offered resources for food, irrigation and trade (Fig. 3). Flooding created from the snow melts from the mountains created rich alluvial soils, abundant in minerals and excellent for farming. The fertile soil generated large quantities of cereal grains such as wheat, millets and barley and other cultivated plants such as dates, walnuts and field peas (Chakrabarti 169). The Harappan people may have practiced various subsistence strategies, including agro-pastoralism, fishing and hunter-gathering (Guha

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55). Since the inhabitants of the Indus River Valley were dependent on the environment for survival, it’s no surprise that it played such a large role in their cultural development. One example of this influence can be found in their religious beliefs, more specifically from the worship of natural elements such as plants and animals. Deities were represented in the forms of the mother-goddess, fertility gods, sacred animals and sacred trees.

The diverse and often unpredictable landscape provided significant difficulties in the day to day survival of the Indus Valley people. To overcome them, these hardships led to creative technological and scientific inventions. For example, due to the flooding of the rivers, there was a need for flood defense. Since stones were not readily available, and mud bricks would have been destroyed by rain or water, a new way of making bricks were developed (Allchin 176). Instead of drying them in the sun, they were fired or burned to make them harder and water proof (Fig. 19). Burnt bricks were also used in wells, drains and the numerous bathrooms found in city buildings. These bricks were manufactured in proportions of 4:2:1(Fig. 20), which is considered favorable for the stability of structures (Allchin 176).

A fired brick from Harappa View of wall from ancient street

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The use of environmental resources can be seen in various artifacts made of stones, metals, ivory and semi-precious stones. Many tools were developed and produced including items such as arrowheads (Fig. 21), daggers, razors, blade-axes (Fig. 22) saws, fish-hooks, needles, knifes, chisels and sickle- blades (Chakrabarti 177). A majority of these items were made of copper, since it was widely available in and around the area of the Indus civilization. By the late Harappan period, there was large scale mining and smelting taking place. New techniques in metallurgy were being developed and bronze, tin and lead objects were being produced (Chakrabarti 178).

arrow heads { harappan period } axes and other tools

To overcome arid environments and make them suitable for farming, large scale irrigation systems were created. Numerous irrigation canals linked to rivers have been discovered. A canal system would consist of a main canal, which received water directly from the river. From it, would branch off smaller canals distributing the water to different areas (Chakrabarti 144). These canals filled up with water whenever the rivers swelled, carrying water throughout. In Kutch, water management in the form of reservoirs and dams have also been found.

Conclusion:

People are not only dependent on the environment for survival,

117 but it also plays a role in the development of their world view. Rivers are important for irrigation, for transportation, and as a source of food. The environment dictates the diet on which people depend, their lifestyles, the resources available to them, the physical location where to settle, and the tools which they will need to overcome these obstacles. Therefore, it’s no surprise that physical surroundings also shape a society's culture. This is no different within the Indus Valley civilization. Both their religious ideas and technological developments represent this influence, and therefore can be seen in the artifacts discovered at various sites. Along the banks of the Ghaggar-Hakra river lie the graves of a typical family. The woman was likely the daughter of a wealthy trader. In death, she wears her favorite shell and copper bangles. A large pot placed at her head would have been filled with food grain and objects meant to make her journey to the next world a comfortable one.

She is buried in the centre of a large graveyard, as are most women. This and the large number of objects in the women's graves are believed to indicate that women had wealth and status in this society. Buried beside her is the body of a boy, most likely her son, who probably died at the same time. Close to her, his head pointing north as well, lays the grave of a man, most likely her husband. Their home would have been one of those in the 'urban' settlement outside the graveyard. The houses here are rectangular, with three or four rooms each, made of mud and baked bricks in extra-strong layers of alternating horizontal and vertical tiers. The floor is covered in clay, decorated in a mosaic of colored stone. A small granary attached to the home, also made of brick, kept their food safe. Scattered within the remains of the home are the child's toys - little dogs, bulls and deer made of clay. It's hard to tell exactly what the man did for a living, since he and his family were laid to rest approximately 5,000 years ago.

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But the team of archaeologists working at this Harappan site of Rakhigarhi, 90 minutes east of Hisar in Haryana, have excavated skeletal remains with DNA samples intact and sent them to a special DNA and paleontology lab in South Korea for testing - a first for a Harappan site. Soon, the DNA could tell them approximately how old these people were, offer hints as to what killed them, even allow scientists to recreate their faces to give us an idea of what they looked like. The three skeletons were unearthed between January and May, along with two symbolic, empty graves, believed to have been dedicated to people who disappeared or went missing. The skeletons were found in one of three mounds excavated by a team led by archaeologist Vasant Shinde, vice-chancellor of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune. Their findings, based on preliminary research, were revealed last month. 'Professor Shinde and his team's recent excavations are phenomenal and path breaking for the archaeological study of Harappan sites in the country,' says archaeologist Kishore Gaikwad of the Mumbai university, who specializes in the study of ancient Indian history. "It is exciting to know that we could soon have an idea of what the Harappans looked like, and know more about their socio-cultural life." While numerous skeletons have been uncovered from Harappan sites, including this one, the advanced technology to glean DNA data from them is recent. 'We attempted to extract such data in the last few excavations on the site, between 2012 and 2014, but failed, because we didn't handle the skeletons as required and contemporary DNA got mixed up in their DNA," says Shinde.' This time around, we wore surgical masks, gloves and coats while excavating the skeletons." In addition to the skeletal remains, soil samples in which parasite eggs could be found have been sent to the lab in South Korea. The results are expected in August.

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LAYER UPON LAYER

If the DNA samples are the most exciting find, the 22-metre- deep trench unearthed at Rakhigarhi is a close second. This is one of the deepest trenches of any Harappan site, offering insight into two different eras of Harappan culture - from 4000 BC to 2600 BC, and from 2600 BC to 2000 BC.

After days of excavation, we reached a depth of 14 metres and I thought we were done, says Yogesh Yadav, a PhD scholar at Deccan College. 'But we weren't. The trench was a phenomenal 8 metres deeper, with a whole lot more to unearth.' Through the layers, one can trace the Harappan culture's economic growth, its advancements in architecture, art and crafts, and even aspects of the structure of their society. 'Nowhere on this or any other Harappan site has there been evidence of a culture of slaves or any kind or of work done through the use of force,' says Shinde. 'This suggests a relatively equitable society where work was done collectively.' When it comes to trade and craft, the layers suggest that, from initially making jewellery from materials such as shell and beads imported from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the civilisation progressed to using intricate tin-glazed pottery, then lapis lazuli imported all the way from Afghanistan, and finally, trinkets made of 18-carat gold imported from the Hatti gold mines in Karnataka. A rare find is a mini, unfinished seal featuring an intricately carved tiger, made of steatite or soapstone. Usually a seal features writing beneath the image. On this seal, there is just a blank space for text, suggesting that the site housed a seal- making workshop, says Shinde. The team also found carnelian beads decorated with alkaline material, identical to beads found in ancient Mesopotamia, a region now comprising Iraq and parts of Iran, Syria and Turkey.

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'By 3000 BC, the Harappans were already trading far and wide and had a deep understanding of art, architecture and material use. They also had the technology to build complicated homes and made metal jewellery,' Shinde says.

SITE MAP

The Rakhigarhi excavation is part of a research project begun by Deccan College four years ago.

'The site was discovered in 1965, and was pegged at 40, 65 and 216 hectares respectively during three different surveys between 1965 and 2011,' says Shinde.

After three years of painstaking excavation to determine its edges, Shinde's team released its findings in August 2014 - the size of the Harappan site was not 216 hectares but 350 hectares, making it 50 hectares larger than the famous Mohenjo Daro site in Sind in present-day Pakistan, which had so far been considered the biggest Harappan site on the subcontinent. While still awaiting the results of DNA testing and analysis of the samples and artefacts collected, the team of six - Shinde, PhD scholars Nagraja Rao, Yogesh Yadav, Shalmali Mali and Malvika Chatterjee, and archaeologist Nilesh Jadhav - has already discovered enough material evidence to reveal in some cases, and confirm in others, a few vignettes of Harappan life circa 4000 BC. These include pieces of pottery, semi-precious beads and stones, tiles, seals, ornaments, stone blades, toys and vessels. There is now a plan for a museum here, where visitors can view some of these artifacts and perhaps tour a section of the excavated 'town'. Already, the remote village of veiled women and hookah- smoking men seated on charpais - with a khap panchayat centre in the centre - has begun to open up to home stays and

121 research scholars and students from around the world head to Rakhigarhi. Over the past two years, about 5,000 people have visited the site, says local Congress leader Dinesh Cheoran. The home stays and excavation work are providing employment, so the panchayat has already sanctioned land for the museum. In the meanwhile, it's business as usual. The villagers continue to plough their fields and scrub their cattle in the village pond and, every now and then, stumble upon human skeletons from thousands of years ago. Hard stone beads continued to be made in a variety of materials such as agate, jasper, carlenian, lapis lazuli, as well as some new forms of stone that are totally unique and unidentified.

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selected harappa phase beads at harappa 2600 - 1900 bc

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HARAPPA PHASE DRILLS AND PERFORATION TYPES.

Bead technologies may have been passed on within a single community, the actual production and distribution could have been controlled either directly or indirectly by merchants or urban elites. One example of more direct control is seen in the faience and steatite workshop excavated in 2000-2001, where beads were made along with inscribed tablets. However most of the bead production at Harappa appears to have been controlled indirectly by situating craft areas within walled sectors of the city in addition to putting the market places. Rakhigarhi stone and metal acquisition networks that have been identified thus far are summarized here and on Figure INAA of steatite artefacts indicates that residents used raw material derived from deposits in northern Pakistan. INAA of agate-carnelian nodule fragments and manufacturing debris confirms that this variety of stone was being transported to the site from sources in Gujarat. Lead isotope assays of lead and silver objects suggest that these metals were obtained from deposits in southern Balochistan. Visual examinations of grindingstones has revealed that while multiple source areas were being exploited, the large majority of these objects are composed of rock occurring in southern Haryana. It is important to note that for each of these materials, save

124 steatite, there are indications that other, presently unknown sources were also being exploited.

A general Layman's portrayal of Rakhigarhi is peing presented here. A picture of highly advanced and technologically strong civilization emerges by the excellent work done by the ASI and the Deccan College, Pune. We could draw an outline of how the great city thrived in its heydays.

Rakhigarhi was a huge city, spread over more than three hundred fifty hectares, somewhat like and little less than the modern Hissar city, which happens to be its present day district headquarter in Haryana. In terms of Rakhigarhi's population no surmises are available; we might however, estimate approximations based upon Hissar's modern population being about fifteen lakhs, excluding its satellite villages, Rakhigarhi's numerical strength of people, both male and female, may be put around five to seven hundred thousand souls or a little less. We may visualize Rakhigarhi's citizenry in view of the fact that some centuries after its heyday and not much far in distance from its horizons the great Mahabharat war was fought at the mythical battlefield at Kurukshera. Certainly the ruler of this historical place must have allied with the Kaurava forces, as this area was under the land holdings of the Kurus. It is said Parsuram spilled the Kshatriya blood here and cleaned his battle axe in the waters of Ramsar, a modern pilgrimage center 15 kilometers east of Rakhigarhi.

The city was kept clean by a very advanced layout of its various segments of the populace, enjoined by 3 to 10 meter wide roads. Almost every house had a water source or a well and was connected by very well planned laid out drainage system, that surprises even the modern town planner. Bead making industry dominated the life of the city. The allied trade activities of the international bead industrial hub, must have enjoined a major portion of its populace. The raw material for various kind of beads, included, jasper, agate, lapis lazuli, carnelian, steatite, red soft stone, much of which was imported from far off places

125 in Afghanistan, Eygpt, Mesopotamia - the modern day Iran. Gold was brought from mines in Karnataka. Khetri in Rajasthan must have supplied the copper used for various purposes. It must have required an organised system of management to do all this. After the finished goods were ready it needed to be sold and export was a major activity. All this required a well organised trading system with its checks and balances; it must have been under the sway of a wealthy section of society, comparable to the modern Birlas and Tatas.

harappan transport system - ox driven wheeled carts Alongwith the industrial segment with a thriving economy, the pastoral and agricultural activity must have been the main occupation of a large chunk of people of the city. The huge granary in the public sector and small granaries of the individual landlords indicate a very brisk and regular farming operations going on. The cart tracks alongside these granaries indicate the bullock carts ferrying grains and fodder from the farm to the homes and granaries. It also indicates an efficient organization of the animal husbandry practices.

There were shopping arcades spread over the city in the vicinity of the industrial factory kilns. Local as well as international traders might have roamed through these bustling business centers of antiquity. Most of these traders might have been overnight visitors to the city; in the birth of what may be called the origins of Indian hospitality, the elite local traders may have arranged for their safe upkeep and stay either in their own quarters or they may have categorized some dwellings as purely guest houses.

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From the size of the eleven and four plus other human burials excavated at Rakhigarhi it may be surmised that the average height of a male of the ancient Rakhigarhi should have been in between 5' to 5'.10"; persons of 6' feet height may have been far much less or even rare. The average height of a female of Rakhigarhi may have been between 5' to 5'2" to 5'4" or even 5'6", the later being rare. The dress may have been unsewen cloth lengths cress cross covering the lower part of the body and the breasts for females. The dress may have been under a strict regime of evolution like other life pertaining elements throughout the ages. Eventually men and women of Rakhigarhi might have looked not much different from the present ones I clicked on my visit to the place.

Modern Rakhigarhi people continue to follow their ancient drainage and sanitation practices, as apparent in these pictures as I too did not find any lane dirty or clogged in the entire village.

The numerous fire alters indicate the belief system they followed. The origins of yoga as means of highest manifestation of self realization too begins to take shape as would be apparent from Harappan seals.

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mother goddess with terracotta beads and dress covering lower body

It indicates their faith in mother goddess; the power that recreates life. They worshipped fire, water, earth.

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They domesticated animals. They hunted the animals. They were both vegetarians and people eating animal flesh. As grains and pulses got increasingly grown people turned and moved forward from hunter - gatherers, to pastoral agriculturists, settled in village communities. From hunter - gatherers wandering almost naked in search of food and shelter, the growth to settled pastoral agriculturist life and then to highly organized bead making industry that spread in this part of the world, would appear to be the net result of his mind. It made the animal in him to man as we understand him today.

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As he progressed, various gods and goddesses appeared in conjunction with the cyclic system of creation, spread over the four yugas, satyug, tretayug, dwaparyug to kaliyug. Reaching its zenith his entire world would perish by means of pralaya, and there would follow a period of vacuum extending over time similar to the previous active period, during which the creator Brahma take rest. At the end of the restful night Brahma again gets set to create the universe once again; this cycle of birth and death of the universe had been going on for an unending period of time and would be carried on for numberless yugas of time that never stops in the ever expanding galaxies. Our real story of Rakhigarhi is a tiny fraction of the great reality controlled by the gracious creator, to whom we surrender with utmost deep regards and veneration. For our ultimate purpose of life is to merge with him whose inseparable ansha {part} we are.

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I Explore Rakhigarhi The End Jagbir Singh

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I Explore Rakhigarhi Vkb ,Dliyksj Jk[Khx<+H