The Story Of The Ancient Indus People Mohenjo-daro - Harappa Yussouf Shaheen Culture and Tourism Department, Government of Sindh, Karachi All Rights Reserved Book’S name: The Story of the Ancient Indus People Mohenjo Daro-Harappa Writer: Yussouf Shaheen TitleL Danish Khan Layout: Imtiaz Ali Ansari Publisher: Culture and Tourism Department, Government of Sindh, Karachi Printer: New Indus Printing Press sukkur Price: Rs.700/- Can be had from Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities Department Book shop opposite MPA Hostel Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidaytullah Road Karachi-74400 Phone 021-99206073 Yussouf Shaheen The Story Of The Ancient Indus People Mohenjo-daro - Harappa Books authored by Yussouf Shaheen: Rise and Fall of Sanskrit Fall of Native Languages of the Americas Slave Nations Under British Monarchs Artificial Borders of the World Rise and Fall of gods – In Historical Perspective William the Bastard and his descendants World Confederation of the Peoples The World of Conquerors Truth Untold Seven other books in Sindhi and Urdu In the memory of my friend Abdul Karim Baloch A TV icon fully reflecting the greatness and wisdom of Mohenjo-daro and blessed with the enduring perception of a Weapon-Free Society created in the Indus Valley Civilization. © Yussouf Shaheen 2018 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise , without the prior permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Title: Danish Khan The Story of the Ancient Indus People 7 CONTENTS Publisher’s Note .................................................................................. 11 Preface The Indus Valley Civilization and our awful attitude ..................... 17 The ancient life Indus Valley Civilization .................................................................... 41 Indus Valley Life before Mohenjo-daro ........................................... 57 On Mohenjo-daro Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ............................................................................. 69 The Age First Grand Metropolis of the Ancient World ................................. 73 The world’s first Utopian Society ...................................................... 89 Indus Valley – Cotton The miracle fibre of the Indus ........................................................... 97 Indus Valley Vivilization Weights and Measures 1st sophisticated financial exchange system? ................................. 107 Health care in the Ancient Indus Valley ......................................... 119 Brick: basic unit of Building Indus society .................................... 129 The Story of the Ancient Indus People 8 Indus Trade Trade in the Indus Valley Civilization ............................................ 143 Indus language The Indus script (Looking for roots) ................................................ 157 Evidence for writing Dravidian language Obstacles to Decipherment .............................................................. 183 Seals Indus seals: what do they speak? .................................................... 199 Swastika Seals ................................................................................... 211 The mystery of cylinder seals .......................................................... 215 Meluhha – I ....................................................................................... 225 The origin of black-headed people Who the Sumerians were? Meluhha – II ...................................................................................... 237 * The Indus colony in Mesopotamia * More on Meluhhan Village Meluhha - III ..................................................................................... 245 The Ubadians and Mitannis Sumer settlements before Indus people Indus Valley links unearthed in Qatar Meluhha – a sailor country .............................................................. 253 The Story of the Ancient Indus People 9 Questions Unanswered ..................................................................... 257 With no worship place found Question of religious belief Religion Free Society Did the Indus people live without any religion? ............................ 265 Pre-Vedic Era Religion in the Indus Valley- I ......................................................... 271 Pre-Vedic Era Indus religion Religion in Indus Valley-II ............................................................... 281 Religion in Indus Valley-III Perception of Oneness of God Rise and decline of Varuna .............................................................. 295 Index ……………………………………………………… 305 The Story of the Ancient Indus People 10 The Story of the Ancient Indus People 11 Publisher’s Note Since the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation there has been an array of questions which do not find any physical support. A long range of evidences from the Indus sites uphold the perception that the Indus Valley Civilisation was a very developed urban society based on planned cities and towns. These were the first urban towns and cities with emphasis laid on hygiene, purity and high standard of living. They traded with overland and outside civilizations. The discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization in 1920s changed the perception of ancient world and older civilizations. When the site of Moenjo-daro was unravelled a very astonishing ancient urban culture was unfolded much earlier than it was ever thought of. This multiplied the ancient richness discovered at Harappa, some 590 km north of the Mohenjo- daro. The new discovery reflected an advanced culture of urban settlements, reflecting some very advanced planning of urban settlements, with planned houses built in a grid involving the advanced technologies of measurements, weighing, water management, efficient drainage system, tool-making technology and even the fashion and jeweler technology. This was astonishing as remarked by John Marshall himself, “… a spectacular discovery: the Indus Valley Civilization and the twin cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro which together pushed back India’s history. He further added that “The people of Indus Valley Civilization did not build massive monuments like their contemporaries, nor did buried riches among their dead in golden tombs. There were no mummies, no emperors, and no violent wars or bloody battles in their territory. Remarkably, the lack of all these is what makes the Indus Valley Civilization so exciting and unique. While others civilizations were devoting huge amounts of time and resources The Story of the Ancient Indus People 12 to the rich, the supernatural, and the dead, Indus Valley inhabitants were taking a practical approach to supporting the common, secular, living people. A very significant fact of the Indus Valley Civilization is evident from the archaeological relics, which surprisingly illustrate the fact that the Indus people lived in towns and cities in the ancient world when its contemporary civilizations did not have the perception of an organized urban life. All experts agree that the Indus Valley people had a federal system by which they maintained an effective mechanism of civic life. Scholars do believe that the economy of the Indus Civilization depended on agriculture and the trade. They also speak about the ship-building technology needed to travel overland and over the international waters (ships from Meluhha (the Indus) docked in Mesopotamian ports). Bullock carts may be seen as a slow-moving means of communication but given the situation 3,300 years back, it was one of the dependable mode. The Indus Valley Civilization may have been the first civilization to use wheeled transport.” In today’s world every country has some institutional mechanism to maintain standard weights and measures. One wonders how the rest of the world would have lived without some weights and measures 6,000 years ago. For many it was not so in the Indus Valley cities and towns. They had invented their system, standardized it and observed with utmost accuracy. Today the researchers have every reason to appreciate its almost perfect accuracy. The beginning of the building technology goes back to the making mud bricks which underwent a long history till a proper way for baking the bricks was invented and became an important tool technology in raising the towns and cities. The Indus Valley Culture (3200–1300 BC), whose brick architecture extends back to 7,000 BC in the valleys of Baluchistan.” COTTON The Story of the Ancient Indus People 13 Cotton is truly a miracle fiber: it has been spun, woven and dyed since ancient times, and it is still the most widely used fiber for cloth today. It is soft and fluffy and grows in a ball around the seeds of the cotton plant. The authors of the Encyclopedia of Arts said in 1946, “According to records unearthed in the ruins of the city Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley of India (now Pakistan) cotton cultivation and manufacture pursued there was early as 3,000 BC. As far the quality of cotton is concerned “the existence of developed crafts of cloth weaving and dyeing in the Indus Valley five thousand years ago has been