Mohenjo Daro The Land of Dead
Mohenjo Daro The Land of Dead
Mohenjo Daro, or “Mound of the Dead” is an ancient Indus Valley Civilization city that flourished between 2600 and 1900 BCE. It was one of the first world and ancient Indian cities.
Mohenjo-Daro had been a remarkable construction, considering its antiquity. It has a planned layout based on a grid of streets, laid out in perfect patterns. At its height the city probably had around 35,000 residents. The buildings of the city, of particularly advanced designed, had structures constructed of same-sized sun dried bricks of baked mud and burned wood. The public buildings of those cities also suggest a high degree of social organization.
Mohenjo-daro had been successively destroyed and rebuilt at least seven times. Each time, the new cities built directly on top of the old ones. Flooding by the Indus may have been the cause of destruction. The city divided into two parts, the Citadel and the Lower City. Most of the Lower City remains uncovered, but that the Citadel had the public bath, a large residential structure designed to house 5,000 citizens and two large assembly halls, has been determined. Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and their civilization, vanished without trace from history until discovered in the 1920s. Although extensively excavated in the 1920s, in-depth excavations suspended in the 1960s.
The name of the city has been lost to time but centuries later, denizens of the same area will call it Mohenjo Daro – City of the Dead. The citizens of this urban economic center have come a long way from their pastoral lives 500–1,000 years ago. There are other rivers but the Sindh River will forever remain the source of life. This city will share mention in history along with Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.
Mohenjo Daro, a successful city and economic hub, formed a part of the Indus Valley Civilization from 2600 to 1900 BC. Harappa; its twin in Punjab and other cities a beam of western India, together formed the Indus Valley Civilization, covering the size of Western Europe. The period from 1900 BC to 1300 BC witnesses the decline of the cities.
The Indus Valley Civilization was the largest of the four ancient civilizations, which included Mesopotamia, Egypt and China. They were widely dispersed, spreading from Balochistan, Afghanistan, Sindh, Punjab through to Western India. A Buddhist Stupa built over the original temple, where Shiva or Agni were probably worshipped.
Tragically, while we have extensive information about the other civilizations because on is able to decode the languages, even though one found scripts written on pottery, seals and amulets. Only 10% of Mohenjo Daro has been dig out. A lot more still waits to be discovered.
Discovered in 1911, excavations began in Mohenjo Daro in 1922 and a treasure trove of pottery, seals and other artifacts were discovered, which point to craft technology, trade and economic expansion. Evidence suggests that the city was ruled through trade and religion, because there is no evidence of warfare or conquests. The rulers may very well have been merchants, property owners or religious leaders.
The brick houses, wells, drains, granaries and baths indicate that people from many different classes and occupations lived together in a grid like city, whose architecture and urban planning was not seen anywhere else in the ancient world.
Our history books told us that the Aryans descended from the Central Asian Mountains and decimated the earlier civilization around 1500 BC but new evidence suggests that this was unlikely. It is more probable that climate change caused droughts due to drying up of rivers and hiatus in monsoon, which led to the city’s abandonment and a migration towards the west. Other evidence shows that people continued to survive even after the climate changed because they used shifting crop patterns, planting wheat and barley during heavy monsoons and millet and rice in the declining phase. This resulted in de-urbanization because large storage spaces were no longer needed and smaller home based crop processing and storage systems were used.
Sadly, as is always the tradition in Pakistan, we are more prone towards of glory than to action. And this is why Mohenjo Daro has been neglected for decades. No excavation has taken place and certainly, no concrete preservation has been authorized.
Concluding every site of Mohenjo Daro gives the undiscovered story of ancient era. The in crafted stupas the material used for them is a remarkable part of history. Every year thousands of tourist explore its each however as it mentioned earlier that only 10% of original is been excavated. Rest of all is still need attention.
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