Ancient Indian Town planning

The Indus valley civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 33001300 BC, flowered 26001900 BC) was an
ancient civilization thriving along the Indus River and the Ghaggar-Hakra River in what is
now Pakistan and north-western India.
Among other names for this civilization is the Harappan Civilization, in reference to its
first excavated city of Harappa.
The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was discovered in the 1920s and is known only from
archaeological excavations, except, possibly, for Sumerian references to Meluha, which
has been proposed to correspond to the IVC.

An alternative term for the culture is Saraswati-Sindhu Civilization, based on the popular
identification of the Ghaggar-Hakra River with the Saraswati River.

The Indus civilization arose

and flourish by processes
of change that are
essentially local, and yet it
participated in a much
larger world of trade,
commerce and cultural
history.

 A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley
Civilization.
The quality of municipal town planning suggests knowledge of urban planning and efficient
municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene.
The streets of major cities such as Mohenjo-daro or Harappa were laid out in perfect grid
patterns.

As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently discovered Rakhigarhi, this urban plan
included the world's first urban sanitation systems.
Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room
that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to drains, which
lined the major streets.
Well developed and advanced sewerage and drainage system
Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes.

 The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive dockyards,

granaries, warehouses, brick platforms and protective walls.
The massive citadels of Indus cities that protected the Harappans from floods and
attackers were larger than most Mesopotamian ziggurats.
Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans, who lived with others pursuing
the same occupation in well-defined neighborhoods.

Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civilization cities were remarkable
for their apparent egalitarianism.
All the houses had access to water and drainage facilities.
This gives the impression of a society with low wealth concentration.

Development of Cities
Indus cities grew out of earlier villages that had existed in the same locality for hundreds of
years.
Beginning with a relatively small population, they grew in size and density to become the
largest settlement of the region, surrounded by numerous towns and villages.
New villages were established at the crossroads of trade routes, which eventually became
large towns and cities of the Indus Valley civilization.
All these settlements were linked by trade and economic activities as well as religious
beliefs and social relations.
Most villages covered 1 hectares to 10 hectares of area. These villages supported and
maintained the larger towns and cities.
Vast agricultural lands, rivers and forests that were inhabited by pastoral communities,
fisher folk and hunters and gatherers surrounded each city.

Mohenjo-daro
Pop. 35,000-41,000 Area >200 hectares
No fortification
Major streets in the N-S direction

Broadly at right angles

Streets within built-up areas were narrow
Zoning was distinct for distinct groups, commerce
at the meeting of east road and first street, near
palace

Mohenjo-daro
Three broad divisions of the settlement:
-The religious, institutional and cultural
areas - around monastery and great bath in
the western part including temple.

-The northern part - principally for

agriculture and industries
-The southern part principally for
administration, trade and commerce

 Construction technique was very well advanced:

Buildings were of masonry construction (sun-dried bricks)

Ranging from two rooms to mansions with many rooms
Underground sewerage and drainage from houses
Pumps (helical) to pump water in great bath

Principal buildings were monastery and bath indicating the

influence of religion as a culture (not for defense)

Development of art and craft, science and technology:

excellent way of adjustment to contours
Range of shops and craft workshops-potters, dyers, metal
workers, shell ornament makers and bead makers shops

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The Great Bath

Size : 12 x 7x 3 m.
This is the earliest public water tank in the ancient world.

Two wide staircases in the north and the south lead down into the
tank. At the foot of the steps is a ledge extending the entire width of
the pool.

The floor of the tank is watertight.

A thick layer of bitumen was laid along the sides of the tank and
beneath the floor.
The floor slopes to the south-western corner where a small outlet
leads to a brick drain, which takes the water to the edge of the
mound. Rooms are located along the eastern edge of the building.

The tank was probably used for special religious functions where
water was used to purify and renew the well being of the bathers.
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Granary and Great Hall

Granary (50x40 m) is built on a massive mud brick foundation.

Two rows of six rooms are arranged along a central passageway (7 m wide and paved
with baked bricks).

Each room (15.2 x 6.1 m) has 3 sleeper walls with airspace between them.

A wooden superstructure would have built on the brick foundation with stairs leading to
the central passage area.

Small triangular openings may have been air ducts to allow the flow of fresh air beneath
hollow floors.

Great Hall (50 x 27 m) is built on the top of a tapered brick platform and has a solid brick
foundation.

The foundation was divided into 27 square and rectangular blocks by narrow
passageways running east west and north south. Some of these blocks have square
sockets for holding wooden beams or pillars.

A brick lined well was located at the foot of the stairs.

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Harappa
Harappa had a population of around
23,500 and an area of over 150
hectares.
The city of Harappa consists of a number
of mounds, each provided with mud brick
walls, and brick gateways and bastions.
Earliest city may have been formed
during the Kot Diji phase, i.e., 2800-2500
BC and covered an area of 25 hectares.

It became a centre for trade networks

extending from Baluchistan and
Afghanistan to the west to the seacoast
in the south.

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Town structure consists of:

Citadel mound and lower town surrounded by a massive brick wall.

Citadel had square towers and bastions.

Large open areas inside the gateway may have been used as a market or checkpoint for taxing goods coming
into the city

Outside the city walls a cluster of houses may represent temporary rest stops for travelers and caravans

No division of the society is reflected in the layout of the city. Since large public buildings, market areas, large
and small houses as well as craft workshops have been found in the same neighborhood.

Basic house plans ranging from single room tenements to houses with courtyards and up to 12 rooms to great
houses with several dozen rooms and several courtyards.

Houses had rooms on three sides opening into a central courtyard

Nearly all large houses had private wells.

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 Hearths common in rooms.

Bathrooms in every house with chutes leading to drainage channels.
First floor bathrooms also built.

Brick stairways provided access to the upper floors.

Houses built with a perimeter wall and adjacent houses were separated by a narrow space of land.
Granary with areas for threshing grains.
Burnt bricks mainly used for drains, wells and bathrooms.

Sun dried bricks used mainly for fillings.

Timber used for flat roofs and as frames or lacing for brickwork

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Drainage System

Wells and reservoirs were provided in cities to ensure drinking and bathing water. The wells were lined with speciallymade wedge-shaped bricks to form a structurally sound cylinder.

Ropes were used to lift the water out, probably with leather or wooden buckets. Some neighborhoods had communal
wells.

Bathing platforms with drains were often situated in rooms adjacent to the wells. The floors of the baths were made of
tightly-fitted bricks, often set on edge to make a watertight floor. A small drain cut through the house wall out into the
street directed the dirty water into a larger sewage drain.

Drains and water chutes in the upper storeys were often built inside the wall with an exit opening just above the street
drains. Tapered terracotta drainpipes were used to direct water out to the street.

Many houses had distinct toilets, separate from the bath areas. Commodes were large jars or sump pots sunk into
the floors and many of them contained a small jar. Sometimes the sump pots were connected to drains to let the
sewage flow out and most had a tiny hole on the bottom to allow the water to seep into the ground.

Drains were made of burnt bricks and connected the bathing platforms and latrines of private houses to mediumsized open drains in the side streets. These open drains flowed into the larger sewers in the main streets which were
covered with baked bricks or dressed stone blocks. Separate garbage bins were provided along the major streets.
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 The most common building materials were mud bricks and baked bricks, wood
and reeds.

Most private houses had rooms arranged around a central courtyard. Doors and
windows opened out into side lanes. Stairs led up to the roof or the second storey.
Large buildings in the acropolis area may represent administrative or ritual
structures.
These buildings had access routes or provided thoroughfare from one area to
another. Markets and public meetings were probably held in large open
courtyards.
Groups of houses and public buildings were built close together with shared walls
and formed larger blocks that were bordered by wide streets.
Most houses had private bathing areas and latrines as well as private wells.

At Harappa, the transition of the settlement from an agricultural village to early

city probably took place in around 2800 BC (Kot Diji) phase.
During this phase the settlement grew to about 25 hectares in size and became a
centre for trade networks.
In the next few hundred years, the town had grown six times larger, covering an
area of 150 hectares.
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Dholavira
Unlike most Harappan cities, Dholavira in the
Rann of Kacchh , excavated by R. S. Bisht in
the 1990s, presents us with a largely
undisturbed plan and clearly delineated multiple
enclosures covering about 48 hectares.
This fascinating site displays two marked
specificities. While Harappan town-planning is
usually based on a duality acropolis / lower
town, Dholaviras plan is triple: an acropolis or
upper town consisting of a massive castle and
an adjacent bailey, a middle town (including a
huge ceremonial ground), and a lower town, a
large part of which was occupied by a series of
reservoirs.

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Kalibangan

Kalibangan lies along the left bank of the dried-up bed of

river Ghaggar (ancient Sarasvati). It comprises of three
mounds, the larger one in the middle (KLB-2), the smaller in
the west (KLB-1) and the smallest in the east (KLB-3). The
excavations brought to light grid layout of a Harappan
metropolis, perhaps truly the first city of the Indian culture
heritage.

The significant part of the evidence, however, relates to the

discovery of a early-Harappan settlement, immediately
underlying the occupational remains of the Harappan citadel.

It also has given the evidence of the earliest (c. 2800 BC)
ploughed agricultural field ever revealed through an
excavation.

Beside the above two principal parts of the metropolis, there

was also a third one, situated 80 m east of the lower city. It
consisted of a modest structure, containing four to five firealtars and as such could have been used for
ritualistic purposes.
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Banawali
Situated in the Hissar district of Haryana it was on the
bank of the river Rangoi, identified with the ancient bed
of Sarasvati River.
The excavations conducted by R.S. Bisht have yielded
two cultural phases, Pre-Harappan and Harappan,
similar to that of Kalibangan.
The Harappan phase showed significant departure from
the established norms of town-planning (chess-board
pattern as in Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, etc.).
The roads were neither always straight, nor are they cut
at right-angles. It lacked systematic drainage system, a
noteworthy feature of the Indus civilisation.

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Surkotada

The site at Surkotada is located 160 km (99 mi) north-east

of Bhuj, in the district of Kutch, Gujarat. The ancient mound
stands surrounded by an undulating rising ground clustered by
small sandstone hills. The mound is higher on the western side
and lower on the eastern side and has an average height of 5 to
8 m (16 to 26 ft).

In the ancient days, a river 750 m ( mi) wide flowed past the
north-eastern side of the site. This river, which emptied into the
Little Rann, might have been an important reason for siting the
town here. Now this river is only a small nalla (stream).

Moreover, many scholars feel that the location of Surkotada was

strategic to control the eastward migration of the Harappans from
Sind. Surkotada also supports the concept of the feudal system of
administration in the civilization . In other words, Surkotada could
have functioned as a regional capital or garrison town.

The plan of Surkotada is composed of two squares - the one to

the east is called the residential complex and measures 60 by
55 m while the one on the west is the citadel and it measures 60
by 60 m . The citadel is the higher of the two. The fortification wall
of the citadel has an average base width of 3.54 m and has two
10 by 10 m bastions on the southern wall. Similar bastions are
expected on the northern wall but have not been excavated yet

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Lothal

The 7 m thick occupational debris has been divided

by the excavator into two Periods, A and B, the first
belonging to the mature Harappa culture and the
second to a decadent stage thereof. The lower town
provided accommodation for craftsmencoppersmiths, goldsmiths, shell-workers and beadmakers, their shops and working-places marked by
the remains of their craft.

The acropolis was trapezoid on plan, 117 m e.-w.,

136 m on the n. and 111 m on the s. The main
residence, of which no trace is left, stood on a 3.5 m
high podium, 126 x 30 m, with three streets and
three lanes, and had a brick-lined well and elaborate
drainage system attached to the baths Lothal had
two other notable features distinguishing it from
earlier Indus cities-a dock and a warehouse. The
former, a trapezoid baked-brick enclosure
measuring on an average 214 x 36 m and flanking
and running along practically the whole length of the
e. city-wall, has been taken to be a dock to berth
ships sailing into it at high tide through a 12 m wide
gap in the e. flank; in the s. wall at the opposite end
was a spillway for excess water to escape and to
lock water when necessary by a (wooden) shutter in
the vertical grooves provided in the flanking walls.

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Rakhigarhi

Rakhigarhi is a village in Hisar District in the state

of Haryana

Rakhigarhi is around 350-hectare (3.5 km2) making it

the largest Indus Valley Civilization site in India,
Pakistan & Afghanistan.

In size, dimensions, strategic location and unique

significance of the settlement, Rakhigarhi
exceeds Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa sites in Pakistan
and Dholavira in India's Gujarat whose dimensions
are 200, 150 and 100 hectares respectively.

Three layers of Early, Mature and Late phases of

Indus Valley civilization have been found at
Rakhigarhi. Findings till date indicate that Rakhigarhi
settlement witnessed all the three phases. The sites
antiquities, drainage system and signs of small-scale
industry are in continuity with other Indus sites. But
major portion of this site has not been excavated yet.

Digging so far reveals a well planned city with 1.92 m

wide roads
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Vedic town planning

Settlement-An environment for growth
According to the Indian Shastras,society comprises four Varnas (Guna + Karma) with three
Gunas. The three Gunas(Satva-good,Rajas-that which is passionate/activity,tamas-dull) have 6
factors, and they are:

Jnana-Knowledge , Karma-work, Karta-Actor/Doer, Buddhi-Understanding, Dhriti-Fortitude or

tenacity, Sukha-Happiness.
They draw out the detailed behavioural pattern of each Varna. A settlement can accommodate on
Varna or it can be mixed. But even one-Varna settlement will include other varnas because any
single Varna, by itself, can't sustain.
The help of other Varnas is necessary to run shops, schools,hospitals,police stations, and all that
forms a part of the settlement.
A settlement should be designed so as to provide an environment for growth and upliftment.

Society can be deemed to have failed when a particular Varna begins to feel dwarfed.
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Divisions of Society
Bramhin Guna

The intellectual, thinker

Kshatriya Guna

The ruler,politician,administrative,executive

Vaishya Guna

Businessman, agriculturist

Shudra Guna

Labourer, worker

Varna is not caste. It is a quality of mind-Guna,an ability to workKarma.and has nothing to do with birth

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The General Planning principles

Each village should be surrounded by a wall of thick brick or stone and supported by ramparts. Beyond this wall, there
has to be a deep broad moat.

Four gates ,each at the centre of one side of the wall and one gate at each corner.

One ring road running all around the village.

2 other large streets, which connects the opposite main gates.

At the centre of the village, there are temples, public halls and public spaces generally built for the meetings.

The village then should be divided to 4 blocks. each of which again gets subdivided into many blocks by sreets,which
has to be straight and should run from one end to the other.

Houses should be built along the main streets facing each other and ground floor of these houses should be used as
shops.

Ring road should have houses only on one side.

The houses should always be uniform in structure.

Tanks,ponds,community worship buildings etc should be provided within convenient distance and should be accessible
to all.

Cremation grounds should be located outside the village.

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