India 1947-1997 : New Light on the Indus Civilization

Contents: Preface. I. From darkness to light. Once again darkness, but this time followed by much brighter light. II. The Indus civilization was not built in a day: the tale of its evolution. III. No monotony: each settlement has its own planning: 1. Kalibangan. 2. Banawali. 3. Lothal. 4. Surkotada. 5. Dholavira. IV. Some other sites that matter: a peep into the devolution of the Indus civilization: 1. Manda. 2. Ropar. 3. Balu. 4. Mitathal. 5. Hulas. 6. Alamgirpur. 7. Bhagwanpura. 8. Daimabad. 9. Kuntasi. 10. Rojdi. 11. Bet Dwaraka. 12. Desalpur. 13. Rangpur. V. The earliest agricultural field ever revealed through an excavation. VI. Another earliest: this time an earthquake. VII. The earliest dockyard known to humanity. VII. Water management: the earliest dams and draw-wells. IX. The only stadium that the Harappans can boast of. X. From left to right or right to left? Clinching evidence that put an end to the controversy over the direction of writing in the Harappan script. XI. Do some folk tales go back to the Harappan times? XII. New light on religion: 'Fire altars' and animal sacrifice. XIII. Was the Harappan society stratified? An analysis based on new evidence. XIV. Disposal of the dead: some altogether new aspects. Cremation? Symbolic burial? Beginning of megalithism? Origin of the Stupa? XV. The truant horse clears the hurdles. XVI. Chronological horizon of the Harappan civilization securely fixed. XVII. The myth of Aryan invasion: reflections on the authorship of the Harappan civilization. XVIII. Looking ahead. Bibliography. Index.

"Sometimes facts are stranger than fiction. At midnight of August 14-15, 1947, not only did the Indus river, from which India derives its name, slip out of Indian territory but also all the sites of the grand civilization associated with the name of that river, viz. the Indus civilization.

"Indian archaeologists, however, took up the challenge and by now have put on the map of divided India nearly 1,000 sites pertaining variously to early, mature and late phases of this civilization. The civilization is now known to have extended far beyond the Indus valley--up to northern Uttar Pradesh in the east and northern Maharashtra in the south.

"But neither the number nor the extent is of essence. What really matters is that the Indian sites have thrown altogether new light on this civilization. To wit, we now have: from Lothal, the earliest dockyard known to humanity; from Kalibangan, the earliest ploughed agricultural field ever revealed through excavation, as also the evidence of the earliest earthquake; from Dholavira, the earliest example of damming a stream for water-supply; from the same site a unique township comprising a Citadel, middle town and lower town, all duly fortified.

"Avoiding technical jargon but fully illustrated, the book is written specially for non-archaeologists who, the author feels, must share these achievements. It is to them that the book is dedicated." (jacket)

[Prof. B.B. Lal was the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1968-1972. His books include The Earliest Civilization of South Asia.]