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Harappa-a Gateway City
Harappa - The Gateway City
Rafi Samad
(Author, Freelance journalist, News Analyst)
The Indus Civilization dominated the economic and cultural scene over more than a million square kilometres of territory in South Asian sub-continent from 2500 BC to 1200 BC. The principal city and the base of the Civilization was Moenjodaro, an ancient city located near Larkana in Northern Sindh. Harappa in Southern Punjab was second largest city in the Civilization. Inspite of the distance of several hundred kilometres between them, Moenjodaro and Harappa functioned as twin cities. They served as anchor points around which the Civilization revolved.
The Indus Civilization was spread over six distinct geographical regions:
- Central Region, which included the greater part of Sindh and Southern Punjab.
- Eastern Region, comprising of Bahawalpur-Cholistan area.
- North-eastern Region, comprising of regions in eastern Punjab and Haryana.
- North-western Region, comprising of northern Baluchistan and western Pakhtunkhawa.
- South-eastern Region, comprising of Kutch, Kathiawar and Gujerat.
The concept of a Gateway City was developed by the metropolitan regime in Moenjodaro, to use the strategic location of Harappa in the north and Amri in the south for tapping the material resources and for exercising effective administrative control over the vast regions which came under its economic and cultural domination.
Development of close working relationship between Moenjodaro and Harappa:
At the time when Moenjodaro was emerging as the first major urban settlement in the Indus Valley Harappa was a small settlement spread over an area of about 25 acres. Around 3000 BC when Moenjodaro had developed into a semi-urban entity, its regime began to look for diverse material resources for its industries and markets for its goods. With this intention trading contacts were established by Moenjodaro with Harappa. Simultaneously craftsmen and traders from the Moenjodaro Region began to move to Harappa to establish manufacturing facilities there.
A special relationship developed between Moenjodaro and Harappa soon after these initial contacts. This led to more intense relationship when the construction of the new city of Moenjodaro on the artificial mounds began sometime around 2800 BC. While the new city of Moenjodaro was still under construction, it seems that the architects, engineers and town-planners, who were involved in the planning of Moenjodaro, moved to Harappa to construct a similar city on artificial mounds there. Like Moenjodaro, Harappa was also prone to inundations by floods, though to a lesser degree as compared to Moenjodaro. Therefore, the principal established at Moenjodaro of constructing a new city on artificial mounds for protection against floods, found ready application at Harappa.
By the time the construction of the new city of Harappa was in advanced stages, Harappa had come under the total dominance of the regime based at Moenjodaro. It became a sort of a twin-city of Moenjodaro. The same clans, which ruled at Moenjodaro, may have been also in power in the twin-city of Harappa.
Because of its strategic location and close historical and economic relations with the regions in the north and east of the South Asian sub-continent, the twin city of Harappa began to be developed by the Moenjodaro regime as the gateway for tapping the material resources in the northern regions of Punjab and beyond. The administrators, traders and skilled workers probably moved in large numbers from Moenjodaro to Harappa. They firmly established Harappa as an arm of the central administration. While Moenjodaro continued to remain the principal city in the cultural union, Harappa rapidly grew in status and grandeur.
In addition to its status of an administrative and cultural control centre ofthe regime based in Moenjodaro, Harappa developed into an important centre for craft industries. The remains of the craft industries and the artefacts recovered from the industrial area at the site of Ancient Harappa indicate that Harappa developed sophisticated techniques for manufacturing high quality craft products. Temperature controlled ovens were employed for baking painted ceramics and multi-speed wheel-turning equipment for different types and parts of pottery.
Among the large number of craft products produced at Harappa Industrial Complex were beautiful beads and ornaments, articles made of glass-type material called faience, pottery in different shapes and size and figurines of human and animals.
About the Author
Mr.Rafi Samad is a author, freelance journalist and news analyst. His special interests include Cultural History, Ancient Civilization, Renewable energy and current affairs.
Following two books have been published so far:
1. Ancient Indus Civilization
2. Greeks in Ancient Pakistan
His first novel 'Where the earth quaked' is being processesed for publication.
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