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1. Town Planning and
Architecture of
Harappa &
Mohenjo-daro
Dr. Virag Sontakke

2. Harappa

3. Introduction of IVC
• Known As: Indus valley civilization, Harappan civilization, or
Saraswati civilization, Ghagghar-Hakra civilization, Indo-
Sarsaswati civilization
• The earliest known Urban culture of the Indian subcontinent.
• IVC consisted of large cities, and small towns and villages.
• Indus civilization was the most extensive than contemporary
culture.
• The Indus Valley civilization was basically an urban culture
sustained by surplus agricultural production and commerce.
• Mature period the civilization appear to be about 2500–1700 BCE.
• It spread in modern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan

4. Location
• Harappa, is situated in
Punjab province, Pakistan.
• Site lies on the left bank of a
now dry course of the Ravi river.
• It is located 160 km southwest
of Lahore.
• The current village of Harappa
is less than 1 km (0.62 mi) from
the ancient site.

5. History of Excavations at Harappa
• The archaeological site at Harappa was damaged in 1857 when engineers
constructing the Lahore-Multan railroad.
• The Harappa site was first excavated by Sir Alexander Cunningham in 1872-73.
• The first extensive excavations at Harappa were started by Rai Bahadur Daya Ram
Sahni in 1920.
• Then the culture identified as Indus Valley civilisations
• M.S. Vats excavated the "Granary," and published the results excavations in 1940.
• Excavations by other archaeologists continued in the 1930’s.
• In 1946 Sir Mortimer Wheeler excavated and found the first pre-Indus Valley
civilization (Kot Diji) deposits.
• After independence, Harappa was excavated by Mohammed Rafique Mughal of the
Archaeological Survey of Pakistan in 1966.
• In 1986, Harappa Archaeological Project (HARP), initiated and excavation begun
under the direction of George F. Dales and J. Mark Kenoyer.

6. The Illustrated London News
on September 20, 1924.

7. The Site
• The excavations revealed
that Harappa was grid-
plan layout.
• Site has lower town and
Citadel
• It has many mounds called
Mound A to F
• It has a houses with
sophisticated construction.
• Also has public structures
• And cemetery

8. Chronology
• Period I: Ravi-Hakra phase
(c. 3300-2800 BCE)
Period II: Kot diji phase, Early Harappa
(c. 2800-2600 BCE)
• Period III: Harappan Phase
(c. 2600-1900 BCE)
• Periods IV: Transitional Phase (c.
1900-1700 BCE)
• Periods V: Late Harappan Phase
(c. 1700-1300 BCE)

9. Plan of the Harappa

10. • Current estimate is that the site
was at least 150 hectares in area
(Dales and Kenoyer 1989a).
• Most Harappan baked brick
structures had been removed
by brick robbing.
• This disturbance extended up
to two meters below the
surface.

11. Town Planning of Harappa
1. Fortifications
2. Citadel
3. Lower town
4. Houses
5. Drains
6. Granary
7. Roads
8. Wells

12. Fortifications
• It has Massive defensive walls on all sides
• Bastions are seen at regular intervals
• Bastions also has entrance to go up.
• This leads to ramps and terraces to supervised from guardrooms.
• The fortifications have been built and rebuilt many times
• First utilizing simple brick-bats were replaced nearly from the ground up
by baked bricks
• Varies gates have been found
• One gate found measures only 2.6 meters wide

13. Citadel
• The Citadel has an size of 420 m. N-S and 196 m. E-W.
• Structures were build on 6 meter high platform.
• It was also fortified.

14. Houses
• Varying types of houses and buildings are found.
• Central courtyard and rooms around.
• Entry from the lanes
• Multi-storeyed houses (1-2 stories)
• Stairs led to the upper stories through a side room or the courtyard
• It is also indicate that third floor might also have existed.
• The average thickness of walls was 70 cm and the average ceiling height about
3 meters.
• Doors were made of wood with wooden frames
• The windows had both shutters and grills, which were embedded into the
building itself.
• Groups or clusters of houses are also in evidence

15. • Evidence of Brick Robbing
• Structures of Harappa were sometimes
made of a combination of mud-bricks and
baked bricks.
• Walls that were made completely of baked
brick

16. Wells
• Total 30 wells were reported
• Close river nearby may be one of the reason
• There are more private wells than public
• Public wells probably got polluted or run out due to heavy use and
affluent citizens then dug their own.
• Wells made of burnt and wedged shaped bricks

17. Sanitation
• Bathing platforms were situated next to the wells.
• Bathing platform were raised above ground level.
• Bathing place had tightly fitted brick floors which made them more or
less waterproof.
• Drains from these rooms led separately to the main drains
• Almost every house in Harappa has a latrine.
• Latrines had a large terracotta jar sunk into the ground and sometimes
connected to the external drains.

18. Well and Bathing
Platform,
Harappa, 2200-1900 BCE

19. Drainage
• Harappa has series of drains running along the
streets
• Later these connected to larger sewers in the main
streets.
• Houses smaller drains of latrines and bathing
areas connected to larger drains.
• Bigger drains had corbelled roofs so they could be
buried underneath the main streets.
• Drains exiting the city even had wooden doors
• Sump pits were found at intervals.
• It seem that drains were regularly cleaned to
avoid blockages.

20. • End of Lecture

21. Public Buildings: Granary
• The granary is located on Mound F.
• Plan: Rectangular
• It is lying on a massive mud brick foundation.
• Size: 50 m x 40 m.
• Total of 12 rooms in two rows (6 rooms each row) divided by a central
passageway
• A central passageway is 7 meter wide and partially paved with baked bricks.
• Each room measures approx. 15 m. x 6 m.
• The main structure would probably have been made of wood
• Triangular openings in the floor might have been air ducts to remove
moisture.
• Circular platforms near the buildings thought to be for husking of wheat

22. Granary: Conjunctural view
6 Rooms
Air ducts
Passage: 7 meter

24. Plan view of the
”Granary"
The Great Granary
is a mystery
1. What its
function was?
2. Was it actually
used to hold
grains?
3. Or used as a
place for farmers
to store their
crop?
4. Other Views:
Roman style? Or
Administrative
Building

25. Workman’s Quarter
• Situated north of citadel (mound F)
• Fourteen Rooms in two rows
• Seven in each row with a passage in between
• It has courtyard at front and room at back
• Size: 17 x 7 meter
• In front (north) of this structure 18 circular brick platform was
found
• Average diameter of these platform was 3 meter
• Could be used for threshing platform for grains

26. Building Materials
• The main materials used were burnt
bricks
• Bricks were made in moulds of 1:2:4
ratios
• Mud mortar and gypsum cement
were used
• Mud plaster and gypsum plaster are
also found

27. Conclusion
•Harappa is the the first identified site of the IVC
•Though, the site was robbed, many structures surviews
•Excavations is still going on at Harappa
•The data still being discovered helping us to piece
together its history.
•It was one of the biggest city of IVC
•Number of public structures/ bigger structure indicate
importance of the site
• No doubt much more work needs to be done to
understand.

29. Mohenjo-Daro
• Mohenjo-Daro means mound of the Dead Men
• Mohenjo-Daro was one of the largest settlements
of the IVC
• It was also one of the earliest major city of the
World.
• Mohenjo-Daro was considered a cosmopolitan
city of IVC

30. Mohenjo-daro
• Mohenjo-daro is
situated on the bank
of the Indus river.
• In modern Larkana
district of Pakistan.
• It is around 28
kilometres from
District Headquarter
• 5 Km from Indus
river
• 675 Km from
Harappa

31. Historical Backdrop
•Discovered in 1922 by R. D. Banerji, ASI.
• Large-scale excavations were carried out at the site
under the direction of…..
• John Marshall, K. N. Dikshit, Ernest Mackay, and
numerous other directors through the 1930s.
•Further excavations were carried out in 1945
by Mortimer Wheeler and A.H. Dani.
• The last major excavation project at the site was carried
out by the late Dr. G. F. Dales in 1964-65

32. • Site occupies 200-300
Ha. Area
• Site contains two mounds
and various area
• Like HR area: H.
Hargreaves
• DK area: K.N. Dikshit
• VS area: M. Vast
• Fairservice (1967): At
peak it probably had a
population of 41,250.
The Site

33. Site Lay-out
• Upper Town a,b:
Blue
• Lower Town c to
h: Red
• a: DK
• b: DK
• c: DK
• d: DK
• e: VS
• f: HR
• g: DKM
• h:
• i:

34. Town Planning and Architecture
1. Citadel
2. Lower Town
3. Fortifications
4. Houses
5. Street and Drains
6. Wells
7. Great Bath
8. Granary
9. Pillared hall
10.College of Priest
Citadel

37. The Citadel
• Western Mound called as
citadel
• The Citadel is a mud-brick
mound
• It rose to a height of 12 m
from GL.
• Its size around 400 x 200
m.
• Citadel is encircled by
fortification wall

38. 1. Structure
2.Bath
3.Granary
4.Assembly Hall
5. Priest house
6.Fortification
Wall

39. Fortification
• Both Citadel and lower town has thick fortification
• Size of Citadel’s fortification was 6 m. thick
• The wall has bastions
• It also has towers to supervise from top

40. Great Bath
• It’s a unique architecture and model of engineering of IVC
• Size: 14.5 x 7 meter
• Depth: 2.5 meter
• Entry from North and South via wide steps
• The floor and walls are water-tight
• Mortar: gypsum
• Earliest example of waterproofing structure
• Slope: south-west corner (drain with corbelled arch)
• A walkways surrounded the structure
• Series of room from eastern side and one room has a well
• At north eight room with bathing platform

42. Great Bath

43. College of Priest
•This structure is situated
north of the great Bath
• Size: 69 x 23.4 meter
•Two staircases indicate
multistoried building
• It has several rooms and three
verandas
• Because of close proximity to
great bath its identified as
College of Priest

44. A workman
handing over the
Priest King to John
Marshal in 1925-26
excavations

45. College
of Priest

46. Granary
• This structure is situated in the citadel area
• Initially it was identified as “Hammam”
• Build on higher platform
• Size: 50 x 27 meter
• Structure probably made of wood with solid brick foundations
• Foundation was divided into 27 blocks with narrow
passageway in-between
• 4.5 meter thick wide stairway to reach the structure
• A brunt brick platform identified as loading dock by Wheeler
• It has a bathing platform and well nearby

48. Assembly Hall/
Pillared Hall
• Situated in the
south of Citadel
• Square in shape
• Size: 27 x 27
meters
• This structure
was divided into
five aisles

49. Assembly Hall/
Pillared Hall

50. Lower Town
• Lower town encompasses
over 80 ha.
• Enclosed by fortification
wall
• Town was planned with
broad streets intersecting
each other at right angles
• Main street was 9 meter
wide
• Miner street were 1.5 to 3
meter wide

51. Houses
• Different size of houses
• One bigger house with multiple room
where large number of seals and
sealing and statue found considered
as house of important person.
• In HR area 16 houses (room +
bathroom) identified as workers
quarters.
• Numerous shops were also reported.
• Many workshops, manufacturing
area also identified according to
material culture.
• Size may indicate the social hierarchy

52. House Pattern of the Mohenjo-daro

56. Wells
•Total 700 wells were reported
• This is largest as compare to any site of IVC
• Mohenjo-Daro identified as a “City of Wells”
•High numbers of wells indicate one in every third
house had a well
• Wells were constructed by 10-15 meter deep
• Constructed by wedge shaped bricks
• Proper drains were planned for circulation of waste
water

58. Conclusion
• Earliest evidence of house planning
• The size of the city, and its structures and planning
indicate a high level of socio-political organization.
• Site shows urban nature through its structural remains
• High level of planning seen in architecture
• Big structure witnessed the administrative stronghold
• Mohenjo-daro was surely an important city of whole
IVC

59. Any
Questions ?