Houses

Although Harappan houses survive as bare brick walls with traces of plaster, it is likely that originally they were extremely colorful, the plaster being decorated with painted designs. Doorsteps, which raised the householder above the level of the lane, may have been decorated, as they often are today with auspicious designs in red and white. The upper floors probably had windows with wooden shutters so that they could be closed, and with wood or stone lattice grilles, or mats hung on the outside, to allow air into the house.

In the major settlements, especially Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, baked bricks were frequently employed for house construction, while in lesser settlements unfired mud bricks were more usual, and in some settlements, particularly in Gujarat, stone was also used. Baked bricks, however, were widely used for constructing wells, drains, and bathroom floors. The bricks were of uniform proportions (1:2:4) and usually of a standard size, 7 by 14 by 28 centimeters, though there was some variation (for example, at Banawali the bricks ranged in size from 6.5 by 13 by 26 centimeters to 8 by 16 by 32 centimeters). Wood was also employed, both structurally and for fixtures such as doors and their frames. Over time, the house walls were repaired and rebuilt in the same place, whereas internal walls might be moved to change the layout of the domestic space. Occasionally, however, single houses were divided into two, or two houses were amalgamated into one.

The houses, though they varied in detail, were similar in their general layout, with rooms around a courtyard and stairs to upper chambers. The entrance usually gave on to a short passage or opened into a room, arranged so that the courtyard and house interior were not visible from outside, protecting the occupants from rubbish blowing in from the street and affording them privacy. In some cases a small janitor's room faced directly on to the doorway so that the visitor was first confronted and checked out by a doorkeeper. The courtyard was the center of the household, as it is in modern South Asia. Here much of the day-to-day business of life took place for much of the year: preparing grain, fruit, and vegetables for storage or immediate consumption; washing and drying clothes; spinning, weaving, and sewing; cooking, eating, playing, and sleeping. In some houses at Nausharo, part of the courtyard was covered by a roof supported on posts or pillars.

Storage was provided in various forms, including jars, cylindrical clay bins, and small rectangular brick chambers without doors, probably accessed by ladder. Various rooms, generally including a bathroom, opened off the courtyard. At Kalibangan, Banawali, and Lothal, it has been suggested that the houses also included a room set apart as a domestic shrine.

In some cases there was a small kitchen with a hearth, where food and water could be heated. Hearths are rarely reported at Mohenjo-daro, though there were a few on brick platforms. This, combined with the evidence of house fires, has led to the suggestion that the hearths were located in the upper stories, a dangerous practice given that the superstructures were of wood. However, in recent excavations at Harappa, some rooms were found to contain the lower part of large pottery jars that had been used as portable hearths. Similar facilities may have existed at Mohenjo-daro. At Nausharo there was usually a brick-built fireplace beside the eastern wall of the courtyard, with an attached brick compartment containing a jar or clay bin in which fuel was stored. Fire pits, with a central pillar made out of a brick coated in clay, are also known. Though generally for domestic use, some may also have been used for industrial purposes.

Floors were usually of beaten earth, but some were paved with bricks or triangular terra-cotta cakes. There is little evidence of furniture; some representations on seals suggest that low stools were sometimes used, but it is likely that, as in modern times, people mainly sat on mats and cushions on the floor. One model bed of the Early Harappan period has been found at Kalibangan, though the details of its construction are obscured by a bedcover; beds may have resembled the modern charpoy, a wooden frame with a lattice of rope.

In many settlements, such as Mohenjo-daro, a stair led from the courtyard to one or occasionally two upper stories. In others, such as Kalibangan, houses had only a single story. Constructed of wooden beams covered by packed clay or matting and plaster, the roof provided an additional place for the household to sit, talk, and sleep.

Larger houses also included passages leading from the courtyard to additional rooms, or they had several courtyards. These may have belonged to wealthy, elite households or to large extended families. Anna Sarcina, who has analyzed the houses at Mohenjo-daro, considers that most houses accommodated nuclear families. Some of the larger houses were surrounded by a number of smaller units, suggesting the quarters of families who depended on the central household. Houses were grouped together in blocks separated by lanes. Many houses show signs of frequent remodeling by adding or removing internal walls and by changing the location of the entrance, probably reflecting the alterations required when households changed in size or composition.

While courtyard houses of baked or mud bricks were the norm in towns and cities, in rural settlements, even those of some size such as Rojdi, houses were round or rectangular single-roomed structures built of packed mud or of wattle and daub. In some cases, a household might have several buildings, some accommodating animals, and a yard.