Discussions of Harappan urbanism always make reference to the so-called citadel. This is a culturally loaded term, implying defense, something that is not appropriate in the Harappan context, so some scholars eschew its use. It is, however, a term hallowed in its usage in the Harappan context and provides a useful shorthand by which to refer to the elevated or separately walled mound or sector commonly found in Harappan towns and cities. It is therefore employed here in this strictly limited sense, without any inherent implications about its cultural significance.
At Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, and Kalibangan, the citadel took the form of a separate mound on the west of the settled area: Investigations at Mohenjo-daro have confirmed that there was no occupation to its west. Little can be said of the badly damaged citadel at Harappa. While the Mohenjo-daro citadel buildings are thought to have been planned as an integrated complex, the citadel at Kalibangan was divided into two contrasting parts, separated by a wall. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were the first Harappan settlements to be investigated and seemed to set a pattern to which Kalibangan, excavated in the 1960s, appeared to conform, though already it was clear that the structures placed on the citadel varied from site to site. Later excavations have strengthened the picture of diversity. The citadels at Lothal and Banawali were a subdivision of the walled town. Surkotada in Gujarat was a walled settlement divided into two parts, the western half, built over a massive platform, being regarded as the citadel. At Dholavira, the citadel was a separately walled block surrounded by open spaces, subdivided into two halves: the Bailey and the Castle.
Kuntasi lacked a citadel, but there was a marked difference in function between the walled area and the surrounding suburbs, the latter being purely residential while the former included large-scale storage, an industrial complex, and organized accommodation. The situation at Gola Dhoro was similar, with walled and unwalled sectors.
In many cases the citadel was constructed over the remains of an earlier settlement: This is true, for example, of Banawali, Kalibangan, Dholavira, Lothal, and to some extent Harappa. This might suggest that the elevation of citadels resulted from the prior existence of a mound at the site: however, at settlements that were new foundations, including Mohenjo-daro, as well as in the settlements that had existed earlier, the construction of mud and baked brick platforms as the base for the citadel mound indicates that it was a deliberate policy to elevate citadels and the buildings they contained. Not all citadels were constructed on an elevation, but those that were not were still clearly separated from the rest of the settlement by an imposing wall that emphasized the distinctiveness and importance of the citadel and its structures. Although the location of the citadel varied (on the west in some, including Mohenjo-daro and Harappa; on the south in Dholavira and on the southeast in Lothal), in all cases the citadel was situated on one side of the settlement rather than at its heart. These regularities suggest that citadels were intentionally created to be a part of the settlement but separate and distinct. This meant that access could be controlled to the structures of the citadel, whether they were religious (such as the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro), economic (for example, the warehouse at Lothal), political (the Pillared Hall at Mohenjo-daro, perhaps), or residential (for instance, the northern citadel at Kalibangan).
Access. Entry to the citadel and access to its various parts were on the one hand controlled and restricted and on the other made impressive by the way the entrances and their approaches were laid out. A partially investigated structure in the southeast corner of the citadel mound at Mohenjo-daro may have provided public access to the complex at its southern end, including the Pillared Hall. The entrance combined massive brick towers with a narrow gateway, later elaborated with further towers and a raised walkway with a parapet. Atre (1989) suggested that the layout of the southern complex may also have controlled the movement of people within its various parts. A gate on the western side of the citadel mound may have provided more restricted access to the Great Bath and to other structures in the north of the citadel via a substantial flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs, one passed through another gate into a bathing place where, it is thought, visitors would have been required to purify themselves before entering the sacred precinct. In the street between the Great Bath and the College, a platform of baked brick with sockets for wooden beams may be the remains of a gateway, perhaps preventing unauthorized personnel from entering the area north of the Great Bath.
At Dholavira, the citadel was divided into two separately walled parts, the lower Bailey and the higher Castle, around 18 meters above ground level. The latter had a gateway in each wall. The eastern gateway was flanked by a chamber, along the front of which were columns with stone bases. In the area around the gate were found several highly polished stone pillars, not known from any other Indus settlement and reminiscent of the famous Mauryan pillars fashioned two thousand years later. In the postearthquake period, the main, northern entrance to the Castle was elaborated. A gateway from the esplanade gave access to an approach ramp leading to a terrace in front of the north gate. This opened into a passage running the thickness of the wall, beyond which an L-shaped flight of stairs led up into the Castle. Two chambers flanked the passage, each fronted by a row of pillars on stone bases. Lying on the ground in one chamber were found the remains of what had once been a wooden signboard probably placed above the gateway, set with nine gypsum signs in the enigmatic Indus script, a unique object. At the other end of the esplanade, steps led to a terrace and a gate into the Bailey. A passage through the thickness of the Bailey wall, paved with stone flags, was also flanked by two chambers. Bailey and Castle were connected by a sloping passage through the thickness of the Castle's west wall, with a few steps at the Bailey end.
Access from outside the citadel at Kalibangan was through an impressive gateway in the south, flanked by towers, now badly disturbed but probably originally with steps. The excavator, B. B. Lal, noted a footing with holes to the east of the gate, which he thought might have held banners. From the northern portion of the citadel, entered by a simple gateway in the north wall, a path paved with mud bricks and a stair up the side of the internal wall led through a central gateway in the southern part. The two halves of the walled town at Surkotada were similarly connected by a passage through the internal wall. Each of the halves had a separate external entrance through the massive stonefaced mud and mud brick main town wall, that of the citadel being flanked by guardrooms. The design of the gates meant that no vehicles could enter either half of the settlement. In the final phase of occupation, the town wall was rebuilt in stone and the citadel gate was elaborated into an approach involving a stair, a ramp, and another stair. At Harappa, Wheeler excavated two or three entrances of different dates on the west side of the citadel mound, with gates, ramps, terraces, a bastion, a guard room, and stairs or a ramp climbing to the citadel. A century earlier, Cunningham mentioned flights of stairs on both sides of the citadel. A larger gateway with a ramp provided a link in the north between mound F and the citadel.
Architecture on the Citadels. It is hard to generalize about the diverse structures found on the citadels. However, elevation, enclosure within impressive walls, and control over access seem to imply that the citadel's structures served public functions. The citadels generally included some unusual buildings, which were rare in other parts of the settlement, although a few were located in the Lower Town at Mohenjo-daro and in mound F at Harappa. It is, therefore, likely that in general the citadel was the main location of official activity and public architecture. The data available are, unfortunately, quite limited. The most comprehensively explored and published remains are from Mohenjo-daro. Other sites have a much more restricted range of structures (such as those at Lothal), or they have not been explored or published in much detail (for instance, Banawali or Rakhigarhi), or the citadel deposits are badly disturbed or eroded (for example, at Harappa or Nausharo).
A few structures have been identified as religious installations, in particular the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro and the platforms in the southern citadel at Kalibangan. A large reservoir and a rainwater collection system were uncovered on the citadel at Dholavira: In view of the strong link between water and Harappan ideology, these were perhaps related to religious practices. Large buildings are reported to have been uncovered in parts of the Dholavira citadel but published details are lacking. A large area in the northeast of the Mohenjo-daro citadel lies beneath the later Buddhist stupa, so it has not been excavated; however, architectural remains around its edge indicate that major buildings existed there. Much of the southern part of the mound was taken up by a large complex that included the Pillared Hall and perhaps a shrine; this complex seems to have had both public and residential areas. Residential buildings form a significant proportion of the structures found in all the excavated citadels; some were no different from the houses in the associated lower town, while others seem designed to accommodate large numbers of people.
Storage Facilities? Buildings identified as substantial storage facilities have been uncovered on the citadels of several settlements. Adjacent to the Great Bath in the northern part of the Mohenjo-daro citadel is a building that Wheeler thought to have been a granary, orientated east-west. A 6-meter-wide baked brick "loading platform" ran along the north side; this had many sockets for timbers, presumably supporting a roof. Toward the west end was a vertical-sided bay, which Wheeler interpreted as the place where bales were hauled up. The granary behind was a rectangular platform, 50 meters east-west by 33 meters north-south, bearing three rows of nine brick podia 1.5 meters high, separated by passages around 80 centimeters wide. The southern and central eastern blocks revealed rows of sockets that had held wooden timbers. Wheeler thought these had supported a ramp or flight of stairs, whereas Jansen (1979) suggested that each of these podia was covered by a light roof. Alternatively, the whole building may have had a massive wooden superstructure. Doubts have been cast on the building's interpretation as a granary since no grain was found during its excavation.
However, the Granary bears some similarities to the building at Lothal whose associated finds support an interpretation as a warehouse. The Lothal warehouse was constructed on a raised mud brick platform, with sixty-four mud brick blocks of which twelve have been uncovered, arranged in three rows of four separated by passages, and the building probably originally had a light superstructure. The finds from the building included numerous seals and sealings from bales of goods that had been packed in reeds, woven cloth, and matting. Storage facilities were provided in other settlements also. A granary with barley in one of its compartments was reported from the citadel at Rakhigarhi. Some of the buildings at Chanhu-daro may have been warehouses. In the walled sector at Gola Dhoro, there were a number of clay-lined storage bins, some containing large quantities of jasper from Saurashtra. Whereas beads were made from the mottled jasper stored in these bins, larger pieces of a colored variegated jasper was not used at Gola Dhoro but stored for onward distribution.
The tiny settlement of Allahdino did not have a separate citadel (or it was all citadel), but its layout and buildings suggest that it fulfilled an administrative role. The north wing of the largest building had several chambers containing pottery storage vessels, and a separate smaller structure contained others. Sunken storage jars were found in some of the rooms in a large complex on the citadel at Balakot. The walled area at Kuntasi included a number of rooms used for storage, some with jars and clay bins, others themselves containers (strong rooms). These were similar to domestic storage facilities, for example in the houses at Banawali.
At Harappa, a large building in mound F, which lay between the river and the citadel, was originally identified as a granary. A large mud brick plinth supported a series of twelve compartments, arranged in two rows of six, provided with sleeper walls to allow air to circulate beneath the floor. A wooden superstructure must originally have stood above this, probably a series of separate rooms or halls, each accessed from the central passage by means of a stair, and separated from each other by narrow passages. The identification as a granary was largely based on its perceived resemblance to Roman grain stores; grain, however, was conspicuously absent among the finds from the building. It may have been used to store other goods and materials, though there is no report of sealings or other remains that might support this. Recent reinvestigation by the HARP team has not uncovered any new clues to its function, but the team suggests that it may have been a palace or public building rather than a storage facility.
Residential Structures. Many of the buildings on Harappan citadels were residential. In some cases these were houses, for example, those exposed in the northern part of the citadel at Kalibangan and in the citadels of Banawali and Surkotada. Although these are sometimes stated to be larger than those in the lower town, in other cases there seems to have been no difference in size or layout or in the quality of associated facilities and material.
Two other types of residential buildings have been found: These occur both in the citadel and in the lower town, though their function need not necessarily have been the same in each area. One is a building with a number of duplicated units, each comprising one or two rooms and a bathroom (referred to as a hostel); the other is a complex of courtyards and rooms, far in excess of the normal size and often with unusual architectural features (referred to as a palace). In some cases, the two are found together or combined. As with other structures, the majority come from Mohenjo-daro.
In the area to the north of the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro, there was a block of eight bathrooms, arranged in two rows of four, each with a flight of stairs leading to an upper story. It has been plausibly suggested that this housed people (priests?) associated with the Great Bath. A nearby open courtyard may have been associated with the block but was separated from it by the street that ran between the east side of the Great Bath and a large complex known as the College. In the latter there were many small rooms, often faced with brick, and several courtyards, including a large one surrounded by a fenestrated walkway. At least seven entrances gave access to this complex, suggesting it was composed of a number of individual residences or fulfilled a number of functions, perhaps related to administration. Two flights of stairs in the complex show that the building had an upper story.
Farther south was a large hall with brick bases for four rows of five pillars, paved with baked bricks in patterns of unknown significance, though Kenoyer (1998) has suggested that they may indicate places where people were to sit during the activities that took place here. This building bore some resemblance to later public architecture in the subcontinent, such as the Mauryan pillared hall at Pataliputra and Buddhist monastic halls. It has been suggested that this hall was used for public gatherings. It formed part of a larger complex, reminiscent of Near Eastern palaces in the mixture of large courtyards and other public spaces, shrines, and residential quarters; these served both as centers of administrative, legal, economic, and political activity and as the residence of the rulers and their large households. A suite of rooms south of the Pillared Hall included an unusually high proportion of bathrooms; in the western block there were a number of small rooms probably for storage, a smaller hall with rectangular piers to support pillars, containing large-scale cooking facilities, and a long chamber adjacent to a large well. In a badly disturbed hall located farther west, the presence of ring stones suggests that there were wooden columns. One secluded room may have been a shrine. It is also noteworthy that three stone sculptures of people, a high proportion of the very few pieces of Harappan stone sculpture known, were found in parts of this complex.
The residential area on the citadel at Lothal includes twelve bathing platforms attached to a large drain that may have belonged to a row of single-roomed houses, though the architectural detail is uncertain. Nearby was a building that the excavator, S. R. Rao, suggested was the ruler's house. A large complex was partially uncovered on the citadel at Balakot, including courtyards and unusual architectural features such as a patterned floor.
Although structural remains have not demonstrated unequivocally that the citadels were the main location of public activities and the center of administration and government, they are at least consistent with such an interpretation.
The Lower Town
The citadel formed only a small part of most Harappan towns and cities, and the rest was taken up by the lower town, generally walled, and by unwalled sub-
Limestone ring stones were used to hold wooden pillars in some special structures, including gateways into the citadel at Dholavira and several pillared halls at Mohenjo-daro. (J. M. Kenoyer, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
Urbs. The existence of a suburban area has only recently begun to be apparent; very few have been investigated at all and none to a significant degree, and in the majority of cases even the extent of such suburbs is unknown. Consequently, many aspects of Harappan urbanism and society are still unexplored or poorly known. The picture, probably skewed, provided by the investigated lower towns is of well-appointed housing, light industry, and high standards of civic architecture, including excellent provision of water and sanitation.
Street Planning. Straight cardinally orientated main streets generally divided Harappan towns and cities into residential blocks. The impression of the early excavators at Mohenjo-daro, reinforced by excavations at Kalibangan, was that settlements were laid out in a checkerboardlike grid pattern. Although more recent investigations have shown this to be untrue, the layout was nevertheless governed by precise criteria. The main streets ran north-south, diverging from this orientation by no more than 2 degrees. Holger Wanzke (1987) demonstrated that this cardinal orientation could have been achieved by aligning the streets with the setting point in the west of the bright star Aldebaran (Rohini), while the orientation of the Granary could have been aligned on the setting point of Procyon in the constellation of Canis Minor. The slight changes in orientation reflected the variation through time in the observed rising and setting position of the heavenly bodies on which the directions were based.
Though usual, cardinally orientated streets were not universal. At Dholavira, a straight main street ran west to east through the Middle Town and continued through a gate into the Lower Town, where it took a more crooked course. At Banawali, the grid pattern of streets was only loosely followed and in the smallest settlements, such as Allahdino and Kuntasi, the size of the settlement made streets unnecessary.
The main streets were often broad; for instance, First Street in Mohenjo-daro was 10 meters wide. Narrow lanes running off the principal streets often followed a crooked course; Wheeler suggested that this dog-leg arrangement would have broken the force of the prevailing wind. As in many modern Indian settlements, access to the houses was from these lanes, avoiding the dust of the main thoroughfares, where the houses that lined them presented only blank walls.
In some parts of Mohenjo-daro and Kalibangan, brick platforms stood outside the houses. These may have been places for people to sit and talk. Drains ran down the middle of the streets, part of the impressive system of sanitation. Numerous trees were probably planted along the streets; these would have provided shade and probably had a religious significance.
The planned layout, foreshadowed in the Early Harappan period at a few sites such as Harappa, Kalibangan, and Nausharo, was strictly maintained throughout the Mature Harappan period, with wide clear streets. The Late Harappan period, however, saw the abandonment of planning and the encroachment of buildings into the streets. The spacious courtyard houses were no longer built; in some cases, older houses were partitioned to provide small dwellings for a number of people, and in others they were replaced by closely packed collections of single-story houses, often built of recycled materials. In some cases, for example at Lothal, the houses were built of timber posts and mud daub, resembling Harappan and contemporary rural housing. Civic amenities were not maintained and unpleasant industries were practiced in domestic areas. Even the fine pillared hall on the citadel at Mohenjo-daro was subdivided by rough brick walls and part of the structure used for shellworking.
Public Architecture. In Harappan towns and cities, public secular and religious architecture is surprisingly elusive, in contrast to the prominent temples and palaces known from other primary civilizations. A rectangular area immediately in front of the citadel at Dholavira was paved and formed a stadium surrounded by seating, suggesting that it was the venue for public events or performances, and such facilities may have existed in other settlements: There is a suggestion that part of the citadel at Banawali was similarly an open area, and there is also a large open space in the center of Kuntasi, with a stone platform along one side.
An identification as a shrine or palace has been proposed for a few of the structures found in the Lower Town at Mohenjo-daro, on the basis of their unusual features or layout. Several large structures, such as houses XXX and L in the HR-B area, were very strongly built, with interior platforms, and they probably supported a monumental superstructure. Others contained a number of courtyards, such as House XVIII of HR-B and block 1 in the DK-G area, dubbed The Palace by Mackay. House V in the HR-B area was centered on a huge courtyard, and one of its rooms had a corbelled doorway and contained a number of ring stones and stone caps, suggesting that it had once had a row of columns constructed of stone and wood. The Granary at Harappa has also been suggested to have been a palace or administrative building.
One long building in the HR-B area at Mohenjo-daro comprised two rows of two-roomed units, with a bathing floor in one corner of each, a closed passage between them, a large internally partitioned room to their north, and several chambers in the south with wells and broken pointed-based goblets, possibly disposable drinking vessels. Immediately to the east of this complex was house XXX, one of those regarded as a possible palace or temple. This block may have served as accommodation for visiting merchants or officials given that the units were both small and well appointed, reminiscent of modern hotels with en suite bathrooms. At Harappa, south of mound E there was a complex of houses and bathing platforms that has also been interpreted as a caravanserai, and there may have been another in a nearby mound. Other possible candidates for interpretation as a caravanserai are the block with twelve bathrooms on the citadel at Lothal and the block in mound F at Harappa dubbed "coolie-lines" by Wheeler, two rows of structures consisting of one large and one small room. A hoard of gold jewelry was found buried beneath the floor of one of these buildings.
World History
