The Indus Valley Civilization, existing from 3000 to 1500 B.C., was one of the world's first great urban civilizations, with major cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro known for their advanced urban planning, agriculture, and trade. The civilization thrived on agriculture and commerce, developing sophisticated architecture and social organization, yet its decline remains a mystery linked to potential climatic changes and shifts in population. Key artifacts and structures, such as the Great Bath and unique figurines, offer insights into their culture and social practices.

1. ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY
RAR-307
INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
SUBMITTED BY - SUBMITTED BY-
Ar. POOJA TYAGI POOJA SHARMA
DIYA AGGRAWAL
AVANTIKA DHIMAN
KAJAL RATHOR
SONA JAIN

2. INTRODUCTION
• Early civilization in India developed
in the Indus river valley from 3000
to 1500 B.C.
• This was one of the world's first
great urban civilization which
flourished in the vast Indus valley
river plains and adjacent regions.
• It was named after the city of
Harappa and the city of Mohenjo-
Daro were important centers.
• The Harappa culture existed along
the Indus river.

3. History
• Indus valley civilization was a Bronze age civilization.
• Their disappearance remains a mystery due to no traces of war were evident.
• The Indus Civilization was dependent on agriculture and grew a variety of crops -
from wheat and barely to dates and vegetables.
• Trading with the Sumerian civilization could have progressed along the Arabian
sea and the Persian gulf.

4. CITIES
MOHENJO-DARO
• To the north is the citadel or raised
area . In Mohenjo-Daro , citadel is
built on an architectural platform
about 45 feet above the plain.
HARAPPA
• At the upper side of valley, another
city was situated named harappa.
The civilization is also called
harappa civilization.

5. Harappa- The Merchant City
• Two cities have ruins of the major cities
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
• The advanced civilization that flourished
for hundreds of years in these cities is
called Harappa or Indus
civilization(2300-1700 B.C.)
• It was 10-20 times larger than
Mesopotamia and Egypt.
• Agriculture along with cattle rearing was
the base of the Harappa economy.
• The irrigation was carried on a small
scale by drawing water from wells or by
diverting river water into channels.

6. TOWN PLANNING
• The most interesting urban feature
of Harappa is its town planning.
• The Citadel might have
administrative centre and were
constructed on mud brick
platform.
• The residential buildings are built
in the lower town on eastern side.
• Their social classes were the ruling
class who lived inside the citadels -
the farmers and traders lived
outside the citadels.
• Houses was cool because of thick
walls, walls were covered with
mud plaster.
Ceremonial
ground
Citadel
Bailey
Reservoirs
Lower part

7. • The streets intersect each other at
right angles.
• Streets in grid systems are 30 feet
wide.
• It divided the city in in several
residential blocks.
• The drainage system of harappans
were elaborate and well laid out.
• Every house had drains, which
opened into the street drains, lanes
separate rows of houses.
• These drains were covered with
bricks or stone slabs, which were be
removed for cleaning.

8. Architecture
• Houses were either one or two story
high, with rooms built around a
courtyard.
• The houses were built of sun baked or
burned mud bricks.
• There was no window in the walls along
the ground level.
• The main entrance does not give a
direct view of the interior.
• These houses were provided with
private wells, kitchens and bathing
platforms.
• The careful structure of these cities
showed that this civilization had a well
organised government.

9. Trade
• The Indus valley civilization traded
extensively with Mesopotamia.
• They traded copper, lumber, and various
luxury goods for sumerian textiles and
food.
• Much of the trade was by ship through
the Persian gulf , which lis between
present day Saudi Arabia and Iran.
• Traded intensively in gold, spices, cloth
and copper.
• First to grow cotton and produce cloth.

10. Culture And Religion
• No temples or religions have
been found, just animals images
and some evidence of a mother
goddess of fertility.
• Harappa cities appears uniform
in culture, no social division.
• Their religion was polytheism,
they worshipped many gods
some of which were animals like
bulls.
• Priests closely linked to rulers in
Harappa civilization.

11. Writing
• They had writing system of 300
symbols , but scientist cannot
decode it.
• We cannot read the writing which
were written on bricks and seals.
• They did not use paper or clay
tablets.
• It believed that the Indus valley
people may have also written on
palm leaves or cloth but no
evidence of this has survived.

12. GRANARY
• Another structure were located is
Granary.
• It consists of several rectangular
blocks for storing grains.
• The Granary was well ventilated
and was possible to fill grain in
from outside.
• It was divided into 27
compartments in three rows.
• It has the row of circular brick
platforms, were used for threshing
grains.

13. MOHENJO DARO • It was one of the largest settlements of
the ancient Indus Valley Civilization.
• It flourished between 2600 and 1900
BCE.
• It was one of the world's earliest
major cities, contemporaneous with the
civilizations of ancient Egypt.
• It is located west of the Indus River.
• It was the most advanced city of its time,
with remarkably sophisticated civil
engineering and urban planning.
• The covered is estimated at 300 hectares.
• Mohenjo-Daro was built in a short period
of time, with the water supply system and
wells being first planned constructions.

14. • Mohenjo-Daro has a planned
layout with rectilinear buildings
arranged on a grid plan.
• Its provision of public buildings
and facilities, suggests a high level
of social organization.
• The city is divided into two parts,
the so-called Citadel and the
Lower City.
• The Citadel – a mud-brick mound
around 12 meters (39 ft) high – is
known to have supported public
baths, a large residential
structure designed to house
about 5,000 citizens, and two
large assembly halls.

15. • Some houses include rooms that appear to have been set aside for
bathing, and one building had an underground furnace, possibly for
heated bathing.
• The city had a central marketplace, with a large central well.
• Individual households or groups of households obtained their water
from smaller wells.

16. Fortifications
• Mohenjo-Daro had no series of city walls,
but was fortified with guard towers to the
west and defensive fortifications to the
south.
• Considering these fortifications and the
structure of other major Indus valley cities
like Harappa, it is postulated that
Mohenjo-Daro was an administrative
center.
• Both Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro share
relatively the same architectural layout
• They were generally not heavily fortified
like other Indus Valley sites.
• It is obvious from the identical city layouts
of all Indus sites that there was some kind
of political or administrative centrality, but
the extent and functioning of an
administrative center remains unclear.

17. GREAT BATH
• The Great Bath is one of the well-known
structures among the ruins of the ancient Indus
Valley Civilization at Mohenjo-Daro in Sindh,
Pakistan.
• It was found in 1926 during archaeological
excavations.
• Archaeological evidence indicates that the Great
Bath was built in the 3rd millennium BCE.
• It is called the "earliest public water tank of the
ancient world".
• It measures 11.88 × 7.01 metres, and has a
maximum depth of 2.43 metres.

18. Notable artifacts
• Numerous objects found in excavation include seated and standing figures,
copper and stone tools, carved seals, balance-scales and weights, gold
and jewellery, and children's toys.
• Many bronze and copper pieces, such as figurines and bowls, have been
recovered from the site,
• It shows that the inhabitants of Mohenjo-Daro understood how to utilize
the lost wax technique.
• The furnaces found at the site are believed to have been used for copper
works and melting the metals as opposed to smelting.

19. Mother Goddess Idol
• The fertility and motherhood aspects
on display on the idols is represented
by the female genitalia inferring that
such figurines are offerings to the
goddess, as opposed to the typical
understanding of them being idols
representing the goddess's likeness.
• Because of the figurines being unique
in terms of hairstyles, body
proportions, as well as head-dresses
and jewelry, there are theories as to
who these figurines actually represent.
• Shereen Ratnagar theorizes that their
uniqueness and dispersed discovery
throughout the site that they could be
figurines of ordinary household
women, who commissioned these
pieces to be used in rituals or healing
ceremonies to help individual women.

20. Dancing Girl
• It was a bronze statue dubbed as "Dancing
Girl", 10.5 centimetres (4.1 in) high and
about 4,500 years old.
• It was found in 'HR area' of Mohenjo-daro
in 1926.
• It is now in the National Museum, New
Delhi.
• The statue led to two important
discoveries about the civilization:
1. first, that they knew metal blending,
casting and other sophisticated
methods of working with ore, and
2. secondly that entertainment, especially
dance, was part of the culture.

21. Priest-King
• In 1927, a seated male soapstone figure was
found in a building with unusually ornamental
brickwork and a wall-niche.
• There is no evidence
that priests or monarchs ruled Mohenjo-daro,
archaeologists dubbed this dignified figure a
"Priest-King.“
• The sculpture is 17.5 centimetres (6.9 in) tall,
• It shows a neatly bearded man with pierced
earlobes and a fillet around his head, his hair is
combed back.

22. Pashupati seal
• A seal discovered at the site
bears the image of a seated,
cross-legged and possibly figure
surrounded by animals.
• The figure has been interpreted
by some scholars as a yogi, and
by others as a three-headed
"proto-Shiva" as "Lord of
Animals".

23. DECLINE OF INDUS VALLEY
CIVILIZATION
• The Indus Valley
Civilization was caused by
climatic change.
• Some experts believe the
drying of the Saraswati River,
which began around 1900
BCE, was the main cause for
climate change, while others
conclude that a great flood .
• The decline is not known,
through excavations it is clear
that the fall of the Harappan
Civilization occurred between
1800 BC to 1700 BC.

24. • There was a fall in the average rainfall in
the cities leading to the formation of
desert-like condition.
• This led to the decline in agriculture on
which most of the trade was dependent.
• People of the Indus Valley started shifting
to some other location leading to the
decline in the entire civilization.
• It is commonly believed that
the Aryans were the next settlers.
• They were skilled fighters, so their attack
might have led to the destruction of the
Harappan Civilization.