2. INTRODUCTION
• Dholavira's location is on the Tropic of Cancer.
• It is one of the five largest Harappan sites and most
prominent archaeological sites in India belonging to
the Indus Valley Civilization.
• More 4000years ago,Dholavira was the one of the
laregest cities of its time. It was one of the oldest in
occupation over 1200years ago.
Location: Khadirbet, Kutch District, Gujarat
Area: 47 ha (120 acres)
Periods: Harappa 1 to Harappa 5
3. • Dholavira was occupied from 3rd millennium
BCE to the 2nd millennium BCE which is from
about 2650 BCE to 1450 BCE.
• A model city which is remarkable for its
exquisite planning,monumental
structures,aesthetic architecture,amazing water
harvesting system and a variety of funerary
architecture.
• The paper account give an account of hydro
engineering that manifest in structures of the
Harappa at Dholavira.
4. MAIN FEATURES
• The salient component of the cityscape consisted
of a bipartite ‘citadel’,a middle town and a lower
town,two stadia,an annexe,a series of reservoirs
all set in within a enormous running on all four
sides.Interestingly inside the city there was an
intricate system of fortifications.
• The city was configured like a parallelogram
boldly outlined by massive walls with there
longer axis is from east to west.
• Dholavira also had monumental structures,a
sophisticated drainage and gateways and it was
a well planned town.
5. CITY PLANNING
• On the basis of relative location planning,defences and
architecture,the three main divisions are
‘citadel’,’middle town’,and ‘lower town’.
• The citadel at Dholavera,unlike its counter parts at
Mohenjo-Daro,Harappa and Kalibangan but like that
banawali which was laid out in the south of city.
• Like Kalibangan and Surkotada it has two conjoined
subdivisions as castle and bailey located on the east
and west respectively , both are fortified ones.
• At the height of habitation the city was surrounded by
enormous walls measuring 15-18mts in thickness.
6.
7.
8. OTHER STRUCTURES AND OBJECTS
• A huge circular structure on the site is believed to
be a grave or memorial, although it contained no
skeletons or other human remains.
• The structure consists of ten radial mud-brick walls
built in the shape of a spoked wheel. A soft
sandstone sculpture of a male with phallus erectus
but head and feet below ankle truncated was found
in the passageway of the eastern gate.[ Many
funerary structures have been found (although all
but one were devoid of skeletons),[as well as pottery
pieces, terra cotta seals, bangles, rings, beads, and
intaglio engravings.
• A regular house at Dholavira consist of four rooms,a
spacious courtyard,bathroom and also a kitchen.
9.
10. SIGN BOARD
• One of the most significant discoveries at Dholavira
was made in one of the side rooms of the northern
gateway of the city, and is generally known as the
Dholavira Signboard.
• The Harappans had arranged and set pieces of the
mineral gypsum to form ten large symbols or letters
on a big wooden board.
• At some point, the board fell flat on its face. The
wood decayed, but the arrangement of the letters
survived. The letters of the signboard are
comparable to large bricks that were used in nearby
walls.
11. • Each sign is about 37 cm (15 in) high and the board
on which letters were inscribed was about 3 m
(9.8 ft) long.
• The inscription was found on the northern gate
way.
• The inscription is one of the longest in the Indus
script, with one symbol appearing four times, and
this and its large size and public nature make it a
key piece of evidence cited by scholars arguing that
the Indus script represents full literacy.
• A four sign inscription with large letters on a sand
stone is also found at this site, considered first of
such inscription on sand stone at any of Harappan
sites.
