Architectural detail about Indus valley civilization which is also also called as Harappan civilization and it is mainly known for Mohenjo - Daro and Harappan civilization.

1. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
AAKANSHA
1216512101
2/5 B.ARCH, SEMESTER – 4
GSA, GITAM UNIVERSITY
VISAKHAPATNAM

2. ABOUT
• The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature
period 2600–1900 BCE) extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and
northwest India
• It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, one of the major rivers of Asia, and the Ghaggar-
Hakra River, which once coursed through northwest India and eastern Pakistan.
• At its peak, the Indus Civilization may have had a population of over five million.
• Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft
(carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin).
• The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage
systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings

3. • The Indus Valley Civilization is also known as the Harappan Civilization, after Harappa, the first of
its sites to be excavated in the 1920s
• The discovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the culmination of work
beginning in 1861
• It unified an area of 1,300,00 sq.km
• Throughout the region , more than 200 settlements sites have been found,including 6 metropolitan
cities,20 towns and over 200 villages,large and small.

4. CULTURE
• Cultural uniformity through the Indus Civilization realm was
encouraged by a standard system of weights and measures
• The main linear unites were foot and the cubit.
• The granaries were 10 cubit wide and 30 cubit long.
• Seals were delicate and refined and were normally squares
varying from 20mm to 45mm wide .
• Decorative motifs on seals included intaglio designs depicting
men,animals,grotesques and pictographs.

5. • Pottery was wheel turned punkish ware using red slip,decorated in black with variety of geometric
and stylized designs.
• Stone sculpture was limited to a few representations of men or gods,frequently in a squatting
positions and a few bronzes mainly of dancing girls and buffaloes.
• The hallmark of craft industry was the efficient mass production of art crafts.
• No major temple or shrine like building groups have been found,nor any material evidence of
household rituals

6. RESOURCES
• The Indus basin was rich in timber for building and fuel.
• There was no local building stone.
• Baked or kiln fired brick was the standard building material.

7. BUILDING TECHNIQUES
• Bricks were molded or sawn and laid with alternate courses of headers and stretchers.
• A standard sizes 280mm*140mm*70mm brick was used.
• The use of unbaked brick was confined to the brick platforms upon which the major
building were supported.
• Some of them were laced with timber.
• Corbelled arches in bricks were frequent

8. • Internally,mud plaster was used as a finish
• The roofs were constructed in timber with square section members spanning upto 4M.
• The large granaries of Mohenjo-Daro were built entirely of timber resting on a massive brick podia.
• Intricate water supply and sewage systems were built in metropolitan centres.
• Covered baked brick drains with neat inspection holes were characteristics of settlements of the Indus
basin,as were public wells which were executed in fine brickwork.

9. ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
MOHENJO-DARO
• The city of Mohenjo-Daro near the river Indus in Sind
province,was commanded by an artificial citadel mound around
15m high,situate 150m to the N-W of the town.
• The citadel was fortified by a baked brick wall with solid towers
and was dominated by a 13m high brick platform,thought to
have a refugee in times of flood.
• The town occupied the area of some 2.5 km sq.
• The residential district was made up of rectangular blocks each
approx. 365m*182m,orinented N and S and subdivided by
lanes.

10. • The main streets were about 14m wide.
• The central N-S street was flanked by open drainage ditches.
• The domestic architecture of Mohenjo-Daro consisted of substantial
flat roofed, single or two storeyed houses built in fire
brick,organised around open courtyards and with high,featureless
walls facing the surrounding streets.
• Plain doorways with timber lintels led to courtyards ,off which the
household rooms opened.
• Nearly all houses had private wells,hearths and bathrooms with
finely sawn brick pavements connected by drains to shafts built
within the walls to sewers in the main street.
• Some houses had flights of brick stairs giving access to first floor or
roof.

11. THE GREAT BATH
• The great bath was an open air pool,about 12m*17m in plan and 2.5 m deep.
• It was constructed in sawn bricks set on edge in a gypsum mortar and sealed with
bitumen.

12. • The bath was drained from a corbel vaulted drain fed from an outlet at S-W corner.
• Surrounding the bath was a covered colonnade and beyond it on the three sides were changing
rooms staggered to give privacy and few had toilets and private bath as well.
• The bath may have featured in ritual activity.

13. THE GRANARY
• The granary was a timber building carried on a tired brick lined podium.
• The upper tire was made up of brick work intersected by ventilation channels.

14. • The lower tire of mud brick reinforced with 125 square timbers.
• It was later enlarged and partially rebuilt with a brick stair leading to an upper level timber super
structure.
• Its sloped externally walls gave it a grim fortress like appearance.

15. THE ASSEMBLY HALL
• The assembly hall was rectangular in plan with four rows of 5 brick plinths which may
have supported timber columns.
• The floor was finely sawn brickwork.
• Rooms to the west contained statues and part of a ritual stone column.
• The building thought to have been an office residence measured 70m*24m and had an
open courtyard 10msq. Surrounded on three sides by verandahs.

16. Harappa
• The layout of Harappa , on the river Ravi , a tributary of the Indus
in the Punjab is similar to that of Mohenjo-Daro.
• It was built systematically divided into 12 blocks,each measuring
365m*244m.
• The citadel mound was fortified with mud brick ramparts tapering
upwards from 12m thick base , with an external revetment of bake
brick.

17. • Between the citadel and the town was a barrack like block of workmen's quarters , together with circuler
brick floors on which grain was pounded.
• Two lines of small rectangular dwellings were separated by lanes about a metre wide , the whole
enclosed within a compound wall.

18. THE GRANARY
• The granary did not form part of the public installations on
the citadel mound.
• It was situated between the citadel and the river.
• It was set on the shallow brick podium about 1m high
approached from the North.
• The granaries , 12 in all , each measure 16m*6m and were
aligned in two rows separated by a wide central passage.
• the total floor space occupied by the granaries was around
800 m.sq.

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