IVC Indus Valley Civilization – Seal and Layout of Cities

IVC Seals and Layout of Cities by Harsh Kumar

The Indus Valley Civilization was a vast civilization, one of the greatest civilizations of our mankind. During the IVC the trade and commerce was flourished in large scale and they lived a well settled and simple life because of the well-designed and well-planned cities during the age of IVC. the seals and the settlement evidences from the IVC cities provides us various important inputs that are very useful for understanding the nature of IVC. So, in this post we will discuss about the importance of seals and layout of the cities. We have already discussed the origin, nature and characteristics and life pattern of IVC in our previous post. You should read them for better understanding of this post.

Read these also

Indus Valley Civilization – The Origin

Indus Valley Civilization – Living Pattern

Indus Valley Civilization – Nature and Character

Seals of IVC

The seals of IVC are major sources for the reconstruction of the history of this great civilization. There are over 2500 number of seals and sealings have been discovered from the different sites of the IVC. Most of the seals were made of the steatite. The size of these seals also varies from 0.5 inches to 2.5 inches. Some of the metal seals also discovered from the IVC sites. The Harappan seals were quadrilateral in shape. There are different types of symbols found on the seals.

Significance of the Seals

These seals are very important for understanding about the various pattern of civilizations like IVC. The examination of these seals through light on the socio-economic, cultural and political life of the peoples of the IVC. The discovery of seals in large numbers indicates that that seal making was an important craft and seal makers were important part of the IVC civilization. The seals are the great example of the miniature art of the Harappan peoples. On a seal found at the site of Lothal in Gujarat, harp like musical instrument was mentioned on the seal, which is the indication the Harappans were aware of the music.

The seals used by IVC peoples contains the pictographic script. Since, these seals were made by common peoples and used quite commonly, so it appears that IVC peoples were well literate. The birds and animals were depicted on the seals indicates the importance of them during the age of IVC. Bull is the most common animal depicted on the seals of the IVC civilization which indicates that the bull plays a significant role during the IVC.

 Fish is the most common zoomorphic sign on the seals of IVC which indicates that fishing was practiced by them. The seals throw light on the external links of the IVC peoples. the cylindrical seal of Mesopotamian discovered from site of Mohenjo-Daro; Persian Gulf seal was found from Lothal. These evidences indicate the IVC maintain trade and commercial relations with these regions. These seals also throw life on the religious life of Harappan peoples. Mother Goddess, proto-Shiva and fertility deity are depicted on the seals.

The depiction of bull on the seal indicates animal worship. The black marks found on seals indicates that something like oil and fragrance was burnt by Harappans to please their deity. The square and rectangular shape of seal throw light on their knowledge of Geometry. The materials of which seals are made of reveal the material culture of Indus Valley Civilization. The uniformity among Harappan seal found from various settlements indicates that settlement was administered by central authority.

Layout of Cities of IVC

 The Indus Valley Civilization cities were broadly divided into two parts; Upper town and Lower town. There was an open ground between the two parts of the cities. The lower town was located to east of the upper town. Only the city of Dholavira in Gujarat, was divided into three parts. There was also a middle town between the upper and lower part of the town of Dholavira.

Typically, the upper towns were surrounded by the fort or citadel. At the sites of Surkatoda and Kalibangan, even the lower towns were fortified. There are some sites like Chahnudaro, where no fortification found. Both the parts of cities were built in a planned manner. The IVC peoples followed the grid pattern or chess board pattern.

Details of City Planning.

Since, they followed grid pattern, so the main streets in IVC cities ran from the north to south directions. The width of streets were about 30 feet. They intersected with the narrow streets, built for entering housing lane, at the right angle or we can say that they were perpendicular to each other. The houses were built in side lanes. Also, there was a small no man’s land between the houses. IVC houses compressed two or three rooms that built around the courtyard. Doors were on one side of wall. Kitchen was built in one corner of the houses. Windows were absent but the ventilators were there in the houses.

Some of the houses had double story buildings. The staircase was probably of the wooden because no evidence of them has been found. Mohenjo-Daro is type site (most representative site or the site from which most of the features of civilization have been discovered). Almost every house had a well and there was a public well in every street. Every street was having underground covered drainage.

The drains of sidelines opened in the bigger drain of main street. The drainage had manholes at regular intervals which were used to clean the drainage. There were soak pits in drainage for recharging of water table this indicates that Harrapans practiced water harvesting. The left-out water in drains was carried to fields for irrigation purposes.

The Harappans collected rain water in ponds. Over 16 water reservoirs have been found at Dholavira. One reservoir is so big that it could store 2.5 lakh cubic metres of water. Some of these reservoirs were inter-connected. This indicates that Harrapan know the technique of water filtration by using method sedimentation. These ponds were filled by collecting the rain water.

In this way, Harappans conserved each and every drop of water. The Harrapan cities of Dholavira could flourish in arid region where water was extremely scarce. Dams were built by Harappans for flood irrigation. They used flush toilets, first in the world to do so. The discovery of toilet indicates that Harrapans were concerned of sanitation. To protect the cities from the threat of sudden flood, the upper town was built on some height with respect to the lower town. It was surrounded by a strong fort. All the important installations were located within this fort.

Thus, the Indus Valley civilization was highly developed as indicated by the evidences discovered during the excavation of sites of this civilization.