Harappa bricks in Raghopura Diara, Vaishali dist., near Patna. Narrative of Artha samgraha of a Hindu

civilization.

Prologue

The place is called Raghopura Diara. A diara is a land newly formed by the recession of a river: *dvīpākāra ʻ island -- shape ʼ. [ dvīpá -- , ākāra -- ]Or. diārā ʻ land newly formed by the recession a river ʼ; Bi. Mth. dīyar ʻ field on island in a river ʼ; H. diyārā, °āṛā m. ʻ island formed in the middle of a river,

alluvial land ʼ (ṛ over -- hindiized from rustic r?).(CDIAL 6693)

This means, that BB Lal's work on Mahabharata sites in Ganga valley have to be

revisited. There were floods creating 70 metres of sediments explained Bahadarabad etc. and now this Raghopura Diara which is 1100 kms. east of

Alamgirpur. Details studies are required on the geomorphology of Ganga plain over millennia. Vyasa is called Krishna Dvaipāyana Vyāsa (Black Ganga island

dweller). We have not done enough work on how Ganga Basin was populated and from when. If Assurs are the prime movers of Sarasvati Civilization, it is

likely they also worked on Ganga basin sites creating the nation's wealth. Raja Nal Ki Tila, Lohar Diwa, Malhar are merely tips of the archaeometallurgical

iceberg.

The Śatapatha Brāhamaṇa (English Translation in 3 vols. SBE series) by

J.Eggeling. Motilal Banarsidas, N.Delhi, 1963. Extracts from the translation of J. Eggeling: “…Thereupon it said, in such and such a year that flood will

come……when the flood has risen thou shalt enter into the ship…..And in the same year which the fish had indicated to him, he attended to (the advice of the

fish) by preparing a ship; and when the flood had risen, he entered into the ship….hence that (slope) of the northern mountain is called Manu’s descent. The

flood then swept away all these creatures, and Manu alone remained here.” (ŚB I.8.1)

BB Lal presented on 27 March 2017 in the National Antiquity Seminar of ICHR, a projet for Testing ancient Indian literary traditions on the touchstone of

archaeology: Manu’s flood a case study. “He stated that Indian literary traditions are generally treated with suspicion and relegated to the realm of

‘Myths’. In this context he has categorically narrated about Manu’s Flood, one of the traditions which have been referred in the Matsya Purana, Bhagvat Purana,

Mahabharata and Satapatha Brahmana. Considering the more or less the same narration in these texts, he has taken up Satapatha Brahmna to examine the

facts in the light of archaeological evidence. To substantiate it, he has further integrated the evidence of geology, hydrology, archaeology and C-14 dating

methods.”

http://ichr.ac.in/report_antiquity.pdf I agree with Krishnendu Das who has reported on April 18, 2017 that the finds of thousands of Harappa bricks in Raghopura Diara, Vaishali dist. (near Patna) is of great historical importance. These finds just move the extent of the Sarasvati Civilization eastwards by 1100 kms. into Ganga river basin. Together with the bricks, metalwork artifacts and about 10 kilograms of jewellery in a Mandi hoard have also been found. These finds are consistent with the decipherment of Indus (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Script which proves that over 8000 inscriptions were metalwork catalogues, thus constituting a repository of wealth created by ancient artisans of Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization. It is time to avoid jumping to conclusions about 'collapse' or 'decline' of civilization in ancient Bharat but to provide a narrative of a Hindu civilization which has made the nation the richest in the world, contributing to 33% of Global GDP in 1 CE. A hypothesis has also been posited that Bharatiya artisans and seafaring merchants were the key intermediaries who traversed along an Ancient Maritime Tin Route which linked Hanoi (Vietnam) and Haifa (Israel) across Eurasia, predating the Silk Road by two milllennia. Kalyanaraman Sarasvati Research Centre April 18, 2017 | Tuesday , April 18 , 2017 |

Vaishali bricks throw up posers on Harappa last leg

Krishnendu Das

The discovery of some Harappan-type bricks from Raghopur Diara of Vaishali district near Patna (report published in The Telegraph on April 8, 2017), is of

immense importance to the country from both archaeological and historiographical perspectives. The findings may not only answer many

hitherto unsolved questions that shroud the last phase of the great Harappan civilisation, but may force us write our early-period history afresh

as well.

The director of Bihar's state archaeological directorate, Atul Verma, visited the place some six months ago and collected two bricks. He examined the

bricks himself and also showed it to the former joint director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India, K.N. Dikshit. Dikshit confirmed the Harappan

identity of the bricks after checking their thickness, width and length ratio

which is 1:2:4, a typical "mature Harappan" trait.

Scholars have divided the entire Harappa era broadly into three phases - early, mature and late. The early phase spans from 3500 BC to 2800/2700

BC (from the beginning of village farming to the beginning of urbanisation). Mature phase was from 2700 BC to 2000/1900 BC (from the beginning of

urbanisation to the starting of the devolution of the urbanism). The late phase spanned between 2000/1900 BC and 1400/1300 BC (post-urban

Harappan).

In the mature phase, there was a standard ratio of the Harappan bricks as

mentioned above. The kiln-fired bricks which were recovered from Raghopur Diara were exactly of the same size and nature as the mature Harappan

bricks. This is startling as mature Harappan kiln-fired bricks were never found in east India so far. Till date, the easternmost Harappan site has been

identified as Alamgirpur of the Ganga-Yamuna doab area of Uttar Pradesh.

Other prominent Harappan sites which were situated in the vicinity of Alamgirpur are Hulas, Mandi, Sanauli and so on.

Alamgirpur and Hulas are late-Harappan sites though some mature Harappan materials - mud bricks, burnt brick (burnt bricks were not found in

Hulas though unearthed in limited numbers from Alamgirpur), pottery pieces, stone and bone implements and some Harappan mud and mud brick

structures have been excavated from there. The earliest dates, measured through the C14 method (a method to ascertain the date of an organic

material using the radioactive isotope of carbon) of those sites go back to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. Though some mature Harappan

materials were found from these sites, any sign of mature Harappan urban prosperity has always eluded these areas.

Sanauli is a late-Harappan burial site. Some 125 graves have been

discovered here. The site is very important because of the scarcity of the

late-Harappan burial sites. Mandi is famous for its Harappan jewellery hoard. The hoard was found accidentally in the course of a ground levelling

operation.

After the discovery, the villagers there began a hunt for more jewellery which continued for the next four to five days. The news reached the Uttar

Pradesh archaeology department only after a few more days. Some 10 kilograms of jewellery were recovered from the site when the Uttar Pradesh

state archaeology department and the Archaeological Survey of India sent teams to survey the village.

Archaeologists identified Mandi as a late-Harappan site. The treasury consists of two copper containers and a large number of beads made of gold,

banded agate, onyx and copper. These types of materials were found earlier in sites such as Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Lothal, Kalibangan, Allahdino,

Chanhudaro, Surokotada and Kunal, though not in hoards.

Scholars are yet to come to a conclusion as to how this jewellery hoard could

be related to an otherwise "unimpressive" late-Harappan site as Mandi. However, what is strikingly significant here is that in none of the above

mentioned eastern Harappan sites did archaeologists ever recover large numbers of Harappan kiln burnt brick as found at Raghopur Diara.

The late phase of the Harappan civilisation has long been a subject of

scholarly debates and theories. What were the causes of the decline of the Harappan civilisation? Where did the Harappans go after the decline of the

civilisation? Scholars such as Mortimer Wheeler and Gordon Childe believed that the invasion of the Aryans caused a civilisational downfall in Harappa.

Primarily because Wheeler discovered some scattered human skeletons at

Mohenjodaro. But this theory lost its validity after a close scrutiny of those

37 scattered skeletons of Mohenjodaro by archaeologist G.F. Dales of the University of California at Berkeley. Dales, one of the co-directors of the

ground-breaking Harappa Archaeological Research Project, published his theory in the journal Expedition (May 1964 issue) describing the whole issue

as a "mythical massacre".

Floods in the river Indus and several other natural calamities such as drought, earthquake and decline in the external trade of the Harappan

civilisation are various other theories propagated by various scholars that dot scholarly materials regarding the decline of the Harappan civilization. In

recent times, the most discussed theory on the decline of Harappa has been that of the drying up of the Ghaggar-Hakra rivers which are often identified

with the Rig Vedic Sarasvati river.

Now, many archaeologists feel that we should look at the decline of Harappa

from an altogether different angle. They believe that instead of the downfall of the civilisation, we could perhaps simply call it a process of gradual de-

urbanisation of the Harappan civilisation. Whatever may be the cause behind this de-urbanisation, scholars have always remained sure that a group of

Harappan people had migrated towards the east. The discovery of late-Harappan sites such as Alamgirpur, Hulas, Mandi, Sanauli and so on is

nothing but examples of eastward migration of the civilisation.

But the unique case of finding of mature Harappan kiln-fired bricks at Raghopur Diara, about 1100 kilometres southeast of Alamgirpur, is sure to

perplex archaeologists. The main question doing the rounds is that if the sites in Uttar Pradesh are known as late-Harappan sites, how can mature

Harappan civilisation travel further eastward?

Therefore, scholars may now have to trace the entire course and span of

Harappan civilisation anew if more associated Harappan materials are excavated from Raghopur Diara or its surroundings that authenticate the

importance of the primary finding. The context of a finding is of utmost importance in archaeology. The findings have sent archaeologists across the

country in a tizzy and many of them are already set to go to Raghopur Diara to survey the area in search of more clues.

If Raghopur Diara is established as a mature Harappan site, it will not only

throw in the bin many theories on the civilisation and its decline but will also warrant a great deal of rewriting of the course of the civilisation, and

therefore our history. But for now, we will have to wait for the results of the explorations which are going to be conducted by archaeologists.

https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170418/jsp/bihar/story_146863.jsp#.WPX

oetJ97IU

| Saturday , April 8 , 2017 |

Harappa signs in bricks of Raghopur

Sanjeev Kumar Verma

One of the bricks found at Raghopur Diara in Vaishali district; (below) state

archaeological directorate director Atul Verma explains how the proportion of thickness, width and length of the bricks are similar to those found in

Harappan sites. Pictures by Sanjeev Kumar Verma

A landowner in Raghopur diara of Vaishali district may have stumbled upon

Bihar's link to the Indus Valley civilisation.

Digging for piling work to build a house at the diara, around 10km north of Patna, the landowner, whose name is not being disclosed, came across

thousands of large bricks. He used some and kept the rest as samples out of curiosity.

Around six months ago, the director of the state archaeological directorate, Atul Verma, visited the place and checked the samples. He carried two

bricks back with him to Patna. ×

"Chief minister Nitish Kumar had asked us to visit the

diara area as it is close to placesf archaeological

importance," Verma said.

"The place is situated between Chechar in the north and

Didarganj in the south, places of archaeological

importance."

Chechar in Vaishali is a Neolithic site, while remains from the Mauryan period have been found

during excavations at Didarganj in Patna.

Verma got the bricks tested and found that they bore similarities in thickness, width and length

with those found from the Harappan sites. Bricks of both kinds have thickness, width and

length in the ratio 1:2:4.

While one brick is 7.5cm thick, 15cm wide and 30cm long, another brick is 8cm thick, 16cm

wide and 32cm long.

Also, the bricks at Raghopur were fire-burnt while those at the Harappan sites were sun-dried or

fire-burnt.

Finding these similarities, Verma showed the bricks to experts who confirmed similarity in

terms of proportion of thickness, width and length.

"During one of his visits to Patna, I showed the bricks to K.N. Dikshit, retired joint director-

general of Archaeological Survey of India, considered an expert on Harappan sites," Verma

said. "He confirmed similarities in dimensions."

Verma said the state archaeological directorate would now draft a team to undertake

exploration work near the places from where the bricks were found.

"Our goal is to find more proof, like remains of pottery etc, to establish there was a settlement

there in ancient times," Verma said.

"If similarities are found, we will publish our paper so that further research about the site can be

carried out."

About deciphering the approximate year or age in which the bricks were manufactured, the

director said the same would be calculated if remains of pottery and artefacts are found in the

area. "We use potassium-argon dating method to ascertain the dates of artefacts or pottery,"

Verma said.

Vijay Kumar Choudhary, archaeologist and executive director of Bihar Heritage Development

Society, confirmed Harappan bricks were in the proportion of 1:2:4 in terms of thickness, width

and length. He said the state archaeological directorate's move was a step in the right direction

to establish that human settlements existed in the area.

The place nearest to Bihar from where remains of Harappan settlement have been found is

Alamgirpur near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, around 950km northwest of Patna.

https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170408/jsp/bihar/story_145135.jsp#.WPXpm9J97IU Expedition,

Volume 6

Issue 3

May 1964

The Mythical Massacre at Mohenjo-Daro By: George F. Dales

The Buddhist stupa of the ancient citadel of Mohenjo-daro

Nothing delights the archaeologist more than excavating the ruins from some ancient disaster–be it a flood, earthquake, invasion, or massacre. This does not reflect an inordinately ghoulish tendency in the character of archaeologists. It is simply that a much more complete picture of the life and times of an ancient site is preserved if it was the victim of some quick, devastating disaster than if it had just died a slow natural death, had been abandoned or remodeled.

The classic example of the rewards that we can reap as the result of an ancient natural disaster is Pompeii where the eruption of Vesuvius preserved for posterity a full-scale authentic model of daily life in an ancient Roman town. But more popular with historians are disasters that can be blamed on mankind itself. Scholars and laymen alike have always delighted in being able to boo and hiss the evil villain, the murderous

invader, the barbarian hordes. Only the approach is different–the one flicks on the “Late Show,” the other writes learned footnotes.

One of the most enigmatic whodunits of antiquity concerns the decline and fall of the Indus Valley (Harappan) civilization. Remains of this vast civilization of South Asia are scattered over an area considerably larger than those covered by either ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia. The life cycle of this third major experiment in the origin and development of the world’s earliest civilizations is at present highly speculative and is the subject of increasingly intensive investigation by archaeologists, historians, linguists, and natural scientists alike.

It is now apparent that a re-evaluation is necessary of some of the earlier theories that have come to form over the past thirty years the basic structural members in the framework of early South Asian history. It is especially necessary to call for a retrial concerning the placing of guilt for the demise of the Indus civilization. Evidence was published some 30 years ago suggesting that Mohenjo-daro, the southernmost of the two major cities of the Harappans, was destroyed by armed invaders and that the hapless victims–including a large percentage of women and children–were massacred on the spot. The excavators of Mohenjo-daro were content–at least at first–to put the blame for the “massacres” on several disassociated causes and incidents. The

“massacre” idea immediately ignited and has been used as a torch up to the present day by some historians, linguists, and archaeologists as visible, awful proof of the invasion of the subcontinent by the Aryans. It provided a seemingly pat answer to one of the most vexing questions in South Asian history. The arrival into northern India of the Aryans–the eastern branch of the vast Indo-European language family–heralded the beginning of the historical era in South Asia. The social and religious life of the times is described in detail in the hymns of the Sanskrit Rig-Veda, the earliest book known in India. The Vedic hymns describe the principal god, Indra, as the “fort destroyer” who “rends forts as age consumes a garment.” In attacking the fortresses of the dasyu (the name applied to the non-Aryan enemies, be they mortal or supernatural), Indra is specifically described as setting fire to the buildings—

…in the kindled fire he burnt up all their weapons, and made him rich with kine and carts and horses.

Panoramic view of Mohenjo-daro with the citadel on the horizon

The texts describe how the Aryan warriors were protected by armor and shields. In addition to the bow and arrow–the chief weapon–they used javelin, axe, and sword. Horses were common but were probably used to pull the chariots rather than for riding.

It seems logical to assume that, as Sir Mortimer Wheeler put it, “Indra stands accused” of destroying the cities of the Harappan civilization and of the responsibility for the “massacre” at Mohenjo-daro. Apart from a few dissenting comments in rather obscure publications, the general literature on the subject current today still repeats vivid, dramatic descriptions of the barbarian hordes descending upon the once great and proud cities of the Indus civilization. For example:

The Indus cities fell to barbarians who triumphed not only through greater military prowess, but also be-cause they were equipped with better weapons, and had learnt to make full use of the swift and terror-striking beast of the steppes (i.e. the horse).

(Basham, 27)

It is still premature to talk in terms of absolute dates–the entire chronology of South Asia down to the 6th century B.C. is a web of pluses and minuses of hundreds of years–so, on purely chronological grounds, we cannot even establish a definite correlation between the end of the Indus civilization and the Aryan invasion. But even if we could, what is the material evidence to substantiate the supposed invasion and massacre? Where are the burned fortresses, the arrowheads, weapons, pieces of armor, the smashed chariots and bodies of the invaders and defenders? Despite the extensive excavations at the largest Harappan sites, there is not a single bit of evidence that can be brought forth as unconditional proof of an armed conquest and destruction on the supposed scale of the Aryan invasion. It is interesting that Sir John Marshall himself, the Director of the Mohenjo-daro excavations that first revealed the “massacre” remains, separated the end of the Indus civilization from the time of the Aryan invasion by two centuries. He attributed the slayings to bandits from the hills west of the Indus, who carried out sporadic raids on an already tired, decaying, and defenseless civilization.

What of these skeletal remains that have taken on such undeserved importance? Nine years of extensive excavations at Mohenjo-daro (1922-31)– a city about three miles in circuit–yielded the total of some 37 skeletons, or parts thereof, that can be attributed with some certainty to the period of the Indus civilization. Some of these were found in contorted positions and groupings that suggest anything but orderly burials. Many are either disarticulated or incomplete. They were all found in the area of the Lower Town–probably the residential district. Not a single body was found within the area of the fortified citadel where one could reasonably expect the final defense of this thriving capital city to have been made.

It would be foolish to assert that the scattered skeletal remains represent an orderly state of affairs. But since there is no conclusive proof that they all even belong to the same period of time, they cannot justifiably be used as proof of a single tragedy. Part of this uncertainty results from the unsatisfactory methods used by the excavators to record and publish their finds. But even allowing for this serious methodological shortcoming, it is possible to re-evaluate the published evidence and to come to some definite conclusions concerning the massacre myth.

The so-called massacre in HR area, Room 74 of House V

The most celebrated group of skeletons, the photograph of which is usually published to provide visible proof of the “massacre,” was found in the area of Room 74, House V (HR area). The interpretation of this grisly discovery was not even agreed upon by the excavators themselves. Mr. Hargreaves, who did the actual excavating, states that because four of the fourteen skeletons were found above the ruins of the southern wall of the room, the entire group belongs to a date subsequent to the decay of the building and thus to a period posterior to the abandonment of the latest stage of the city. Marshall, the over-all director of the excavations, says on the other hand “this does not seem to be proven.” He points out that the building belongs to the Intermediate period of the city and that this entire area was covered over and rebuilt in the Late period (the assumed Late period remains were not preserved at this part of the city; it is probably they had eroded away). Marshall suggests that the skeletons could belong to the interval between the Intermediate and Late periods, “though the possibility of their being posterior to the Late period may be admitted.” He also disagrees with Hargreaves over the circumstances that produced this gruesome spectacle. Hargreaves stated with questionable perspicacity that fourteen bodies “appear to indicate some tragedy.” Furthermore, he observed that the twisted, intermingled positions of the bodies are those “likely to be assumed in the agony of death than those of a number

of corpses thrown into a room.” Marshall read the evidence differently. He believed that the bodies were intentionally interred “within a few hours of death” or else they would have been prey for animals and birds. “There is no reason whatever for doubting that these burials date from the declining years of Mohenjo-daro’s prosperity,” stated Marshall, but he didn’t suggest they represent any final massacre of the population.

Group of skeletons in Room 74

During the removal of the thick accumulation of debris covering a courtyard of the Intermediate period (House III, HR area), incomplete remains of three skeletons were found. Their location in the debris shows, however, that they did not belong to the time of the courtyard but to sometime after it had fallen into disuse and had been filled in, possibly in preparation for the buildings of the Late period. The excavator suggests that it represents a late funerary deposit and doesn’t intimate any connection with a final “massacre” of the city’s population. Those who have so stated have misread the archaeological evidence.

The carts used today are exactly like the ancient clay models

One reads about “the slaughtered Harappans” who “lay unburied amid their streets.” This melodramatic description was prompted, in part, by the reported find of six skeletons in a lane between two houses in the VS area of Mohnejo-daro. And yet, the excavator stated in his report that “from their position they appear to be posterior to the adjacent remains.” They were covered with loose earth, free from bricks and other debris that would indicate any violent destruction. There is no suggestion in the report that they were lying on the actual street surface. Marshall suggests again that they were probably burials of the Late period that just accidentally penetrated down between the building walls bordering the lane–the lane itself having been long before covered over. Had the skeletons really been found directly on the street surface, there would still be no case for a final “massacre” because the lane belongs to the Intermediate period of the city.

Deadman’s Lane in the HR area of the city was the scene of another well publicized but mythical street slaughter. One fragmentary skeleton (part of a skull, the bones of the thorax, and the upper arm of an adult) was found lying on its back diagonally across the narrow lane. But this incomplete skeleton was not resting directly on the walking surface of the lane. It appears to have been in the debris that accumulated between the walls of the building facing the lane sometime after the lane had fallen into disuse. The lane itself belongs to the Intermediate period of the city. This area was rebuilt during the Late period and houses covered the location of the earlier lane. The excavator suggests that this partial skeleton was interred under the floor of a house of the Late period. Thus, it was just accidentally located in the proximity of the lane and was not associated with it at all.

Skeleton in lane between XVIII and XXXIII, VS area

Another celebrated group of “victims” consists of nine skeletons that “lay in strangely contorted attitudes and crowded together” (Block 10A, DK area). Ernest Mackay, the excavator, expressed considerable doubt about the date of these remains. They were reportedly found at a level corresponding to the early part of the Intermediate period. For “convenience sake,” Mackay termed the find-spot a burial pit although he admitted that he noticed no definite walls for the “pit” nor any traces showing that the area had been dug. Only two objects were found with the skeletons–an ivory comb that is not like the know Harappan period combs, and a copper bracelet. On the evidence of the bracelet, Mackay dates the remains to “the period of the occupation of the city.” The technical report on the skeletal remains states that they probably do not represent a massacre per se because many of the skeletons were incomplete, represented by only a few fragments of cranium and odd bits of bone.

Mackay suggests that these were the remains of a family who tried to escape from the city with their belongings at the time of a raid but were stopped and slaughtered by the raiders. Their bodies were then “thrown pell-mell into a hurriedly made pit.” He says it is

“quite possible” that the tragedy took place in the final period of the city but can offer no supporting evidence. That at least five of the nine skeletons were of children prompted the anthropologist who studied the remains to conclude that “the raiders nursed a consistent hatred of the people of Mohenjo-daro as a whole, and total extermination appears to have been their endeavour.”

The Well Room Tragedy, DK area, G section

Finally, in bringing this rather macabre account to an end, mention must be made of the lone bit of evidence from Mohenjo-daro that could conceivably be used as positive evidence of some murderous tragedy during the Late period of the city. In what we might call the “Well Room Tragedy” (DK area, G section), two skeletons were found on a flight of stairs “evidently lying where they died in a vain endeavour with their last

remaining strength to climb the stairs to the street.” But the circumstances surrounding this tragedy are unknown and it would be presumptuous to cry “massacre” on this bit of evidence alone.

Thus stands the evidence in the case against Indra and the Aryans, or to be less specific, against the idea of a “final massacre” by whomever you prefer. The contemporaneity of the skeletal remains is anything but certain. Whereas a couple of them definitely seem to represent a slaughter, in situ, the bulk of the bones were found in contexts suggesting burials of the slopiest and most irreverent nature. There is no destruction level covering the latest period of the city, no sign of extensive burning, no bodies of warriors clad in armor and surrounded by the weapons of war. The citadel, the only fortified part of the city, yielded no evidence of a final defence. (See photograph on page 4.)

The evidence that is being gathered by present investigators from various branches of the natural and physical sciences is tending to support–in part– the theory expressed years ago by Mackay. Regarding the decay of Mohenjo-daro and the Harappan civilization, he suspected the cause to be “the vagaries of the Indus rather than pressure by invaders, of whose existence we have, in fact, little positive evidence.”

The details of the story of the decline and fall of the Indus civilization are, as yet, far from clear, but a pattern of contributing factors is taking shape. This pattern does not include invasion and massacre as basic factors. On the contrary, it appears that a series of natural disasters occurred–possibly as swiftly, certainly more devastating than any hypothetical invasion. A sudden rise in the Arabian Sea coastline of West Pakistan apparently took place sometime around the middle of the second millennium B.C. This resulted in a disastrous increase in the already serious floods in the major river valleys with the subsequent rise of the underground water table, contributing to an increase in the soil salinity to the point where it was impossible to sustain the population of the vast urban settlements. The economy must have decayed rapidly; the Harappans were forced to migrate gradually to more fertile territory.

There is now incontrovertible archaeological evidence that the major population shift was to the southeast into the area of the Kathiawar peninsula, north of Bombay.

George F. Dales is Assistant Curator in charge of the Museum’s new Section of South Asia Archaeology. He received his Ph.D. in Oriental Studies at the University of

Pennsylvania in 1960; then went to the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, as Assistant Curator in the Near Eastern Department for two and a half years. He has excavated in

Egypt, Jerusalem (Jordan) , Iraq, and Iran; and directed the Makran Coast Expedition to West Pakistan for the University Museum in 1960. He is now proposing to direct

extensive excavations at Mohenjo-daro, one of the two capitals of the ancient Indus Valley civilization.

Here the Harappans mingled with other indigenous populations and gradually there was a complete absorption and transformation of the remnants of the formerly great Harappan culture into what we are coming to recognize as a distinctive chalcolithic culture of Central India. The former capitals of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were virtually abandoned and became easy prey for bandits from the Baluchistan hills.

The enemy of the Harappans was Nature aided and abetted by the Harappans themselves, who accelerated the spoiliation of the landscape through improper irrigation practices, and by denuding the watersheds through overgrazing and deforestation. They would have eventually put themselves out of business through such malpractices–just as the Sumerians did in southern Mesopotamia–but the process was speeded up by a sardonic twist of the earth’s surface. Thus ended one of the three earliest civilizations of antiquity–Indra and the barbarian hordes are exonerated.