Prof. S.K. Patil, www.skpatil.

com 1

Transportation Engineering – II (Town Planning)

Indus Valley Civilization

Course Learning Outcomes:

• At the end of this session, the student will be able to understand
features of town planning principles in ancient India (Indus
Valley)

1/7/2018 .
 Prof. S.K. Patil, www.skpatil.com 2

Prof. (Dr.) Sachin Kishor Patil

B.E. Civil, M.E. Civil Environmental Engineering, Ph.D. (IIT, Bombay)
❑ Professor & Head of Department
❑ Department of Civil Engineering
❑ AMGOI, Vathar, Kolhapur, MH, India.

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Indus valley civilization Summary
Town structure consists of:
 Citadel mound and lower town surrounded by a massive brick wall.

Citadel had square towers and bastions.

 Large open areas inside the gateway may have been used as a
market or checkpoint for taxing goods coming into the city
 Outside the city walls a cluster of houses may represent temporary

rest stops for travellers and caravans

 No division of the society is reflected in the layout of the city. Since

large public buildings, market areas, large and small houses as well as
craft workshops have been found in the same neighbourhood.
 Barrack-like group of single-roomed tenements were for the poorer

classes
Indus valley civilization Summary
Town structure consists of: …
 Basic house plans ranging from single room tenements to houses with

courtyards and up to 12 rooms to great houses with several dozen

rooms and several courtyards.
 Houses had rooms on three sides opening into a central courtyard

 Nearly all large houses had private wells.

 Hearths common in rooms.

 Bathrooms in every house with chutes leading to drainage channels.

 First floor bathrooms also built.

 Brick stairways provided access to the upper floors.

 Houses built with a perimeter wall and adjacent houses were

separated by a narrow space of land.

Indus valley civilization Summary
Town structure consists of: …
 Granary with areas for threshing grains.

 Burnt bricks mainly used for drains, wells and bathrooms.

 Sun dried bricks used mainly for fillings.

 Timber used for flat roofs and as frames or lacing for brickwork

Houses
 Most private houses had rooms arranged around a central courtyard.

Doors and windows opened out into side lanes. Stairs led up to the
roof or the second storey. Windows had shutters and latticework.
Indus valley civilization Summary
Drainage system
 Wells and reservoirs were provided in cities to ensure drinking and

bathing water. The wells were lined with specially-made wedge-

shaped bricks to form a structurally sound cylinder. Ropes were used
to lift the water out, probably with leather or wooden buckets. Some
neighbourhoods had communal wells.
 Bathing platforms with drains were often situated in rooms adjacent to

the wells. The floors of the baths were made of tightly-fitted bricks,
often set on edge to make a watertight floor. A small drain cut through
the house wall out into the street directed the dirty water into a larger
sewage drain. Drains and water chutes in the upper storeys were
often built inside the wall with an exit opening just above the street
drains . Tapered terracotta drainpipes were used to direct water out to
the street.
Indus valley civilization Summary
Drainage system …
 Many houses had distinct toilets, separate from the bath areas.

Commodes were large jars or sump pots sunk into the floors and
many of them contained a small jar. Sometimes the sump pots were
connected to drains to let the sewage flow out and most had a tiny
hole on the bottom to allow the water to seep into the ground.
 Drains were made of burnt bricks and connected the bathing platforms

and latrines of private houses to medium-sized open drains in the side

streets. These open drains flowed into the larger sewers in the main
streets which were covered with baked bricks or dressed stone blocks.
Separate garbage bins were provided along the major streets.
Indus valley civilization Summary
Architecture
 The most common building materials were mud bricks and baked

bricks, wood and reeds. The average size of the bricks was 7 x 12 x
34 cm (for houses) and 10 x 20 x 40 cm for the city walls. The larger
bricks have a standard ratio of 1:2:4. Mud brick and baked brick and
wood or stone were used for the foundation and walls of the houses.
 The doors and the windows were made from wood and mat. House

floors were generally hard-packed earth that was often re-plastered or

covered with clean sand. Bathing areas and drains were made with
baked brick and stone. Some rooms were paved with bricks or fired
terracotta cakes. Roofs were probably made of wooden beams
covered with reeds and packed clay. Some of the largest buildings
appear to have been made entirely of wood.
Indus valley civilization Summary
Large public structures
 Large buildings in the acropolis area may represent administrative or
ritual structures. These buildings had access routes or provided
thoroughfare from one area to another. Markets and public meetings were
probably held in large open courtyards. Groups of houses and public
buildings were built close together with shared walls and formed larger
blocks that were bordered by wide streets.
 Most houses had private bathing areas and latrines as well as private
wells. At Harappa, the transition of the settlement from an agricultural
village to early city probably took place in around 2800 BC phase. During
this phase the settlement grew to about 25 hectares in size and became a
centre for trade networks extending from Baluchistan (Afghanistan) to the
west to the distant seacoast in the south. In the next few hundred years,
the town had grown six times larger, covering an area of 150 hectares.
Indus Valley Location
Indus Valley Civilization
 A Primary Phase Culture
 little or no continuity with the following cultures
 forgotten until the 19th Century
 rediscovered by the British
 ASI
Harappan Culture

 Indus valley
 not desert
 well-watered and heavily forested

 500 miles along the river valley

 10-20 times larger than Mesopotamia or Egypt
Carefully Planned Cities

Originating around 2500 B.C.

the thriving civilizations
survived for around 500
years.

Both Harappa and Mohenjo-

Daro, two of the largest
among 500 sites, were
three miles in
circumference with around
40,000 people.
Mohenjo-Daro
Entrance of Mohenjodaro
Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa

To the north is a citadel or raised

area.
In Mohenjo-Daro, the citadel is built
on an architectural platform about
45 feet above the plain.
On the summit was a huge communal
bath.
Next to the large bath was a huge
open space—a granary where food
was stored from possible floods.
Fortified walls mark the southeast
corner.
 Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa

•The lower city was laid out in a

grid-iron with the main streets about
45 feet wide.
•Private houses, almost every one
with its own well, bathing space,
and toilet consisting of a brick seat
over a drainage area.
•Brick-lined drains flushed by water
carried liquid and solid waste to
sumps, where it was carted away,
probably to fertilize nearby fields.
 Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa

•The town plan was regular.

•Even fire-baked bricks were uniform in
size and shape.
•The regularity of plan and construction
suggests a government with
organization and bureaucratic capacity.
•No monumental architecture clearly
marks the presence of a palace or
temple.
•There is little sign of social stratification
in the plan or buildings.
Hydraulic Culture

 like Egypt and Mesopotamia

 agriculture and flood-control
 significant industry and trade
 cities very common
Reasonable generalizations

 rapid development: early 2,000s B.C.

 roughly contemporary with Egypt and Mesopotamia
 early village culture
 changing rapidly to urban civilization
 cities dominated both economic and political activity
 origins of the people are unclear
 similar to the Mediterranean type
Major Cities

 Harappa and Mohenjo-daro

 surrounded by smaller cities, towns, and villages
 one situated in the north
 one situated in the south
 uniform culture over a wide area
 cities built on a common plan
a grid: always NS and EW axes
 with twelve smaller grids
 kiln-dried brick
Grid map of
Mohenjo-daro
Mohenjo-daro : aerial view
Mohenjo-daro
view of the “Citadel”
The “Great Bath”
Plug for bathroom
Great Bath
 12 x 7x 3 metres.
 This is the earliest public water tank in the ancient world.
 Two wide staircases in the north and the south lead down into the
tank.
 The floor of the tank is watertight.
 A thick layer of bitumen was laid along the sides of the tank and beneath the floor.
 The floor slopes to the south-western corner where a small outlet leads to a brick
drain, which takes the water to the edge of the mound.
 Rooms are located along the eastern edge of the building. The tank
was probably used for special religious functions where water was
used to purify and renew the well being of the bathers.
A large drain or sewer
looks like a small tower, but actually it view of a small, side street
is a neighborhood well
A public well in Harappa, or perhaps an
ancient laundromat...
Mohenjodaro
 Pop. 35,000-41,000
 Area >200 hectares
 ·No fortification
 ·Major streets in the N-S direction
 ·Broadly at right angles
 ·Streets within built-up areas were narrow
 ·Zoning was distinct for distinct groups, commerce at the meeting of
east road and first street, near palace
Mohenjodaro
 Three broad divisions of the settlement:
 The religious, institutional and cultural areas - around monastery and
great bath in the western part including temple.
 The northern part - principally for agriculture and industries
 The southern part – principally for administration, trade and commerce
 Construction technique was very well advanced:
 Buildings were of masonry construction (sun-dried bricks)
 o Ranging from two rooms to mansions with many rooms
 o Underground sewerage and drainage from houses
 o Pumps (helical) to pump water in great bath
 o Principal buildings were monastery and bath – indicating the
influence of religion as a
 culture (not for defense)
Monumental architecture

 very-large scale building

 walled cites, with fortified citadels
 always on the same scale
 large grain storage facilities near temples
 planned economy
Harappan granary
Cities

 very densely populated

 houses: two to three stories
 every house is laid out the same
Culture and Society

 advanced agriculture
 surplus production
 textiles: wool and cotton
 domesticated animals and fish
Bronze Age technology

 no swords
 spears and bows
 stone arrow heads
Society

 dominated by priests ?
 from the fortified palaces and temples ?
 power base: fertility ?
 deities: male and female,
 bull worship and phallic symbols
Indus Valley Civilization Abstract
 3300–1300 BC, (flowered 2600–1900 BC)
 Worlds first sophisticated urban sanitation systems
 knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments
which placed a high priority on hygiene.
 Streets laid out in perfect grid patterns
 houses were protected from noise, odors, and thieves
 individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells.
 waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major
streets.
 Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes
 advanced architecture is shown by dockyards, granaries,
warehouses, brick platforms and protective walls.
Abstract Cont……
 massive citadels of Indus cities that protected the Harappans from
floods and attackers
 no large monumental structures were built
 no evidence of palaces or temples - or of kings, armies, or priests
 public bath
Combination of Changes : The Purge

 climate shift: the monsoon patterns

 flooding
 destruction of the forests
 migrations of new peoples: the Aryans