Harappan town planning

Also called: Grid pattern · Topic: Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"

Meaning

Harappan town planning means that Harappan cities were planned before they were built. Builders first raised brick platforms. Then they laid out streets in a rough grid that met at right angles, and built covered drains. Houses came last, made of bricks of one standard size. Most cities had a high, walled Citadel and a larger, lower Lower Town.

It matters because these are among the earliest planned cities in the world. The planning also suggests that some strong authority organised the work, even though archaeologists have found no clear palaces or kings.

Explanation

Planning came first

• Platforms before buildings. Houses and other structures were built only on top of mud-brick platforms raised in advance.
• At Mohenjo-daro, the foundation platforms alone took about 4 million person-days of work.

• Work on this scale needed someone to gather the workers and plan the job.

• Grid pattern. Streets ran in a rough grid, crossing at right angles.

• Drains before houses. Streets and drains were laid first, and houses were built after them. The drains were part of the original plan. They were not added later.

The layout of the city

• Two-part plan (the usual pattern)
• The Citadel (the higher, fortified part of the city) was smaller and lay to the west. It stood on mud-brick platforms and had walls around it.

• The Lower Town was larger and lower, and lay to the east. It also had walls.

• Dholavira was different. It had three parts: Citadel, Middle Town and Lower Town.

• It used a lot of stone in its foundations. Most other sites used baked brick.

• The whole city was fortified, and inner walls divided it into sectors.

• Lothal was also different. The whole town was fortified, but its Citadel had no separate wall. It was only raised on a platform.

Bricks, houses and drains

• Standard bricks. Bricks followed a fixed ratio of 4:2:1 (length : breadth : height). Some were sun-dried and some were baked in kilns.
• The same ratio was used from Jammu to Gujarat.

• This shows shared building rules over a huge area, even though no single political capital has been found.

• Houses

• Rooms were built around a central courtyard.
• Ground-floor walls had no windows facing the street. Doors were placed at an angle, so people passing by could not see inside.
• Many houses had their own bathroom with a brick floor. Its drain joined the street drain.
• Staircases show that there was a second storey or access to the roof.

• Many houses had their own wells. Mohenjo-daro had about 700 wells.

• Drainage system

• Almost every house was connected to a street drain.
• Main drains were made of bricks set in mortar. They were covered with loose bricks, and sometimes limestone slabs, that could be lifted for cleaning.
• Waste flowed from the house drain into a sump (a pit that trapped solid waste) and then into the street drain. Sumps were placed at intervals along long drains.
• Even the smaller town of Lothal had mud-brick houses with burnt-brick drains.

Special buildings and water management

• Great Bath (Mohenjo-daro Citadel)
• It is a rectangular tank of about 12 × 7 m, with corridors on all four sides and steps on the north and south.
• Bricks set on edge and gypsum mortar made it watertight. A layer of bitumen (a natural tar) along the sides stopped water from leaking out [2].
• Rooms stood on three sides. One room had a large well, which was probably the source of the Bath's water [2].
• Waste water left through a large corbelled drain (a drain roofed by bricks that step inwards until they meet) [2].
• Next to it, a block of eight bathrooms opened onto a lane.

• It was most likely used for ritual bathing, not everyday bathing. There was only one such bath, and it stood in the Citadel. People did their daily bathing in their own house bathrooms.

• Warehouse (Mohenjo-daro Citadel). Only its brick lower part survives. The wooden upper part has rotted away.

• Dholavira's water system
• It had at least six large reservoirs, built of stone or cut into rock and linked by underground drains. The largest was about 73 m long.
• Two seasonal streams were turned into the walled city to fill them. Wells, tanks and a dam were part of the same system. It was built for a dry island where water was scarce [2][3].

• The reservoirs may also have stored water for farming.

• Canals. Canal irrigation may have been used at Shortughai (Afghanistan). No confirmed canals have been found in the Indian core area.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: The civilisation lasted from c. 3500 to 1300 BCE. Its mature, fully urban phase was c. 2600–1900 BCE. The Great Bath dates to this mature phase, in the 3rd millennium BCE [2].
• Main sites
• Mohenjo-daro (Sindh, Pakistan): grid streets, huge platforms, Great Bath, warehouse and about 700 wells.
• Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan): the standard Citadel–Lower Town plan.
• Dholavira (Kutch, Gujarat): three-part plan, stone foundations and reservoirs. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. UNESCO praised its "multifaceted achievements in urban planning, construction techniques, water management, social governance" [2].
• Lothal (Gujarat): fully fortified, but its Citadel had no separate wall. It had burnt-brick drains.

• Shortughai (Afghanistan): possible canal irrigation.

• Key person: The archaeologist Mackay called the Harappan drains "the most complete ancient system as yet discovered."

• How we know: Almost all of this comes from archaeological excavation: platforms, brick sizes, street plans, drains, wells and reservoirs. No one has yet deciphered the Harappan script, so we have no written records about how the cities were planned.
• NCERT: Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones".

Don't confuse with

• Dholavira's three-part plan: Most Harappan cities had two parts, the Citadel and the Lower Town. Only Dholavira had three: Citadel, Middle Town and Lower Town. It also used stone foundations instead of mainly baked brick.
• Lothal's Citadel: Lothal's Citadel was raised on a platform but had no separate wall. At Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, the Citadel had its own wall.
• Great Bath as a "public bath": The Great Bath was most likely a special bath for ritual use. Ordinary people bathed in their own house bathrooms.
• Mesopotamian temple-centred cities: Mesopotamian cities were built around large temples. Harappan cities had no clear temples or palaces. Their planning focused on platforms, drains, wells and private houses.

Prelims Hooks

• Standard Harappan brick ratio: 4:2:1 (length : breadth : height), used from Jammu to Gujarat.
• Great Bath, Mohenjo-daro: about 12 × 7 m. It was made watertight with gypsum mortar and bitumen, had rooms on three sides (one with a large well) and a block of eight bathrooms next to it [2].
• Trap: "All Harappan cities had a two-part plan." This is wrong. Dholavira (Gujarat) had a three-part plan.
• Mohenjo-daro had about 700 wells. Its foundation platforms needed about 4 million person-days of work.
• Dholavira had at least six reservoirs (the largest about 73 m long) and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021 [2][3].
• The only site with possible Harappan canal irrigation is Shortughai (Afghanistan). Mackay called the Harappan drains "the most complete ancient system" then known.

Mains Points

• Planned cities, not slow growth. Streets and drains were laid before houses, and platforms were raised before anything was built on them. This supports the view that the cities were planned from the start and did not simply grow bit by bit.
• Authority without kings. The huge amount of work on platforms and the same brick size across a vast area point to strong central planning. Yet no clear palaces or kings have been found. This is a key debate about how Harappan society was run.
• Fitting the plan to the local environment. Dholavira on its dry island depended on reservoirs and a dam. Mohenjo-daro on the river plain relied on wells and drains. This shows engineering adapted to local conditions. Private bathrooms in most houses alongside a single ritual Great Bath suggest that cleanliness and purity mattered greatly. This differs from temple-centred Mesopotamian cities, which is useful for GS-I questions on "civilisation and environment".

Related concepts

• Citadel
• Lower Town
• Upper town and lower town
• Harappan bricks
• Harappan domestic architecture
• Harappan drainage system
• Mohenjo-daro
• Great Bath of Mohenjo-daro
• Warehouse of Mohenjo-daro
• Dholavira reservoirs

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• Town planning, architecture and water management