Harappan weights

Also called: Harappan weights and measures · Topic: Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"; Class 9, Ch 4 "Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"

Meaning

Harappan weights were small, carefully made cubes of chert (a hard, fine-grained stone). They carried no marks. Their sizes followed a fixed pattern: the smaller weights doubled in a binary series (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32…) and the larger weights followed a decimal series (160, 200, 320, 640).

They matter because they show a common system of measurement used across a very large region. They point to organised trade, and possibly to some form of control by an authority, even though the Harappan script still cannot be read.

Explanation

Background: why weights were needed

• The Harappans traded inside their own region and also over long distances, for example with Magan (Oman), Dilmun (Bahrain) and Mesopotamia, which called the Harappan region Meluhha.
• Goods such as carnelian, lapis lazuli, copper and gold changed hands. Buyers and sellers needed a fair, agreed way to measure quantity.
• Seals and sealings (clay impressions that closed bags of goods) proved who sent the goods. Weights proved how much was being sent or exchanged.

Main features

• Material: chert. It is hard, so the weights did not wear down easily and kept their exact mass.
• Shape: cubical.
• Unmarked: they carry no numbers or script signs. The size and mass of each cube showed its value.
• Two-part system:
• lower weights were binary: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32…, each one double the last

• higher weights were decimal: 160, 200, 320, 640

• Base unit: about 0.856–0.8565 g [3].

• Most common weight: about 13.7 g, which is 16 times the base unit [3].
• Very small weights were probably used for costly items such as jewellery and beads.
• Metal scale-pans have also been found. This shows the Harappans actually weighed goods on balances, and did not keep the cubes only as reference blocks.

How the system worked across the region

• The same standard is found at many sites. This means the weights were standardised and probably controlled from some centre [3].
• Dilmun's weights followed the Harappan standard. So the system was used beyond the Harappan region, along its trade routes.
• They were probably used for market exchange and/or taxation (collecting a share of goods for an authority). Historians are not sure which [3].

Results and significance

• A shared standard made trade easier and fairer across long distances.
• Evidence of organisation:
• such uniform weights could not exist without some regulating body
• yet the evidence does not clearly show a strong king or central political ruler
• so the weights feed into the debate on how Harappan society was governed

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation, c. 3500–1300 BCE. The weights belong mainly to its mature phase, c. 2600–1900 BCE.
• Region: found at Harappan sites across the north-western Indian subcontinent. Outside it, the Harappan standard was adopted at Dilmun (Bahrain) in the Persian Gulf.
• Wider trade context:
• Literary references to Meluhhan trade date to c. 2350–1794 BCE.

• Archaeology suggests the trade began c. 2600 BCE [2].

• How we know:

• archaeological finds of chert cubes and metal scale-pans
• the uniform mass of weights from different sites [3]
• Dilmun weights that match the Harappan standard

• NCERT Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"

• Limitation: the Harappan script is undeciphered (not yet read), so no Harappan text explains the system. Everything we know comes from the objects themselves.

Don't confuse with

• Harappan seals: seals are made of steatite (a soft stone) and carry an animal motif and a line of script. Weights are made of chert and carry no marks at all.
• Purely decimal system: Harappan weights were not decimal throughout. The lower denominations were binary and only the higher ones were decimal.
• Sealings: sealings (clay impressions) proved who sent the goods and that nobody had opened them. Weights measured quantity.
• Indus script signs (e.g. the Dholavira signboard): the script has 375–400 signs and is written right to left. The weights have no inscribed numerals, so the script played no part in reading their value.

Prelims Hooks

• Harappan weights were made of chert, were cubical, and were unmarked.
• Lower denominations were binary (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32); higher ones were decimal (160, 200, 320, 640).
• Base unit is about 0.856 g; the most common weight is about 13.7 g [3].
• Dilmun (Bahrain) followed the Harappan weight standard.
• Metal scale-pans have been found, which shows that real weighing took place.
• Trap: "Harappan weights were made of steatite and bore script signs" is wrong. That describes seals.

Mains Points

• Uniform weights point to regulation without a visible ruler:
• the same standard across many sites suggests central control of measurement [3]
• yet there is no clear evidence of a strong king or a palace

• this supports the view that Harappan governance worked through organised economic and administrative practice

• Weights and seals together made a trade toolkit. Sealings confirmed the sender and showed the goods had not been opened. Standard weights confirmed the quantity. Dilmun's adoption of the Harappan standard shows how far Harappan commercial practice reached in the Bronze Age.

• Limits of the evidence: the script is undeciphered, so the purpose of the weights (market exchange, taxation or both) can only be inferred from objects and from Mesopotamian records. Any GS-I answer should point out this limit.

Related concepts

• Harappan trade
• Meluhha
• Harappan seals
• Unicorn seal
• Harappan script
• Boustrophedon

Read more

• Long-distance trade, seals, script, weights