Ploughed field at Kalibangan

Topic: Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"

Meaning

The ploughed field at Kalibangan is a field surface from the Early Harappan period at Kalibangan in Rajasthan. Its furrows (long, narrow lines cut into soil by a plough) run in two sets at right angles to each other, which suggests that two crops were grown together. It is rare direct proof that Harappans ploughed their land. Most other evidence for ploughing comes from figurines and clay models, so this field is a key link in the evidence for Harappan farming.

Explanation

Background: why historians looked for plough evidence

• The Harappan script has not been read. Historians cannot use written records to learn how people farmed.
• They have to build a chain of inference (reasoning step by step from clues) out of objects:
• Seals and terracotta figurines of the bull suggest that oxen pulled ploughs. This is only indirect evidence.
• Terracotta plough models (small baked-clay copies of ploughs) have been found at Cholistan sites and Banawali.

• An actual ploughed field surface at Kalibangan is the most direct clue.

• A real plough rarely survives, probably because ploughs were made of wood. This makes the field's furrows very valuable.

Main features of the field

• Date: Early Harappan period, before the city grew in the Mature phase.
• Preservation: The field lay buried under later Mature Harappan buildings, so its surface was protected.
• Pattern: Two sets of furrows cross each other at right angles, like a grid.
• Reading of the pattern: Excavators think two different crops were grown together in the same field. This is called intercropping (growing two crops side by side in one field) (Class 9, Ch 4 "Early Humans").
• Confirmation: The ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) report on the Kalibangan excavation also describes plough-marked surfaces from before the city was built [4].

How it fits the wider Harappan farming system

• The Harappans grew wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea and sesame. They were also among the first in Eurasia to grow cotton [2].
• They practised multi-cropping across seasons [3]:
• Summer/kharif sowing: rice, millets, beans and pulses.
• Winter/rabi sowing: wheat, barley and pulses.

• Each season needed its own watering schedule.

• The Kalibangan field shows this kind of crop planning at an early date. It looks like an early form of the rabi-kharif pattern.

Results and limits

• It is strong evidence that ploughing with animal power was practised even before the Mature Harappan cities.
• It suggests that farmers were skilled enough to grow two crops together quite early.
• Limits:
• The crop pairing is an interpretation of the furrow pattern. The furrows themselves do not tell us which crops were grown.
• We still do not know how crops were harvested. Historians debate whether people used stone blades fixed in wooden handles or bronze/copper tools.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Early Harappan phase, before the Mature Harappan phase (c. 2600–1900 BCE). The wider civilisation dates to c. 3500–1300 BCE.
• Place: Kalibangan, Rajasthan.
• Context: The field surface was found under Mature Harappan structures, which shows it is older than them.
• How we know:
• Archaeological excavation of the plough-marked surface, described in the ASI's Kalibangan excavation report [4].

• Related clues from other sites: terracotta plough models from Cholistan sites and Banawali, and bull figures on seals and terracotta figurines.

• Textbook source: NCERT Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"; also Class 9, Ch 4 "Early Humans".

Don't confuse with

• Banawali plough model: Banawali gave a terracotta model of a plough, which is a clay copy of the tool. Kalibangan gave an actual ploughed field with furrows.
• Shortughai (Afghanistan): This Harappan trading outpost gives canal/irrigation evidence, not ploughing evidence.
• Dholavira reservoirs: These are evidence of water storage. The largest reservoir measures c. 265 × 40 ft and is 23 ft deep, built to save rainwater in dry Kutch [4]. They tell us nothing about ploughing.
• Mature vs Early Harappan date: The Kalibangan field is Early Harappan, and it lies beneath the Mature-phase city. MCQs may wrongly call it Mature Harappan.

Prelims Hooks

• Kalibangan (Rajasthan): ploughed field from the Early Harappan period.
• The furrows are at right angles, which suggests two crops grown together.
• Terracotta plough models come from Cholistan sites and Banawali, not Kalibangan.
• Order of evidence for ploughing, from indirect to direct: bull on seals/figurines → terracotta plough models → ploughed field at Kalibangan.
• Shortughai (Afghanistan) is linked with canals. Dholavira is linked with reservoirs. Do not mix these with the ploughed field.
• Harappans were among the first in Eurasia to grow cotton [2].

Mains Points

• Inference-based archaeology: The Harappan script cannot be read, so the Kalibangan field is a good example of how historians reason from material remains. Seals, clay models and field furrows together build a case for plough farming. This point is useful in GS-I answers on the sources of ancient Indian history.
• Continuity in Indian agriculture: If the double-cropping reading is accepted, rabi-kharif style crop planning in the subcontinent becomes much older. This links Harappan farming to later Indian agrarian practice [3].
• Early agrarian base of urbanisation: Ploughing and intercropping in the Early Harappan phase suggest a farming base that could produce a food surplus. Such a surplus could support the later Mature Harappan cities. Since the Harappan zone is semi-arid, this farming also had to work with wells, canals and reservoirs.

Related concepts

• Harappan subsistence
• Harappan agriculture
• Harappan cotton
• Rangpur
• Terracotta plough
• Cholistan
• Harappan irrigation

Read more

• Subsistence: agriculture, animals, diet