Introduction: .
According to wheeler (1946), Marshall (1931), Childe (1934), and several others, two factors led to the emergence of cities and towns and thereby to urbanization. These are:
- i) Agricultural surplus gave momentum to trade and commence and
- ii) Overflowing wealth of Harappan culture.
The settlements reveal a uniform town planning Mohenjodaro and Harappa were the metropolitan centres and the oilier were secondary importance. The towns include: Chanhu Daro, Kalibangan, Kot-Diji, Lethal, Rangpur, Sutkagendor and Surkotada. The town planning is marked by uniformity, . which is noticed in the layout of the towns, streets, structures, brick-sizes and materials used, and lastly drainage system.
Pattern of town-planning:
- The grid or rectangular system seems to have remained characteristic of town planning drawing the Harappan period. It shows the lay out of citadel and lower town. The citadel consisted of a high rampart wall on the broad foundation of mud work, city gates and a moat.
- The city wall has bastions or towers at intervals. The citadel at Harappa is in the form of a parallelogram in plan.
- At Mohenjodaro there is a citadel mound and a lower city.
- At Kalibangan the Harappan fortification wall ahs salient, buttresses and entrances on the South and the North.
- Lothal was a small town. Even then it was well , laid out town, a “miniature Mohenjodaro” with a rampart encircling the main habitation.
- At Rangpur, brick fortification’is noticed.
- At Banawali in Haryana the settlement is fortified as a citadel and the other as a residential annexe.
- The citadel at Sutkagendor in built on and around a natural rock which is steeply inclined.
Streets and Lanes:
- The Harappan city was divided into many broad streets running at right angles both East-West and North-South. These streets divided the city into many blocks.
- Their width at Mohenjodaro varied from 9 to 34 feet, and they ran straight sometimes as far as half-a-mile.
- Lamp posts at interval indicate the existence of street lighting.
- The streets at Mohenjodaro are unpaved. At Kalibangan, the material used for metalling the road surface, notably in the upper levels were terracotta nodules.
- Lothal was divided into six blocks each built on an extensive mud-brick platform of varying height.
Buildings:
The buildings included dwelling houses and public buildings. The dwellings of the city’s rulers were in the citadel, the “Upper Town”. While most of the population lived in the “Lower Town.” The intercourse between the “Upper” and ’’Lower” town was limited; the citadel gates could be closed to lock die common people out.
The dwelling shows variation in materials used for construction. Larger houses were built with mud and baked bricks while smaller houses were mud-brick structures. Mud-brick buildings offered protection against the tropical heat. Each brick measuring 11” X 5.5” X 2.75” or 4:2:1. The dwellings show marks of social differentiation: the poor lived in levels. There is much variation in the size of the dwelling houses. The smallest had no more than two rooms. Well-to-do citizens lived in two-and-even these story homes. The largest houses were provided with several rooms, a kitchen, closets, pantries, courtyard, and special rooms for performing ablutions.
In one house at Kalibangan, there are traces of preserved staircase. In one house at Kot-Diji, the floor was found paved with tiles bearing the typical ‘intersecting design of circles, what is called “bath tub” a noteworthy feature of the houses at Kalibangan was the occurrence of oval or rectangular “fire places”.
Everywhere the open courtyard was the basic feature of house planning. Entrance of the house was oriented towards the streets. Every house had an open courtyard. Bathrooms were at one corner of the courtyard and adjacent to the main street. This clearly shows that the Harappan people were cautious about their health and hygiene.
In all places the houses had latticed windows made up of stone for free admission of air and light roofs were invariably flat” The ceiling was made by wood and mud. In all cities the system of water supply and drainage were worked out in detail.
Drainage pipes were placed at the side of the roads about not in the middle of the roads. The drainage system was a covered one where manholes were present of covered by sides. Soak pits were present to carryout unwanted materials. The multiple storied building had horizontal and vertical pipes. The working of drainage system was every effective. Dirty water flowed into settling basins, then into canals, and beyond the city limits. The settling basins and canals were cleared regularly. There were walls in the streets, and rainwater was collected in special reservoirs. The system was more advanced than in ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia. The Harappans were very keen on hygiene already in hoary antiquity, realizing the harm that can be done by accumulations of sewerage and the resultant epidemics.
Public buildings:
Apart from the living quarters, there were public buildings in the Harappan cities. Besides the citadel, there were some other public buildings like the granary, a public bath, city market structures, a dockyard, and temple- like structure.
The granaries at Harappa are large structure (168’ X 135’) located adjacent to the citadel. On the southern side of the granaries there are rows of circular brick platforms with an area of working floors used for threshing wheat and barley as revealed by the chaff found in the crevices. At Mohenjodaro granary was an enormous structure. It contained a brick platform with 27 special brick-platforms for threshing.
The great bath (39’ X 23′ X 8’) at Mohenjodaro was another public establishment of importance. It formed part of a big hydropathic establishment (180’ X 108’). It was reached by a flight of steps on two sides and surrounded by several rows of smaller double storaged rooms. It was supplied with fresh water drawn from a nearby well. Its bottom was covered with gypsum mortar or bitumen. Near the south-west comer of the great bath was a hot air bath.
The dockyard at Lothal was another important public building. It was a trapezoidal brick structure with an overall measurement 710’ X 124’ was connected to the river Sabarmathi by artificial channels. Nearly one-fourth of the town was allocated for the dockyard, while the remaining three-fourths of the town was meant for the dwelling area. The dock basin has a spill way and locking device and close by was a modern temple.
Temple-like structures also formed as important civic places. To the Northern to Eastern side of the great bath at Mohenjodaro were large blocks of buildings which were perhaps used by the priests or administrators. Further, there was a temple building in the citadel. This was comparable to the temple in the ‘lower city”. It has a big entrance and double stairway leading to a raised platform in which were found stone sculptures of seated figures.
Summary:
The unique feature of urban planning of Harappan civilization was its uniformity. In fact the whole civilization was astonishingly homogeneous in terms of uniformity of architecture , town planning, uniformity in artefacts, in sites of hundreds of miles apart. The civilization had all the pre-requisites of urban planning. The cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa were built with a definite plan. Tine width of the streets varied from 13’ to 33. They cut each other at right angles. Houses were built with burnt bricks. There were some the multi-storied houses also. There were big, pillared halls which were probably used as public meeting places. There was a great “bath” at Mohenjodaro. It consisted of a swimming pool surrounded by verandas on four sides. At Harappa, there was a public granary divided into four blocks. The streets had an underground drainage system. The drainage canal passed through the middle of street. Lothal had a dockyard. Citadels were common to cities and town. Temples existed in civic places. Special buildings accommodated the priests and administrators.