Kalibangan - A journy into the hoary past
+ Has the Requiem been sung?
+ Continuity of Cultural Elements
+ Letter to INTACH
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We felt the familiar thrill of anticipation
when our jeep entered ‘Kalibangan’- a remote settlement in North Western
Rajasthan. We were waiting to see this pre-Harappan settlement which was excavated 25
years ago. Little did we know then that in barely two days we would go through a gamut of
conflicting emotions, consternation, shock and joy.
After having a quick lunch we set off to see the site that was home to people for thousands of years. The site museum displayed huge photographs of well laid out streets and houses of the Harappan civilization. We were mentally prepared to encounter the same. Instead what we saw in front of us were two huge mounds with no traces of any excavation. Slowly the story unfolded. The excavation of Kalibangan, which was once ,praised by the famous archeologists the Alchins as the finest in the subcontinent as far as technical excellence is concerned, is withering away. Since most of the walls and rooms of the houses of this ancient civilization were built of sun baked mud bricks the monsoons are eroding them. If care is not taken the entire place will be razed to the ground. And Kalibangan will disappear from the archeological map of the world.
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Why is Kalibangan so important? It has been identified as a pre-Harappan settelement in 1952 by the then Director General of the Archeological survey of India (A.S.I.) Mr. Ghost. Then settlement can be dated to3000 BC. .Probably settled civilizations grow around a river. The river that flowed near Kalibangan is Ghaggar,which flowed to the south of Sultan and then south wards to the east of Indus. The river has now dried up.
On the banks of Ghaggar the pre-Harappan people lived. Their settlement was surrounded by a massive rampart of mud bricks may be as a measure against floods. Pot like hearths were found in the rooms. One house contained a series of ovens both above and below the ground. The hearths resemble the present day tandoors of the region. The women were fond of beeds. A lot of shell bangles and steatite disc beads were discovered at the site. Some copper objects like bangles were also found. The pottery of this period is of interest. Most of the pottery of the Harappan period was a continuation of earlier motifs of the Pre-Harappan period. The colour of pottery is red or picnic with black and white painting. The motifs are plants, fish and cattle.
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If in Mohanjodaro and Harappa six or seven building phases were identified, in Kalibangan nine structural phases are reported which goes to prove that the place was continuously inhabited for a very long period.
The most amazing find was a pre-Harappan ploughed field with a grid of furrow marks. It ranks as the earliest ploughed field. The A.S.I. Has covered it with a polythene sheet, a highly inadequate measure against the elements.
IT was very hot. Sun was beating down on us mercilessly. The derelict site cast a gloom. We decided to turn back and come later in the evening.
In the evening we met one of the diggers who took part in the excavation, a very charming old man who volunteered to go with us and tell us about the various finds.
So we set off again determined to reconstruct in our minds eye the place and events of the bygone era.
The site comprises of three mounds (see map) KLB-1 which is the citadel mound or the acropolis and houses build over the pre-Harappan settlement we saw in the morning, KLB-2 the lower city and another mound situated upward eight metro east of the lower city, KLB-3.
We first went to KLB-1 or the citadel of the Harappan period built over a Pre-Harappan structure. The plan of the citadel is very interesting. It is divided into two parts and is enclosed by a thick wall of sun backed bricks. The southern half of the citadel was meant for ritualistic purposes, while the northern half comprised of living quarters. Several mud brick platforms were discovered in the southern half. On the eastern half of the platform they found a brick lined rectangular pit containing bones of animals of bovine, deer etc.- an indication that people practisced animal sacrifice. The western half housed a well associated with fire altars. The well is unfortunately covered with shrubs now, but the photograph we saw in the museum helped us in reconstructing it. It had a ring wall made of wedge shaped backed bricks, supported on four sides by radial walls of single brick course. The fire alters were apsidal in shape and contained cylindrical objects and ash. Evidently the people worshipped fire.
The northern half of the citadel as mentioned earlier had residential houses. The people used backed bricked bricks to construct drains, wells, doorsills and bathing platforms here. Backed bricks were used sparingly.
Our guide then took us to the entrance of the monde now called KLB-2. KLB-2 is located on the eastern side of the citadel. All the Harappan settlements discovered till now have a similar plan. The houses of the commoners were located on the eastern side of the citadel.
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KLB-2 or the lower city had lanes crossing one another at right angles. Four north-south thoroughfares intersected by east-west thorough fares were discovered. At the crossings, remains of fender posts were found indicating control of busy vehicular traffic. The city had a beautiful drainage system for carrying off rain water, bath water and sewage from houses to cess-pits which must have been regularly cleaned. We could see one such cess-pit a reflection of the people’s civic sense and hygiene. The houses were built of sun backed bricks and had well paved courtyards surrounded on two or three sides by living rooms. The rooms were interconnected by doorways. A single socket found on the sill of the entrance to a room suggests that single leaf doors were used. Cooking was done in a sheltered corner of the countryard. Our companion told us that one of the rooms in a house had a beautiful tilled floor with the typical Indus design of intersecting circles The city was fortified by a mud brick wall built over the Pre-Harappan wall.
We then went to the another part of the settlement, the cemetery. The cemetry is
situated on the western side of the settlement close to the river bed. We were told that
different types of burials were unearthed here. Two huge graves with steps on the eastern
side to facilitate access to the grave floor found. One of them contained skeleton and
some gold beads near the neck. They also unearthed the 
grave of a seven feet man. There were
seventy-two pots in the grave ensuring his well being in the other world. Apparently he
was a rich man. Pot burials were also discovered. Some burials contained a large number of
pots, dishes on stand, bgoblets, beakers and vases but no skeletons.
One of the exiting finds of Kalibangan was more than hundred seals depicting the unicorn, buffaloes, elephants and chimaric animals. One such seal depicts an animal being led to be sacrificed to a deity. Animal nsacrifice must have been widely prevalent.
Standard weights, some of them so small that they could have been utilized for careful weighing of precious commodities, were also found.
Among other interesting objects unearthed were a stone quern and pestle, terracotta games men, a type of chess played by the Harappans and dice. Dice game was popular even at later times as our epic testify. Terracotta toys were found which go to prove that children were not neglected.
Our guide shared with us his reminiscences of those years when the A S I counducted a nine year excavation at the site when a camp was set up near the mounds.
He said that the place would reverberate with excitement if seals were found. The person to find a seal would be a celebrity for the day. Incentives of an extra day’s wages if something valuable would be found used to make them work with renewed enthusiasm and vigor. In the evening they would gather round a camp fire to a session of poetry and singing. The superintending staff would admonish any one trying to walk on the mounds with his shoes on, for he might tread on some valuable object. How ironical that this place has been left to the mercy of the elements now! In twenty-five years it does not remotely resemble the excavated site of the 60’s.
A little ahead of the excavated site one can see the Kalibangan village. It was situated closer to the mound earlier but has shifted further as some saint advised them to move. The villagers say there were a lot of child deaths earlier and ever since they moved to the new spot they have been happier.
The building material of the houses of the Kalibangan people deserves
mention. They have been using sun baked bricks following the example of their
predecessors. But since five years the climate in the north - western part of Rajasthan
has been changing. What was an arid desert till1950’s presents a different picture
today. Canals were dug and the place has been transformed into a green land. It is
incongruous to see a camel( you associate them with deserts normally) trotting placidly
against a lush green background. Since the climate has undergone a drastic change the
people are resorting to cement and backed brick for building their houses.
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Dr Lavanya loved
Rajasthan. To feel her concern about heritage of this beautiful place, please go through
the The local people captured our hearts with their hospitality and love. Can there be anything more valuable then love showered without expecting anything in return? We came back with mixed feelings. Our hearts felt heavy to see the plight of Kalibangan a unique settlement of great antiquity, falling prey to criminal neglect and apathy.
At the same time we were touched by the genuine love of the people who with their kindness and warmth have restored our faith in humanity.
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Has the Requiem been sung?
It's about a settlement which goes back to the Pre-Harappan times when the place must have been a hub of activity, when people built neatly planned houses on streets which ran at right angles to each other, the potters must have been buy turning out lovely pots with varied designs, women must have been busy with house hold chores, decked with beautiful beads, children must have played with toy terracotta carts dragged by bulls. This settlement called Kalibangan was situated on the banks of the river Ghaggar in Northern Rajasthan.
If this place which represents one of the ancient most civilizations of the world had been left to the care of mother earth, it would have still been intact. However, an excavation was carried out in Kalibangan from 1961 to 1969, unearthing the glorious past. The photographs of the excavated mounds, a lower city which contains streets, houses and drains, a testimony to meticulous planning, a citadel on the top of a mound which must have housed the rich, contains wells, fire altars etc., show that the excavated township is a result of great dedication and painstaking work of archaeologists.
Alas! This settlement over the years has been the ravages of time. Heavy downpour, as well as reqligence have taken their toll. The mud wall of the houses of sunbaked mud bricks which the inmates of Kalibangan painstakingly built five thousand years ago are being washed away and the place where once the excavated township stood, one sees only mounds, which means that soon this place will not survive erosion.
Does this mean that the Requiem to Kalibangan has been sung? Or should one nurture a flicker of hope that the authorities will wake up and salvage what is left of a past that every citizen should be proud of?
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Continuity of Cultural Elements found at Kalibangan by Dr Lavanya
- Houses made of mudbrick which are still prevalent in these areas.
- Pottery with designs.
- Tandoors in which people bake bread.
- Terracotta - toys
Wells that are dug. The wells and the four spokes in the upper citadel testify to a sound knowledge of geometry.
The excavation at Kalibangan revealed that people played a game of dice made of terracotta. We are familiar with Dice in the epic Mahabharata.
The funerary practices revealed burials and precious stones placed in goblets nearby. Buddhist cremation rites come to one's mind. The relics found in stupas contain bones, as well as precious stones placed in caskets.
Fire altars continued to be used in later times. In fact Agni is a deity.
The Kalibangan seals reveal practices of animal sacrifices to deities which are continued till today.
Worship of tree spirits in the seals also has finds continuation in later times; the yakshis, yakshas and dryads constitute a large chunk of Indian Iconography of later times.
- Copy of a letter sent by Dr Lavanya to INTACH to preserve Kalibangan.
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