MohenjoDaro:

BirthplaceofEngineering


DeepakRamchandani
May2015

Preface:
I was in Delhi due to some official workshop organized by Ministry of Drinking
Waterandvisitedmuseumoftoiletsof"Saulabhorganization"whichwaspartof
theorganizedworkshop.
Isawthisphotographofthetoiletanddrainagesystemof"MoenjoDaro".There
was the picture of drainage system in our ancient civilization also, at present
government if promoting for toilets in every home in the nation. Our lost
civilizationhadgivenmuchbutunfortunatelyisnotcarriedforward.Thepicture
oftoiletshowninleftistoiletofEuropeanstylesittingarrangement.

ThisinspiredmetohaveacollectionofpicturesofMoenjoDarofromtheinternet
in which skill of construction of toilet, drains, open bath, streets, wall
construction,privatewell,publicwell,staircasearedisplayed.
ThisisjustcollectionofpictureswhichshowsthatbirthplaceofEngineeringwas
fromMoenjoDaro

Deepak Ramchandani

MohenjoDaro
BirthplaceofEngineering
Mohenjo-Daro, a town of 35,000 in the Indus River Valley (southern
Pakistan), is considered by many historians to be the birthplace of sewers
& Engineering. Beginning around 3500 BCE, drains made of cut stone or
man-made masonry units, initially open topped but later covered, were
developed and became the prototype of many surface drains used
throughout the ancient world it was one of the largest settlements of the
ancientIndus Valley Civilization, and one of the world's earliest
majorurbansettlements, Mohenjo-daro was abandoned in the 19th century
BCE, and was not rediscovered until 1922.
Mohenjo-daro, the modern name for the site, simply meansMound of the
DeadinSindhi. The city's original name is unknown, but analysis of a
Mohenjo-daro seal suggests a possible ancient name,Kukkutarma("the city
of thecockerel.Cockfightingmay have had ritual and religious significance
for the city, with domesticated chickens bred there for sacred purposes,
rather than as a food source.
Mohenjo-daro was the most advanced city of its time, with remarkably
sophisticated civil engineering and urban planning.[9]When the Indus
civilization went into sudden decline around 1900 BCE, Mohenjo-daro was
abandoned
Mohenjo-daro was discovered in 1922 by R. D. Banerji, an officer of the
Archaeological Survey of India, two years after major excavations had
begun at Harappa, some 590 km to the north. Large-scale excavations
were carried out at the site under the direction of John Marshall, K. N.
Dikshit, Ernest Mackay, and numerous other directors through the 1930s.
Mohenjo Daro is by far the largest of the Indus cities, extending over 250
hectares with widespread mounds and outlying habitation areas. The only
comparable site is Dholavira, Kachchh, India

There have been some suggestions that the entire site was destroyed by
floods but this theory has not been substantiated by later research.

Indus Priest King:

Seated male sculpture, or "Priest King" from Mohenjo-daro. Fillet or ribbon
headband with circular inlay ornament on the forehead and similar but
smaller ornament on the right upper arm.

Corbelled arch drain. Many large covered drains had corbelled arches. These drains
ran beneath lanes and streets and were wide enough for workmen to enter and fix
problems or clear blockages.

First Street, Mohenjo-daro. The baked brick buildings of Mohenjo-daro are grouped
into different neighborhoods linked by wide streets, such as First Street in the DK-G
area, which is over 9 meters wide.

A Bathing platform. A bathing platform in SD area shows a brick floor. Flat paved
bricks were used to make this floor. Many bathing platforms of the region had
watertight floors. These floors were built with bricks laid on their edges, much like
modern water facilities in the subcontinent today.

DK-G Courtyard and blocked drain. A small room situated at the edge of the street (in
the central portion of the photograph) is the site where fourteen skeletons, believed to
be the so-called massacre victims, were discovered.

Blocked lane. Empty alleyways and spaces in large cities like Mohenjo-daro were
utilized to dispose of trash. Occasionally even unwanted bodies were dumped in these
spaces.

Building in high rise areas.

The original walls of the Chief's house have been renovated and conserved. This
scene shows part of the large courtyard. On the left, the top of a well can also be seen.

Conservation and Remodeling:- The salt encrusted footings shown here represent the
original wall; a line of red painted bricks with bitumen coating serve as a damp proof
course to protect the upper layer of the wall. The upper part of the wall has been
preserved with brick bonding that is different from the original wall. A stairway is
also seen

Corbelled Great Bath Drain:- This drain cuts through the boundary of the so-called
granary. If this complete drain were built along with the Great Bath, this characteristic
would suggest that the original "granary" was constructed earlier than the great bath.

Covered Drainage:- The planned city of Mohenjo-daro had drains that were lined with
bricks and manholes to facilitate cleaning on a regular basis. This picture shows a
covered drain with a slope meeting the street leading to the Great Bath.

A covered drain on the so-called Divinity Ave:- This street, named Divinity Street by
the early excavators, shows a small drain having brick coverings. This street runs
from north to south along the east side of the College building.

Blocked drain:- As structures were filled and street levels were elevated, the drains
finally became useless and were blocked with brick walls and debris.

Drain chute:- Most of the buildings at Mohenjo-daro had two or more storeys.
Terracotta pipes or open chutes were widely used to drain out the water from the
upper storey bathrooms and roof.

Drain covers:- This large drain was partially covered along its length with big flat
blocks of limestone sourced from the Rohri hills, which are lie to the north on the
other side of the Indus River.

Massive drain:- Excavated by the Harappa Archaeological Research Project in 1993,

this large corbelled drain was built in the middle of an abandoned gateway at Harappa
to dispose of rainwater and sewage.

Sanitation outlet:- The ground floor drain of the bathing platform leads into the street,
next to the tapered chute from a second storey bathing area or a roof drain

Drain pipes:- Many drains from buildings located at a level higher than the street were
directed to the street by means of enclosed channels or terracotta pipes. Generally,
multiple telescoping segments that fit

Drainage outlets:- The wide drain outlet has a brick on its edge with a notch. This
brick placed across the drain hole prevents larger items from flowing out with the bath
water.

First Street in the DK-G Area:- Viewing north along First Street. The area towards the
left has been totally excavated while the area to the right remains unexcavated. Later
street levels can be seen in the background

Possible Gateway:- A colossal block of brick architecture located at the southeast

corner of the citadel mound was believed to represent an entrance with large brick
bastions. A wall built later (in the central part of the photo) blocked the entrance.

Mohenjo-daro Granary:- The eroded wells and a wall constructed against the granary
reveal that the area to the north of the granary was filled with debris and afterwards
with buildings.

Great Bath Full View:- Two wide staircases, one from the north and another from the
south, were used to enter the Great Bath. The floor of this tank was watertight owing
to finely fitted bricks set on edge with gypsum plaster. Brick colonnades were
exposed on the northern, eastern and southern edges though the western edge

Mohenjo-daro Narrow Street and Visitors

Narrow street:- At Mohenjo-daro narrow streets and alleyways branch off of the major
streets, leading into more private neighborhoods. Many of the brick houses were two
stories high, with thick walls and high ceilings to keep the rooms cool in the hot
summer months

Great Bath drain:- The corbelled arch drain linked to the great bath were of such huge
proportions that a person could easily walk into it. It has a small ledge on either side
of the drain channel.

Eastern side of courtyrad showing remains of Kushan pavement before exploration of

Indus remains beneath:- Photographed between 1922-27 and published in Sir John
Marshall, Mohenjodaro and The Indus Civilization (1931)

VS Area, Section A. Block I, House II: Room 23, showing brick floor with dyeing
troughs:- [Original 1931 caption] House II. - Rooms 1 to 26, covering a rectangular
area of 86 ft. 10 in. by 64 ft. 5 in. to the north of the building just described, appear
originally to have belonged to one and the same house, which had two entrances
opening into the main street on the east and another into Lane I on the north. At a
subsequent date the building appears to have been divided into four separate
dwellings. . .. Noteworthy features of this room are five conical pits or holes dug into
the floor and lined with wedge-shaped bricks, apparently meant to hold the pointed
bases of large storage jars, and what seems to have been a very narrow well in the S.E.
corner. Room 2 has a small chamber screened off in its N.W. corner and a pvaed bath
or floor for cleaning utensils in the other corner, with a covered drain to carry of waste
water into the cesspit in front of Room I.

North wall of House XXV:- [Original 1931 text] Houses XXV and XXVI are built on
the foundations of a large structure of the Intermediate I Period, of which onoy the
back or west wall has been exposed. House XXV faces towards the south and like No.
XXIV has a wide open courtyard (47) in the front, the rest of the interior
being occupied by three rooms with an open passage and staircase in the N.E. corner
row of chambers along the west side, and two or three others between them,.

The Great Bath, as seen from the south-west:- [Original 1931 text] The Great Bath,
which I have reserved to the last, was part of what appears to have been a vast
hydropathic establishment and the most imposing of all the remains unearthed at
Mohenjo-daro.

Deep cutting near north-west corner of monastery, showing pavement of seventh

stratum

Northern end of cutting on east side of Stupa, showing the Indus structures from
north.:- Of the drains which served this building and which belonged to the later
reconstruction, one is carried east and west along the inner side of its northern wall
through Chambers a second empties itself from the bathroom into the street drain on
the north; and a third running south to north through Room also discharges into the
street drain a few feet further west

Street between Blocks ! and 2 in SD Area, looking north.:- Photographed between

1922-27 and published in Sir John Marshall, Mohenjodaro and The Indus Civilization
(1931).

Eastern retaining wall of Great Platform, with drains near its foot.: Photographed
between 1922-27 and published in Sir John Marshall, Mohenjodaro and The Indus
Civilization (1931)

Southern Buildings in course of excavation, from south-west:- [Original 1931 text] A

considerable number of buildings separated from each other by streets and lanes have
been excavated in the southern portion of the stupa mound.

Southern Buildings Section. Street between Blocks 1 and 2 in foreground, from

north:- The walls of these two buildings are of considerable thickness and, as the
levels show, a single and extensive building, extending the whole way along the
eastern side of the tank and separated from that building

A Mud Brick Platform: The bases of many houses were built on top of huge mud
brick platforms like this one shown eroding from the border of the mound along the
major east-west street, dividing HR and VS areas. Large mud bricks that were used
for building platforms like this one. The bricks measured 10 x 20 x 40 cm (a ratio
of 1:2:4). In the background, a partly exposed platform can be seen which has pottery
and fired brick fragments still covering the surface

Narrow Lanes: As the bends of these narrow lanes were not easy to move in, oxcarts
could not reach urban neighborhoods like this one. These narrow lanes could only
have been used by pack animals and pedestrians

Narrow streets:- Towards the left, the doors of buildings are visible in the upper levels
of the wall. The gradual tapering of the walls towards the far right hand side was an
intentional architectural characteristic to prevent the upper floors from collapsing

Pottery Foundation base:- Some of the later houses of HR area were built on top of
huge deposits of garbage comprising of broken pottery, brick rubble and sometimes a
slender layer of vitrified, crushed terracotta nodules. Three sequences of
reconstruction can be viewed with each wall having a different basal level. The
additional wall segments were not attached to the earlier walls on the right. Various
techniques of brick bonding are visible in each of these walls

Oval Well:- This oval well is positioned in room 19 northeast of Great Bath. This well
was the only one with an oval structure. It is possible that this oval well was used to
draw water either for filling the GreatBath or for nearby bathing platforms

Large Hall:- A close-up view of the pillared hall. This might have been an assembly
hall with paved walkways and places where people could have sat in straight rows
along each aisle. The aisles would have been located between huge brick pillars.

Large Hall:- This pillared hall roughly measured 27.5 meters square (90 feet square)
having 20 square brick pillars set up in four rows. However, only two of these rows
have been conserved. Strips of paved floors are seen sloping from south to north. Each
strip of flooring had row of bricks located on edge along both the sides. The cross
wall seen in the foreground was constructed later that divided the hall into smaller
rooms

Pipal-leaf well:- This well, with a unique shape and associated bathing platform, were
unearthed while building a catchment drain around the place. It was rebuilt on the
ground floor of the Mohenjo-daro site museum

Small well and platform in the VS Area:- This picture of VS area shows a small well
and platform, with HR Area in the backdrop. Towards the right across the street, a VS
area dyer's shop can also be seen.

A Private Well:- In Mohenjo-daro, every block of building had one or more wells
similar to this one in DK-G Area. When archaeologists excavated the earth around the
well, these private wells remained standing like tall chimneys

Public well in the HR Area:- As the private wells located inside houses were not
enough to meet the requirements of the common public, some public wells were built
by the city planners of Mohenjo-daro. The steening of most of these wells used mud
mortar to bind the bricks. These public wells could be reached from the main
street easily

Remodeled walls:- As houses were erected on top of earlier structures, the doorways
and windows were blocked up. While the walls were remodeled, alignments were
often changed as shown here in the DK-G area

Ringstone:- Several large ringstones have been recovered from Mohenjo-daro though
none were found in their original position of use. Discoveries of similar ringstones at
the site of Dholavira suggest that these may have been put to use as the base of
wooden columns. Small dowel holes may often be spotted on one side. It is possible
that many of these ringstones were used to keep a thick wooden pole running through
the central portion upright. A miniature version of a ringstone column made from
shell rings has been reported from the site of Dholavira in Gujarat

Narrow streets:- The planned city of Mohenjo-daro was constructed along a grid of
streets. The orthogonal street layout of the city could be mainly categorized into the
widest streets, the secondary streets and the narrow streets (smaller alleyways). The
main street running from north to south along the east edge of the Great Bath ends
with this unusual brick platform. The hollow sockets are likely to have held wooden
beams that may have formed a gate or traffic control device. A small alley leads
directly east under the stupa mound

Staircase, House I:- Many houses had stairs that led either to a second floor or upper
courtyards of the building. This house in HR area boasts of a double staircase that
would let people enter and exit the upper courtyard in a systematic manner. Some
scholars believe that this site might have been a temple or a palace

Stairs leading to a second floor in the DK-G Area:- Some houses had small staircases
that led to the second storey of a house. Some stairs also led to a platform for filling
water into a bathing area.

Traffic control area:- The foreground shows a unique brick platform with hollow
sockets. These sockets were used to place vertical beams that may have acted as a gate
or traffic control device. A large street drain covered with limestone blocks runs along
the length of the street.

Streets and drains:- The streets and alleyways follow a strict grid plan and wind
through the neighborhood

Lower Town and Stupa:- This general view of houses located in HR area reveals the
color of the brick walls before the application of mud brick and clay slurry for
preservation. The lower portions of the walls show the natural reddish color inherent
to fired bricks.

According to early excavators, most toilets were post-cremation sump pots or burial
urns. The top of this brick structure had a hole that was linked to a small drain that
emerged out of the base into a basin of rectangular shape (not reconstructed). Early
excavators proposed this to be a toilet

Sanitary facilities :-These two structures with a hole and drain are believed to be
toilets. Though these two structures may have been unique instances of toilets, many
inhabitants probably preferred to use pots placed in the ground as commodes

Two rooms in the DK-G area:- This view into two small rooms depicts tapered walls
that were constructed to support a second floor. Rooms were later built directly on top
of these walls as they offered a strong foundation. The wall of the building located
across the street demonstrates multiple phases of rebuilding

Well:-From a lower room, a stairway leads up to the well and the platform. To protect
the walls and well from salt crystallization, they have been covered with mud brick
and subsequently sprayed with clay slurry

Ancient Indus well:- Private wells were rebuilt over many generations to serve the
needs of a large household or neighborhood. This well in DK G area at Mohenjo-daro
stands like a chimney because all of the surrounding earth has been removed by
excavation

Well on street :-

Covered drain:-A small drain leads from the well and brick floor of the dyer's
workshop to a drain. This covered drain is positioned at the edge of the street.