Bricks, Beads And Bones
Discuss your ideas about the political and ruling system assumed by different people of the Harappan Culture.
Looking at the complexities of how the cities were built, uniformity in seals, bricks, weight and moreover looking at the overall townplanning. Scholars asks how can such things be achieved. Thus postulating the ideas of ruler.
Although archaeological evidences provides no immediate answers but scholars looking at the huge structures at Mohenjodaro has named it as ' Palace' but from here no spectacular artefacts were found. And there is a stone statue which was labelled as ' Priest King' This is because archaeologists were familiar with Mesopotamian history and its “priest-kings” and have found parallels in the Indus region. But the ritual practices of the Harappan civilisation are not well understood yet nor are there any means of knowing whether those who performed them also held political power. Thus the label ' Priest King' is also an issue.
Thus regarding political and ruling system various scholars have come out with various points. They are:
1. Harappan society had no rulers, and that everybody enjoyed equal status.
2. There was no single ruler but several, that Mohenjodaro had a separate ruler, Harappa another, and so forth.
3. There was a single state, given the similarity in artefacts, the evidence for planned settlements, the standardised ratio of brick size, and the establishment of settlements near sources of raw. This last theory is considered the most feasible. But disagreement still reamins among scholars.
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Discuss the functions that may have been performed by rulers in Harappan society.
On given map, use a pencil to circle sites where evidence of agriculture has been recovered. Mark an X against sites where there is evidence of craft production and R against sites where raw materials were found.
Find out if there are any museums in your town. Visit one of them and write a report on any ten items, describing how old they are, where they were found and why you think they are on display.
Collect illustrations of ten things made of stone, metal and clay produced and used at present. Compare these with the pictures of the Harappan civilisation in this chapter, and discuss the similarities and differences that you find.
Mention the two sections of the Harappan settlements and give one main feature of each.
Mention two features of Harappan cities.
Give two features of the Harappan settlements.
Mention any four items found in the graves of the Harappans.
Mention two strategies adopted to identify social differences among the Harappans.
How did the Harappans obtain red colour or Carnelian?
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