Moen Jo Daro

The Moen-jo-daro

        Until

        the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization, the development 

        of literature and culture in India was always credited to the Aryans. In 

        1920 archeologists announced the discovery of extensive urban ruins in 

        the Indus Valley which pre-dated the earliest archeological sources and 

        this has caused scholars to re-examine their views on the different 

        phases of Indian culture. The Rig Veda which speaks in such derogatory 

        terms of the enemies subdued by the Aryan tribes gives the impression 

        that they were all savage barbarians.

The  Brahmins for centuries have degraded the original inhabitants of India

with the intention of self-elevation, preservation and oppression. These

ancient dwellers in India were Dravidians, and in fact, their culture

had developed a highly sophisticated way of life. The existence of the

Brahui tribe in Baluchistan, to the west of the Indus, who speak a

Dravidian language like South Indian Tamil, gives evidence that a

migration of people or culture did occur. Also the Harappa religion

shows many similarities with those elements of Hinduism which are

specially popular in the present Dravidian culture.

Archaeological

evidence shows that the Indus Valley culture moved from west to east, with

sites towards central and southern India flourishing after Harappa and

Mohenjo-daro had declined. This civilization is one of the three great

early civilizations that arose in the late fourth and third millennia BC

around the three large alluvial systems of the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile and

Indus rivers.

This civilization was thought to have been confined to the valley of the river

      Indus, hence the name given to it was Indus Valley civilization. This

      civilization was a highly developed urban one and two of its towns,

      Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, represent the high watermark of the settlements.

      Subsequent archaeological excavations established that the contours of

      this civilization were not restricted to the Indus valley but spread to a

      wide area in northwestern and western India. Thus this civilization is now

      better known as the Harappan civilization. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are

      now in Pakistan and the principal sites in India include Ropar in Punjab,

      Lothal in Gujarat and Kalibangan in Rajasthan. Recent research has shown

      Sutkagen Dor in Baluchistan next to Iran is the westernmost known Harappan

      site. It is thought to have once been on a navigable inlet of the Arabian

      Sea, and the usual citadel and town are present, as well as defensive

      walls 30 feet wide. Sutkagen Dor would have been on the trade route from

      Lot al to Mesopotamia. 

The extensive excavations carried out at the two principal city sites, Harappa

      and Mohenjo-daro, indicates that this Dravidian culture was well

      established by about 2500 B.C. What we know of this ancient civilization

      is derived almost exclusively from archaeological data since every attempt

      to decipher the script used by these people has failed so far. Recent

      analyses of the order of the signs on the inscriptions have led several

      scholars to the view that the language is not of the Indo-European family,

      nor is it close to the Sumerians, Hurrians, or Elamite, nor can it be

      related to the structure of the Munda languages of modern India. If it is

      related to any modern language family it appears to be Dravidian akin to

      Old Tamil, presently spoken throughout the southern part of the Indian

      Peninsula.A study of the evolution of scripts in India indicates that the

      Dravidians, over the centuries, have made the key contributions to the

      development of language and literature in India.

 There are 

      literary as well as archaeological evidences to show that there was trade 

with Mesopotamia. The presence of a number of Indus seals at Ur and other 

Mesopotamian cities and the discovery of a 'Persian Gulf' type of seal at

 Lothal - otherwise known from the Persian Gulf ports of Bahrain and 

Failaka, and from Mesopotamia-provide convincing corroboration of the sea 

trade suggested by the Lothal dock in Gujarat. Ancient Mesopotamian texts 

 speak of trading with at least two seafaring civilizations - Makkan and 

 Meluha - in the neighborhood of India in the third millennium B.C. This 

 trade was conducted with real financial sophistication in amounts that 

 could involve tons of copper. The Mesopotamians speak of Meluha as an 

aquatic culture, where water and bathing played a central role. A number 

 of Indus Valley objects have been found buried with Mesopotamians.

  


      The great bath

      at Mohenjo-daro could not have been constructed for the purpose of hygiene

      since all the private dwellings were equipped with excellent bathrooms.

      Since so many elements of the Indus culture appear to have found their way

      into Hinduism, it is possible that ancient purification rites were taken

      over and reinterpreted by members of the Brahmin caste. If this is so the

      later practice of constructing artificial lotus ponds may be very ancient

      indeed. These lotus ponds were used during historic times for various

      purification ceremonies and one theory suggests that the bath was probably

      used by the mother goddess cult. The cult at Mohenjo-daro may have

      involved some form of ceremonial bathing as a prelude to ritual

      cohabitation with prostitutes associated with the goddess, carried out in

      the small ante-chambers adjoining the bath.

      

      One seal

      uncovered at Mohenjo-daro depicts a three-faced male god with arms

      outstretched, seated on a low platform in a cross legged position (like a

      yogi). His arms are adorned with bangles and his head is crowned with a

      fan-shaped head-dress from which two horns project. He is surrounded by

      animals and fertility symbols suggest that he concerned with the promotion

      of fertility.

      

      The appearance

      of coarser type of pottery indicates invaders in the Indus cities. At

      Mohenjo-daro large rooms were divided into smaller ones and mansions

      became tenements, and the street plan no longer maintained. Evidently the

      city was over populated and law an order were less kept, perhaps because

      the invaders were already ranging the provinces and city was full of

      newcomers. Around 1750 B.C. the uniform culture of this great area broke

      up. The cause or causes of the end of the Indus civilization are not easy

      to determine. At Mohenjo-daro groups of sprawling skeletons in this period

      suggests some sort of massacre or invasion. The end of the Indus Valley

      Civilization may have been fairly abrupt and violent, but long before the

      end came, there seems to have been a gradual process of internal decay and

      stagnation.

      

      There is not

      enough evidence to say that the destroyers of the Indus cities were

      members of the group of tribes whose priests composed the RgVeda5. However

      it is probable that the fall of this great civilization was partly due to

      the widespread migratory movements of charioteering peoples which altered

      the face of the whole civilized world in the 2nd millennium B.C. During

      King Solomon's reign over Israel (970-931 B.C.) we see that chariots and

      horses were imported from Egypt and exported to Asia Minor.


     


       From the evidences presented in religions of Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism, and the linguistic evidence in Sanskrit, we can see that early Indian

Christianity totally transformed the religions and worships in India.

However, these earlier practices were syncretised into Christianity resulting in it's corruption and decay.