Dholavira
– UNESCO has included Dholavira of Kutch in the list of World Heritage Sites in 2021
– Dholavira, known locally as Kotada (which means large fort), sprawls over 100 hectares of semi-arid land at the north-west corner of the island of Khadir, one of the islands in the Great Rann of Kutch .
– The ancient settlement is embraced by two monsoon channels, namely, the Manhar and Mansar.
– The site was unearthed by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1967, but has been systematically excavated only since 1990.
– Dholavira is one of the two largest Harappan sites in India, and 5th largest in the subcontinent.
– Occupied between ca. 3000-1500 BCE, the archaeological site, one of the best preserved urban settlements from the period in Southeast Asia, comprises a fortified city and a cemetery.
– It is a walled city which comprises a heavily fortified castle and ceremonial ground as well as streets and houses of different proportion quality which testify to a stratified social order.
– Three principal divisions are designed tentatively in Dholavira as ‘citadel’, ‘middle town’, and ‘lower town’.
– Dholavira has one of the world’s earliest water conservation systems ever excavated.
– A sophisticated water management system demonstrates the ingenuity of the Dholavira people in their struggle to survive and thrive in a harsh environment.
– A series of reservoirs all set within an enormous fortification running on all four sides.
– Lying between the monsoon channels and being undulating sloping towards the south, the site was ideally suited for a settlement having artificial dams and reservoirs.
– The citadel has yielded an intricate network of storm water drains, all connected to an arterial one and furnished with slopes, steps, cascades, manholes (air ducts / water relief ducts), paved flooring and capstones.
– The place also has a annexe or a warehouse meant for housing the retainers and menials.
– Two open grounds which should have been put to multipurpose uses such as community gathering on festive or special occasions, royal ceremonies, sports and entertainment and commercial activities during trading season.
– Besides, the city has yielded toilets, sullage jars, or sanitary pits. Drains have shown a good variety even included cut-stone ones and pottery pipes.
– There are found a variety of cenotaphs which include regular rectangular and circular structures
– The most interesting are seven hemispherical constructions two of which were subjected to excavations.
– One of the hemispherical structures which has been exposed much, has yielded a necklace of steatite beads strung in a copper wire with a hook at either end, a gold bangle, beads in gold foil and other beads, besides specially made pottery.
– The hemispherical structures remind one of early Buddhist stupas.
– The kind of design that is of spoked wheel and unspoked wheel also remind one of the Sara-rata-chakra-citi and sapradhi-rata-chakra-citi mentioned in the Śatapatha Brahmana and Sulba-sutras.
– However, there is a solitary example of a grave with skeleton, with a copper mirror in it.
– Surely, the Harappans had a composite society having different ethnic / tribal communities following their own practices.