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Architecture and Town Planning
If by we mean the tendency to form society, founding cities with all their attendant rules, then
the Harappan people succeeded admirably. Excavations show a degree of urban
planning which the Romans achieved only later, after a gap of 2500 years.
The twin cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa formed the hub of the civilization.
They are representative in the sense that planning principles employed here are
followed practically without change at all other sites. Both cities were a mile
square, with defensive outer walls. An orthogonal street layout was oriented
toward the cardinal directions. The street layout shows an understanding of the
basic principles of traffic, with rounded corners to allow the turning of carts
easily. These streets divided the city into 12 blocks.
The Harappan house is an amazing example of a native people, without the
benefit of technology, adapting to local conditions and intuitively producing an
architecture eminently suited
to the climate. The house was planned as a series of rooms opening on to a
central courtyard. This courtyard served the multiple functions of lighting the
rooms, acting as a heat absorber in summer and radiator in winter, as well as
providing an open space inside for community activities. There were no openings
toward the main street, thus ensuring privacy for the residents. In fact, the
only openings in the houses are rather small - this prevented the hot summer sun
heating the insides of the houses.
An advanced drainage system is also in evidence. Drains started from the
bathrooms of the houses and joined the main sewer in the street, which was
covered by brick slabs or corbelled brick arches, depending on its width. In
most of the sites, the central-western blocks were reserved for public
architecture. Perhaps the most famous examples are the Great Bath and Granary at
Mohenjo-daro. The Great Bath has been the subject of much debate over its exact
function. The prevalent view seems to be that it was used for ritualistic
bathing - much as continues in the Hindu tradition even today. It is unfortunate
that none of the structures of the Indus Valley civilization survive intact
today.
Unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Harappan people left nothing
monumental, like the pyramids or ziggurats, for posterity to marvel at. This may
be the reason that among the majority of books on architecture, the Harappan
Culture hardly merits a note. However, the planning principles and response of
the architecture to climate are a lesson to us all.