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A city that has
survived 5000 years… Is it merely a subject of elitist
imagination
Long before recorded
history, many thousands of years ago, there was a city by the banks
of a river called Saraswati. Agriculture flourished here as did
commerce and technology of pottery, iron and beads. And then, the
mighty river changed its course and finally dried up in the immensity
of the encroaching desert. The winds of change buried the city under
the sands of time and for the next four thousand years or more, it
lay entombed below the dunes as millenniums slipped silently by on
the hot desert surface. And the ancient city was forever lost to
memory.
And then one day in 1962
it was rediscovered as much by accident as by design. After nearly
5000 years. It was dug out from the womb of the earth near a sand
bound village in north Rajasthan called Kalibanga.
Kalibanga. The name
itself does not say much but to a student of history it is
immediately recognized as one of the important sites of the Indus
Valley Civilization that flourished around 3000 to 5000 years BC.
Today we can roughly say
that this civilization ranged between baluchistan in the west to
Meerut in the east; from Punjab in the north to the warm sea ports of
Gujarat in the south. In this vast region of north-west India there
were two principle sites of Harappa and Mohenjodrao that were first
excavated in the 1930s by Sir Mortimer Wheeler. Later, other IVC
(Indus Valley Civilization) sites came to light as well but nothing
could match the sheer size and scope of evidence unearthed at Harappa
and Mohenjodaro. After India gained independence in 1947, these two
world famous sites were now across the border in new Pakistan.
Indians justifiably felt deprived of ‘their’ ancient
cultural heritage. Hence, a renewed effort at locating IVC sites
within Indian boundaries was made since a nascent nation was eager to
regain some of the lost evidence that proved India to be such an
ancient civilization.
And they were amply
rewarded when Dr. A. Ghosh of the Archaeological Survey of India
stumbled upon this site at Kalibanga one winter day in February 1962.
Eager to establish that Indus Valley Civilization was truly “Indian”
in character, Kalibanga was taken up as a prime site and feverish
excavation work took place in a manner more technically advanced than
what was done at Mohenjodaro and Harappa. With scientific precision,
Kalibanga was exposed to the light of the day like a body exhumed for
analysis and interpretations.
Though not as big as its
counterparts across the border in Pakistan, Kalibanga nevertheless
became a major site to the IVC – a monument to Indian history
and history of man. But then came years of neglect. It seemed after
the digging was over, no thought was given for conservation of the
excavated site and, if it was, little was done and chiefly as face
saving measures. Temporary solution proved completely ineffective
against the fury of the elements. The precious evidence so
painstakingly excavated finally crumbled into unrecognizable rubble.
It is now over thirty years after the excavations stopped, as yet
there is no final report of the digging done at Kalibanga. If it was
officially written, it never got published for public use. So today,
the IVC site of Kalibanga stands not only completely destroyed but
also forgotten.
Perhaps. But I really do
not know. What I do know is that imagination can often lift a story
from oblivion by generating interest in the reader and in the process
retell a new one. So, introducing an ingenious character – like
a time traveller – at this point can rescue the continuing story
of Kalibanga from slipping into dreary investigation to one of some
human interest.
Imagine then, a Rip Van
Winkle from ancient Kalibanga who awakens nearly 5000 years later in
our times today! He would probably feel the earth fall under his feet
when faced with rush hour traffic in downtown Mumbai! But in
Kalibanga? He would be on familiar ground. Sure there are plenty of
changes, he would agree but there is still a lot around that for him
looks just like ‘yesterday’.
He would of course
recognize the many elements that have come down from his ancient
Indus times to out present day. The first feature would definitely be
the river! Actually, he would be absolutely delighted to see the
Rajasthan Canal in place of his mythic Saraswati. The cemented banks
of the canal would impress upon him the fact that now the river
cannot change course again! After a swim in the waters fed by the
Himalayas HW would also be reassured that it won’t dry up again!
Actually, ever since the Rajasthan Canal started in 1956, it has
flowed uninterrupted bringing life back again to Kalibanga.
With the return of the
river, could agriculture be far behind? After the refreshing dip, our
traveller would probably look around and se agricultural fields for
miles. On his walk through the fields towards the modern day town of
Kalibanga, he would probably be startled by the tractors working the
fields but he would be reassured to see the age old technique of
farming with a pair of bulls in harness. We know of agriculture at
Kalibanga from the furrow marks that have survived imprinted on sun
baked clay. So one can say that despite 5000 years much of the
farming techniques remain the same.
The same can be said for
the brick houses and kilns that we see today. Excavation at
Kalibanga show that structures were made of mud bricks – both
baked and unbaked. At Kalibanga we find a preponderance of non-fired
bricks. The fired bricks were used sparingly only in the draining
channeling. Even today, bricks are made in Kalibanga and houses are
made are bricks.
Another craft that
survives from the time of Indus is pottery. From the potsherds we
can find that it was a wheel thrown pottery, very bright red glaze
with painting mainly in black of motifs like the peepul leaves, fish
etc. The resident potter in Kalibanga continues to carry on his
tradition of making pots which are very similar in shape and design
to the ones that have come down to us from the Indus Civilization.
A plethora of terra-cotta
toys were dug out from Kalibanga and one such toy is a bullock cart.
It is amazing that despite such improved transportation, the same
kind of bullock cart can be seen even today.
Nearly 5000 years have
passed yet Kalibanga seems to have changed very little, as if
retaining its Indus Valley character into space age. The bare mounds
devoid of any visible life come alive hauntingly with a silent
passage of a flight of pigeons, a shrike and white cheeked bulbuls.
Same trees, a khejri and other vegetation. The amibence remains the
same and even though it seems to be so reduced it still survives,
timeless Kalibanga…
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