Sculptures and Buildings-Notes

 

Sculptures and Buildings-Notes

Harappan Cities – The first cities of the subcontinent In chapter 6, you read that humans led a migrant or nomadic life as hunter gathers for a very long time. It was only 10,000 years ago that people began agriculture and animal herding in modern Syria and Palestine. In the Indian sub-continent, some of the earliest villages are found in the North west, in Baluchistan dating from seven to eight thousand years ago. People in different regions took to agriculture and village life very slowly and most people still practiced hunting and gathering. But when did the first cities emerge? In the Indian sub-continent, it happened some 5000 years ago again in the Northwestern parts in Baluchistan, Sindh, Punjab and Gujarat. Archaeologists have excavated remains of large cities.

Though we do not know the actual names of those cities, we call them by the modern names of the villages in which the remains have been found. You may have heard of famous cities like Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Kalibangan and Lothal. These are among the most ancient cities of our subcontinent. These cities were spread from Afghanistan in the North to Gujarat in the south and Punjab and Haryana in the east and Baluchistan in the west and had many common features. Archaeologists use a common name “Harappan Culture” to denote this phase of our history. Sometimes, it is also called ‘The Indus Valley Civilisation’ as most of the important sites of this culture were situated in the plains watered by River Indus and its tributaries.

What are cities? By ‘cities’, we mean a place where a large number of people live who do not depend on either agriculture or hunting gathering for their livelihoods. Cities primarily have people from three or four kinds of professions: artisans like potters, metal smiths, carpenters, masons, stone cutters etc.; traders who buy and sell things made by other people both in the city and outside of it; rulers like kings, nobles, priests and administrators; and finally, poor labourers or soldiers who serve others. Most of these people would not cultivate land or grow crops and therefore, depended upon the grains produced by farmers or milk and meat etc. produced by herders. Cities would procure these grains through taxes on the farmers or in exchange for artisanal products. Thus, like today, even in those early times most people probably lived in villages or in forests.

Features of the cities

The Harappan cities emerged very rapidly some four thousand six hundred years ago and flourished for about seven hundred years and eventually disappeared about three thousand nine hundred years ago. Buildings in the Harappan cities were built with good baked bricks of a standard size and shape. This is a remarkable feature of these cities. Most of the important cities show carefully planned development of towns as they have a clear lay out with straight roads which intersect each other like in a chess board. The roads had drains to carry dirty water from houses and rain water. Most of the cities were divided into two clear sections, one, a high citadel in which there were some important public buildings like granaries, halls and large buildings; second, a lower part which seemed to have had residential blocks for artisans, traders, and other ordinary people. It appears that the rulers lived or worked in the citadel and wanted to distinguish themselves from the ordinary people.

What kind of artisans lived in the Harappan cities? You can guess one kind of artisans from the bricks and buildings – the brick makers or probably potters and masons. Harappan potters produced some of the finest pots made in Indian history, and made a large variety of clay pots and toys. People of Harappan cities extensively used objects made of different kinds of metals like copper, silver, tin etc and mixed metals like bronze. However, they did not use iron which came into use in India much later. Copper being a rare metal had limited use.

Harappans continued to use stone and wood for most of their daily needs. They used very fine and long stone blades for cutting, finely carved stone seals for trading, beautiful and colourful polished stone beads for ornaments, and stone weights and measures for trading. They wove cotton and woollen clothes and some small fragments of these have survived. They also used sea shells to make objects of daily use like ladles, spoons and bangles. The use of seals and weights indicate that the Harappan cities had a large number of traders who took merchandise from one place to another. In fact, they also went by ships to trade in distant lands like Iraq where too many cities had developed. They must have used bullock carts and boats to transport their goods.

Language

 We do not have any books written by the Harappan people ; we do have some small inscriptions on seals etc. but we don’t know how to read them. Hence, we do not know what language they spoke and if they spoke aor their rulers and gods and even their cities. You will also read about their religious beliefs in a later chapter.ny common language at all. We also don’t know what names they called themselves, 

Rulers

 We don’t know who ruled these cities. Since most of the cities were spread over such a large area and had so many features in common, it has been suggested by some that there must have been one central authority regulating all these things. However, was it a king or a priest or a group of elected leaders, we do not know. They probably lived in the citadels and regulated the life of all city-dwellers from there.

Change in livelihood

 It appears that some seven hundred years after the great Harappan cities developed, the towns declined. Trade and artisanal production declined and people moved out of these cities to villages. In fact, some historians believe that many rivers which flowed through this area dried up and people shifted further eastwards towards Ganga river. They mingled with other farming and herding people. However, the great cities of the Harappan culture gradually disappeared forever, to be buried under mud. They were discovered in the early twentieth century when archaeologists began a systematic study of this lost civilization A little later, the art of casting metal figures spread to Maharashtra. Some very exquisite bronze figures were found during digging. These were probably made some 3000 years ago. Do you think they could have been toys?

The next important phase of sculpture belongs to the Mauryan period, that is around 2200 years ago. King Ashoka set up some tall, smoothly polished pillars in many places. They were usually made of one piece of stone. Ashoka’s messages were carved on them. They also had some figures of animals at their top. These are called capitals. The most famous among them is the Lion Capital of Sarnath set up byAshoka in the place where Buddha first preached his teachings. These four majestic lions facing the four directions hold the Wheel of Dharma on their pedestal.

These pillars and the Lion Capital represent the power and majesty of the Mauryan emperors. Compare this capital with the Bull capital in Rampurva. Here you can see that the bull looks more natural and quite similar to the Harappan seal’s bull.

Buddhist Stupas and Viharas Given below is the picture of one of the most famous stupas in India – the Sanchi Stupa. Look at the photo. You can see that it is like a hemisphere (half ball) – just the way the sky looks when you look up. A stupa is built on a platform. In the centre of a stupa relics of Buddha or other important monks (relics are remains of the body like teeth, bone, hair etc) were buried. The hemisphere is fully packed and you cannot enter it like a temple. Above it there is a pillar topped by umbrella. The stupa is usually surrounded by a stone fence with decorated gateways. Initially, in Ashoka’s times they were built with mud, brick and wood but later they were made with stones. The stupa has many meanings – it is supposed to represent the Buddha.

At the same time, it is believed that the dome of the stupa represents the universe and the central pillar being the axis around which the earth revolves and which connects the world below, the earth and the heavens. Pilgrims worship the stupa by offering flowers etc., and going round it in pradakshina and meditating in front of it.

Archeologists have found remains of stupas from very early times in several places in Andhra Pradesh like Amaravati, Bhattiprolu, Ramatirtham, Salihundam etc. A crystal casket containing the relics of the Buddha was found at Bhattiprolu Stupa.

Amaravati Stupa in Guntur district is the most famous one in Andhra Pradesh. This was built during the rule of Satavahanas about 1900 years ago. Fig.20.15 shows a sculpture panel depicting the stupa. Can you see some flying figures on the top? These are supposed to be gods from heavens who came to worship the Buddha. At the bottom, you can see some men and women bowing down and worshipping. You can also see the four lions on the gateway. What do you think they signify?

Today, the Amaravathi stupa is just a mound of rubble. All that we can do is imagine how this great stupa was in the past. The panels help us to imagine how it must have looked 1900 years ago. As you can see from the picture, the stupa was covered with panels of sculptures depicting the Buddha and his teachings.

These panels were found by the British and were taken away to London. Some of the panels that could not be transported were kept in Madras Museum. Based on these panels, people have tried to imagine how the stupa would have looked. See the picture of reconstruction and compare it with the panel.