Question

Write a short essay (about 500 words) on the following:

Describe some ofthe distinctive features of Mohenjodaro. 

Answer 1

Planned City: Harappa as a planned urban centre. It had two parts. One part of the city was small. It was built on a higher place.

The second part was comparatively large. It was built on a lower place. The first part was designed as citadel and the second part was as lower town. The citadel owed its height to the fact that it was built on mud brick platforms.It had walls on all sides and these walls were separated from the lower town.The Lower Town: It was also a walled town.Most of the buildings were built on platforms.

In fact, these platforms were considered as foundation stones. It required huge quantity of labour force to build these platforms. It is obvious that settlement was first planned and then implemented as per the building plan.Quality of sun-dried bricks or baked bricks also prove the concept of planning.

All the bricks were of standard ratio. The length and width was four times and twice the height of the bricks respectively. These bricks were used in the settlements of the Harappan Civilisation.

Drainage System: The drainage system was well planned. All the roads and streets were laid out on a grid pattern. They intersected one another at the right angles. It seems that streets featuring drains were laid out first and houses were built thereafter along with them. To make the flow of domestic water, every house had at least one wall along the street.

The Citadel: There were many buildings in the citadel. These buildings were used for many special public purposes. The Warehouse and the Great Bath were the two most important constructions.