ANCIENT MOUND OF THE DEAD

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 28 May 1932, Page 11

ANCIENT MOUND OF THE DEAD

TI>EFORE I set out to give an account of the amazing discoveries made by the Geological Survey of India, working under its director-general, Sir John Marshall, let me indicate very briefly what our beliefs have been hitherto concerning the rise of civilisation in India—now the home of 330, 000,000 people, writes Sir Arthur Keith, in the “New York Times. '’ We believed that down to about 1200 years before the birth of Christ the darkskinned Dravidian natives of India were uncivilised, living after the manner of jungle peoples. About that date they were wakened from their long slumbers by highlanders who descended on them from fho north-west—from Afghanistan and beyond it. The invaders were of the white race, members of the great Indo-Germanie or Aryan-speaking family. These Aryan invaders succeeded in imposing their laws, mode of living, religion and speech on the dark-skinned native of the plains of India. It was in this way ; w-e believed that India had come by its ! modern civilisation. j The discoveries made in the north- I western parts of India, particularly in the valley of the Indus, under the direc- | tion of Sir John Marshall—of which an I official report is on the point of publication under the title of ‘ £ Mohenjo-daro and the Indus 'Civilisation”—have, revolutionised our conception of the • early history of India. On the western j bank of the lower Indus, buried in silt brought down from the Himalayas by [ that great river, Sir John has exposed , a succession of buried cities—the oldest of which was already in existence in the fourth millennium B.C. The official estimate, for the beginning of the city is 3300 B.C.—a date which is memorable because it was then that the Hirst Dynasty of Pharaohs was established in Egypt.

We arc surprised to find that more than 5000 years ago India had cities of any kind and stand amazed as we grasp the details of the life led by these ancient citizens, especially as we begin to realise that their mode of living was so like that which we city-dwellers still lead. Nay, until this “ Mount of the

Indian City of 5000 Years Ago

Dead”—Mohenjo-daro—was explored on the western bank of the Indus we had no suspicion th'at great solidly built houses, grouped along the wide ■streets and narrow lanes, existed anywhere in the world some 5000 years ago. Certainly the equal of Mohenjodaro has not yet been uncovered in the older sities of either Mesopotamia or Egypt. ■Strangely enough, no building has been encountered in Mohenjo-daro which has any resemblance to the temples of Mesopotamia or of Egypt. The Mohenjo-darians seem to have been a churchless folk. If great buildings were erected for the worship of their supreme deities they must have been constructed on the same plan as houses used for human occupation. They had, however, fine public buildings, such as the “Great Bath.”

The city covered an area of 240 acres, perhaps much more. Only 13 acres have been excavated, but we may ; infer that in the unexplored parts j houses were built as closely together as | in the parts which have been laid bare. lln eastern towns of equally compact construction the population may reach lor exceed 200 per acre. If we presume I this density of habitation for Mohenjodaro, its population may have been 50,j 000. Even if we presume it was only ; half of this estimate, we have to think |of the supplies of food and the tide of j trade which are needed to sustain the life of such a community. And when [we have meditated on the matter we j shall bo convinced that civilisation on the banks of the Indus some 5000 years ago was much of the same kind as that which now exists on the banks of the Mississippi. In a brief article it is impossible to do justice to the manifold ways in which the exploration of this buried city throws light on the antiquity of our modern civilisation. The discovery of the Indus civilisation will for ever rank as one of the major events in the history of archaeology, and the manner in which the Archaeological Survey of India has carried out its task will bring the highest credit to its director-gen-eral and the Government which sa ably supported him.