February 24th 2025
It is difficult to explain and capture our Dholavira experience that morning. How to explain walking through the ruins of a city that is more than 4000 years old?
How to describe the frisson of discussions on their elusive script, the seals, the lack of a God, the seeming non violence and the hierarchies of the living quarters?
The more Meera and Pankaj explained, the more questions we had. What were they guarding in the Citadel? How did they communicate between these far flung outposts? How long did a trade journey take? And to top it all was the fascinating possibilities of how the Kutch area was geographically all those years ago. Probably the seas were more inland and there were more waterways, the discussion of which started at Lothal.
Pictures don’t do justice at all, but let me try.
By now, after Lothal, I knew that the trademark of Harappan cities was the urban planning, the "Citadel" area, the Lower Town, reservoirs and water channels - they were quite obsessed and rightly so, with ensuring freshwater supplies - and the bead works and pottery, seals and sealings. Dholavira had them all. The site is dated as being an active city between 3000 and 1500 BCE.
First views
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| It was 8am, the air was cool and sparrow calls filed the air. The surroundings were dry and arid I was happy to see these large Euphorbia caducifolia bushes. These Succulents are very typical of this region of India, and it is called Thor in Hindi - Leafless Milk Hedge |
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| As we stood on what looked like a dry river bed, Pankaj explained that the pile of stones in the distance were the remnants of Check Dams. Dholavira is situated between two rivers- Manhar and Mansar - and these check dams stored and channelled water into the reservoirs. Check dams are unique to the Dholavira site, in the Harappan world. |
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| How grand and huge is this!! Was this really a reservoir - some 7.5m deep, with a flight of 30 steps going down into it. There must have been seasons when only that rock-cut well with a stone enclosure had water? I wonder now, is this a precursor to the step wells that came a good 3,000 years later? |
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| In fact, an article in TOI actually called this a step well! https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/5000-year-old-harappan-stepwell-found-in-kutch-bigger-than-mohenjodaros/articleshow/44638220.cms# |
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| I loved this picture of us - our shadows rather - as we stood there taking it all in. In sheer size, this reservoir is supposedly 3 times the size of the Great Bath of Mohenjo Daro. |
| The ASI board next to the reservoir said - "The reservoir was abandoned and probably went into disuse at the end of Stage V. The evidence of performance of rituals along with the presence of figurines, including a complete unicorn figurine indicates the ritualistic importance of this reservoir." Stage V is the Late Harappa phase. | " |
Of course, every time we saw bricks we had to ask - are these new or original?
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| I liked this picture we saw in the museum of its excavation - see how tiny the humans are in relation to the size of the reservoir! |
Through the East Gate and into the Lower Town
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| We walked along this path through an opening that Meera explained was the East Gate, which served as an important entry point into Lower Town. The mound of bricks on the left - the remnants of the wall. |
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| The Manhar River we crossed was dry, then we saw the East reservoir with 31 steps, before we walked into Lower Town, crossed to Middle Town from where we entered the impressive and huge ceremonial grounds, and then ascended into the Citadel and Bailey before exiting via the rock cut southern reservoirs |
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| The Lower Town |
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| I loved the texture of the walls and the stones, each one a different colour and I wondered about that. Were they from different sources? |
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| Clay pottery bits are all around, and you just have to look in the mud and dirt at your feet to find them! |
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| Middle Town, or maybe downtown Dholavira? Broad roads in between the houses. The streets were arranged in a grid, with a main road, and side streets. This divided the town into "sectors". |
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| Probably the remnants of a gate hinge? |
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| We sat around next to this Meswak tree and had some tea which magically appeared with Aravind! it was very welcome as the sun slowly began to say more than a warm hello to all of us. |
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| Hydration was on my mind for sure, and water was on the mind of the Dholavirans up and centre, definitely. We saw examples of their water arrangements - including channels like this. |
Pankaj and Meera spoke about the intricate system of what seem to be stormwater drains, all interconnected, with slopes to allow for water flow, manholes...the works. Rainwater harvesting of the highest order. And here we are, some 4,000 years later, and the Chennai Corporation still hasn't figured it out. It was astonishing and bewildering to say the least, and for many a moment I wondered if the archeologists were letting their imagination go wild and maybe these were just piles of stone... then why did the piles of stone create these reservoirs, why the channels?
Here is the text below the pictures -
The castle has yielded an interesting network of drains, both small and large, coming from different areas. and ultimately connected to an arterial drain that runs underground in the broadway, The larger ones are high and broad enough to allow a person to walk through them easily. All these drains usually vielded remnants of fresh water deposits, and not sewage nor household waste. They were not connected to house drains. It was only during Stage Vi that a house drain seems to be discharging in to one of the storm water drains, when the urbanism and the control over it, was declined or had already become defunct. The purpose of these drains was surely to let out the monsoon run-off, which is why these are found furnished with air ducts at short intervats. There are two large drains in the castle. One originates from the bastion beside the east gate and the other from the area close to the north gate. The former is connected to a stone-paved platform provided a top the eastern fortification wall near the east gate.
We crossed the ground and entered what was referred to as the Bailey. Bailey and Citadel - very British I thought. These are terms used by archeologists (schooled in British terminology I suppose). So, the Citadel is the highest point and most fortified, and the Bailey is the outer courtyard , or an annexe of some sort.
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| And to add to the general shock and awe, was this HUGE 'ceremonial' ground in the midst of the town. Stadiums? Large trading markets? There were remnants of tiered seating and a massive drainage system underneath it as well, we were told. (I believe many a time, discoveries are re-buried to keep them safe and to allow for further excavations and study later, when better technologies emerge. isn't that interesting?) |
We crossed the ground and entered what was referred to as the Bailey. Bailey and Citadel - very British I thought. These are terms used by archeologists (schooled in British terminology I suppose). So, the Citadel is the highest point and most fortified, and the Bailey is the outer courtyard , or an annexe of some sort.
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| In this area, we came across these circular structures - very un-Harappan . Surmised to be Stage VII - Decline of the city period - new influences, after migrations, the last of the Mohicans type thing I presumed. How much can be inferred from all these stones, I wondered! Archeologists would make fine detectives. |
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| The Bailey also had this bead workshop. Why is it a bead workshop? Read below, and then zoom in to see the said stone with grooves.. |
From the board on site -
"The presence of a bead workshop is noticed on the northern arm of Bailey, to the west of North Gate. This bead workshop was specialized in bead polishing as indicated by the presence of bead polishers in two rooms. One of the rooms has a large rectangular bead polisher, with multiple grooves on all sides, with a slight depression at the centre. The central depression could have been used for water to cool the beads while rubbing hard on the stone. This bead workshop belongs to Stage. VI (late Harappans) at Dholavira."
The South Gate and the mystery inscription
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| The South Gate of the Castle through the city wall provided access via a concealed passageway leading one through open stairs to an exquisite rock cut reservoir, see the broad and deep passageway and stairs, at the base of which a board with inscription that's below was found! |
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| The mystery inscription. Whatever did it mean? This is a recreation of what was found at the base of the passageway - it was actually the impression left on the ground from the board, with some gypsum pieces inlaid. The original is not available for public viewing. We all had our own guesses - from the name of the city, to a Welcome sign, to a date of foundation...and Google also cannot help...Very frustrating indeed! |
I wondered why with all these LLM models and AI and everything else, this script has not been figured.
It was time to head out now. It was close to 11 in the morning, and even the February sun felt too strong.
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| As we left we saw this frantic efforts at laying a lawn! Sod beds just being placed - ahead of the President's visit on March 1st. Really - why we do we need exotic, water hungry grass, dear ASI? After some water and refreshments, one group went off to the Fossil Park while some of us wandered around the museum. The museum was filled with boards and models, but no excavated artefacts. The place was buzzing with happy school children and harassed teachers. One very interesting board in the museum was about the Harappan pillars.  "At least six examples of freestanding columns were discovered from the excavations. These freestanding columns are tall and slender pillars with circular cross-section and with a top resembling a phallus or they are phallic in nature. That is why most of them were found in an intentionally damaged and smashed condition.   Two more examples, completely smashed and destroyed ones were also found, one near the western end of Ceremonial Ground and the second one near the north gate of Castle.   Interestingly all these stone columns have a roughened and irregularly chipped bottom which is a clear indication of burying them up to the irregular portion so that polished and highly finished upper portion can remain above the ground." Some of the other interesting displays -  I was disappoined not to see an original "seal". Between walking the site and the museum, it was a history told like no other. Most times I was mute, as I listened and absorbed all that was around, held potsherds in my hand, took pictures ad nauseum. |
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| This was our lunch stop, a very nice lunch indeed, off a buffet table, serve yoursef style place. with nice chaas. We used the restrooms and then we set off for our journey to Bhuj, across the new Road to Heaven! |
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| I found these patches of coloured salt most interesting - there was copper sulphate blue and this potassium oermanganate sort of pink. The road was good in bits nd pieces, still a lot of roadwork going on. Turning south at Khavda, it was slow going. |
We visited the workshop and studio of the Khatris, who are quite an institution, and I was struck by the quiet humour of the Sr Khatri, who still sits at his desk. He told us that this studio - which had a contemporary ethnic Fabinida-like aesthetic - was designed by an architect from Ahmedabad.
I loved the doors, so well photographed by Ramesh Dasary - which had these used and probably discarded blocks - the heart of the technique.
The block printing technique is arguably as old as the Dholaviran site.
We saw a short film about Ajrakh printing, the vats of indigo dye, the washing and the drying.
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| One of the workers was creating this Dholaviran tapestry - I thought this was very cool. I would have loved to have got one of these, but they were for a specific order. I noticed the flamingoes in flight and by the waters, and I even saw the blocks which made those prints. Notice - the border is the mystery inscription! |
The store had some lovely ajrakh worh, but I did not buy anything, others did - stoles, dupattas and sets and home linen.
We headed back into our bus, and a tired group arrived at The Fern Residency for our night halt. Dinner was a noisy and cheerful affair, as we kind of took over the restaurant, and for some reason found everything amusing. From Lokesh bringing us sweet mango pickle, to Sekar and me saying enough to local food and ordering Chinese - it was very good - to Anuja being given all our dinners to sample, to the menu card which had some strange momos - chocolate and paan or some such and Anupama attempting to convince the waiter that she needed a flask full of ice.
More of Kutchi history awaited us.
