23 Wright, Rita P., et al., ‘Water Supply and History: Harappa and the Beas Regional Survey’, Antiquity, 2008, vol. 82, pp. 37-48.
24 For recent reviews see those discussed in Madella, Marco, & Dorian Q. Fuller, ‘Palaeoecology and the Harappan Civilisation of South Asia: A Reconsideration’, op. cit.; Fuller, Dorian Q. and Marco Madella, ‘Issues in Harappan Archaeobotany: Retrospect and Prospect’, in Settar, S. & Ravi Korisettar, (eds), Indian Archaeology in Retrospect, vol. 2: Protohistory, Archaeology of the Harappan Civilization, Manohar & Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, 2000, pp. 317-390; Korisettar, Ravi & R. Ramesh, ‘The Indian Monsoon: Roots, Relations and Relevance’, in Settar, S. & Ravi Korisettar, (eds), Indian Archaeology in Retrospect, vol. 3 : Archaeology and Interactive Disciplines, Manohar & Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, 2002, pp. 23-59.
25 Fuller, Dorian Q. & Marco Madella, ‘Issues in Harappan Archaeobotany: Retrospect and Prospect’, op. cit., pp. 363 & 366.
26 Madella, Marco & Dorian Q. Fuller, ‘Palaeoecology and the Harappan Civilisation of South Asia: A Reconsideration’, op. cit., p. 1283.
27 Gupta, Anil K., et al., ‘Adaptation and Human Migration . . .’, op. cit., p. 1086.
28 Weiss, H., et al., ‘The Genesis and Collapse of Third Millennium North Mesopotamian Civilization’, Science, 261-5124, 1993, pp. 995-1004. Also Kerr, R.A., ‘Sea-floor Dust Shows Drought Felled Akkadian Empire’, Science, vol. 279, 1998, pp. 325-326.
29 Thompson, L.G., et al., ‘Kilimanjaro Ice Core Records: Evidence of Holocene Climate Change in Tropical Africa’, Science, vol. 298, 2002, pp. 589-593.
30 An, Cheng-Bang, et al., ‘Climate Change and Cultural Response around 4000 cal yr B.P. in the Western Part of Chinese Loess Plateau’, Quaternary Research, vol. 63, 2005, pp. 347-352.
31 Booth, R.K., et al., ‘A Severe Centennial-scale Drought in Midcontinental North America 4200 Years Ago and Apparent Global Linkages’, The Holocene, vol. 15, 2005, pp. 321-328.
32 Nath, Bhola, ‘The Role of Animal Remains in the Early Prehistoric Cultures of India’, Indian Museum Bulletin, Calcutta, 1969, p. 107, quoted by Jagat Pati Joshi, in Lal, B.B., et al., Excavations at Kalibangan, vol. 1, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 2003, p. 19.
33 Banerjee, S. & S. Chakraborty, ‘Remains of the Great One-horned Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros unicornis, Linnacus from Rajasthan’, Science and Culture, vol. 39, Calcutta, October 1973, pp. 430-431, quoted by Jagat Pati Joshi in Lal, B.B., et al., Excavations at Kalibangan, op. cit., p. 18.
34 Thomas, P.K., ‘Investigations into the Archaeofauna of Harappan Sites in Western India’, Indian Archaeology in Retrospect, vol. 2: Protohistory, Archaeology of the Harappan Civilization, op. cit., p. 414 & 417.
35 I developed this point in Danino, Michel, ‘Revisiting the Role of Climate in the Collapse of the Indus-Sarasvati Civilization’, Puratattva, no. 38, 2008, pp. 159-169.
36 E.g. Possehl, Gregory, The Indus Civilization°, p. 238.
37 Raikes, R.L. & R.H.J. Dyson, ‘The Prehistoric Climate of Baluchistan and the Indus Valley’, American Anthropologist, vol. 63, 1961, pp. 265-81.
38 In the words of Fairservis, Walter A., ‘The Origin, Character and Decline of an Early Civilization’, Novitates, no. 2302, 1967, pp. 1-48, partly reproduced in Lahiri, Nayanjot, The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization°, p. 261.
39 Ibid.
40 Jansen, Michael R.N., ‘Mohenjo Daro and the River Indus’, in Meadows, Azra & Peter S. Meadows, (eds), The Indus River: Biodiversity, Resources, Humankind, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 1999, p. 379, note 58, quoting Jorgensen, et al., ‘Morphology and Dynamics of the Indus River: Implications for the Mohenjodaro site’, in Shroder, J.F.J., (ed.), Himalayas to the Sea: Geology, Geomorphology and the Quaternary, Routledge, London, 1991, p. 324.
41 Dales, George F., ‘Mohenjodaro Miscellany’, in Possehl, Gregory L., (ed.), Harappan Civilization : A Recent Perspective, op. cit., p. 104.
42 Lambrick, H.T., ‘The Indus Flood Plain and the “Indus” Civilization’, Geographical Journal, 1967, 133/4: 483-95, reproduced in Lahiri, Nayanjot, The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization°, p. 182.
43 Michael Jansen argues that the location of Mohenjo-daro is explicable only through boat transport. See his ‘Settlement Networks of the Indus civilization’, in Indian Archaeology in Retrospect, vol. 2 : Protohistory, Archaeology of the Harappan Civilization, op. cit., p. 118.
44 Flam, Louis, ‘Ecology and Population Mobility in the Prehistoric Settlement of the Lower Indus Valley, Sindh, Pakistan’, in The Indus River: Biodiversity, Resources, Humankind, op. cit., p. 317. In the same volume, Michael D. Harvey & Sanley A. Schumm endorse Lambrick’s theory of avulsion of the Indus; see their ‘Indus River Dynamics and the Abandonment of Mohenjo-daro’, pp. 333-348.
45 Lal, B.B., Earliest Civilization of South Asia°, p. 245.
46 Allchin, Raymond & Bridget, Origins of a Civilization°, p. 211.
47 Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization°, p. 173.
48 Flam, Louis, ‘The Prehistoric Indus River System and the Indus Civilization in Sindh’, Man and Environment, 24: 2, 1999, p. 55.
49 Possehl, Gregory, The Indus Civilization°, p. 241.
50 Lal, B.B., The Sarasvati Flows On°, p. 77.
51 Chakrabarti, Dilip K. & Sukhdev Saini, The Problem of the Sarasvati River°, pp. 37-38.
52 Chakrabarti, Dilip K., The Archaeology of Ancient Indian Cities”, p. 140.
53 McIntosh, Jane R., A Peaceful Realm°, p. 190.
54 Agrawal, D.P., The Indus Civilization°, p. 304.
55 Misra, V.N., ‘Indus Civilization and the Rgvedic Sarasvatī’, op. cit., p. 523.
56 Madella, Marco & Dorian Q. Fuller, ‘Palaeoecology and the Harappan Civilisation of South Asia: A Reconsideration’, Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 25, 2006, pp. 1285-86.
57 Possehl, Gregory L., The Indus Civilization”, p. 240.
58 E.g. Wax, Emily, ‘A Sacred River Endangered by Global Warming: Glacial Source of Ganges Is Receding’, Washington Post, 17 June 2007; Chengappa, Raj, ‘Apocalypse Now’, India Today International, 23 April 2007.
9. The Tangible Heritage
1 Thapar, Romila, The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300, Penguin Books, New Delhi, 2003, p. 88.
2 Ibid.
3 Ratnagar, Shereen, Understanding Harappa : Civilization in the Greater Indus Valley°, p. 4.
4 Ghosh, A., The City in Early Historical India, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 1973, extracted in Lahiri, Nayanjot, (ed.), The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization”, p. 302.
5 Possehl, Gregory L., The Indus Civilization°, ch. 13.
6 Kenoyer, J. Mark, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization°, p. 183.
7 Shaffer, Jim, ‘Harappan Culture: A Reconsideration’, in Harappan Civilization : A Recent Perspective, op. cit., p. 49.
8 Jim Shaffer quoted by Possehl, Gregory L., ‘The Harappan Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective’, in Harappan Civilization : A Recent Perspective, op. cit., p. 26.
9 Ratnagar, Shereen, The End of the Great Harappan Tradition°, p. 28.
10 Wheeler, R.E.M., ‘Archaeological Fieldwork in India: Planning Ahead’, Ancient India, no. 5, 1949, p. 5.
11 Sergent, Bernard, Genèse de l’Inde, Payot, Paris, 1997, p. 105.
12 Ibid., p. 113.
13 Piggot, Stuart, Prehistoric India, Middlesex, 1961, partly reproduced in Lahiri, Nayanjot, (ed.), The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization°, p. 284.
14 Ibid., p. 282. (Italics mine.)
15 Basham, A.L., The Wonder That Was India, third edn, Rupa & Co., Calcutta, 1981, p. 29. (Italics mine.)
16 Witzel, Michael, ‘Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts’, Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, vol. 7, no. 3, 25 May 2001, § 8.
17 Shaffer, Jim G., ‘Reurbanization : The Eastern Panjab and Beyond’ in Spodek, H. & D.M. S
rinivasan, (eds), Urban Form and Meaning in South Asia: The Shaping of Cities from Prehistoric to Precolonial Times, National Gallery of Art & University Press of New England, Washington D.C., 1993, pp. 53-67.
18 Coningham, R.A.E., ‘Dark Age or Continuum?’ in Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia”, pp. 54-72.
19 Eltsov, Piotr Andreevich, From Harappa to Hastinapura° (based on a 2004 PhD thesis with the same title).
20 Eltsov, Piotr Andreevich, p. 186 of his PhD thesis, 2004 (see note 19).
21 Eltsov, Piotr Andreevich, p. 351 of his PhD thesis, 2004 (see note 19).
22 Coningham, R.A.E., ‘Dark Age or Continuum?’ in Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia”, p. 70.
23 Chakrabarti, D.K., ‘Post-Mauryan States of Mainland South Asia (c. BC 185 - AD 320)’, in Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia”, p. 298.
24 Arthashastra, 2.4.3-5. See The Kautilya Arthasastra, tr. Kangle, R.P., Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi, 1986, part II, p. 68.
25 Chakrabarti, Dilip K., The Archaeology of Ancient Indian Cities, p. 176.
26 Kenoyer, J. Mark, ‘New Perspectives on the Mauryan and Kushana Periods’, in Olivelle, Patrick, (ed.), Between the Empires : Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE, Oxford University Press, New York, 2006, p. 39.
27 See Allchin, F.R., ‘Mauryan Architecture and Art’, in Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia”, pp. 236-38.
28 Gaur, R.C., Excavations at Atranjikhera: Early Civilization of the Upper Ganga Basin, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1983, pp. 256-57.
29 Allchin, Bridget, ‘South Asia’s Living Past’, in Allchin, Bridget, (ed.), Living Traditions: Studies in the Ethnoarchaeology of South Asia, Oxford & IBH, New Delhi, 1994, p. 5, with reference to Sarcina, Anna, ‘The Private House at Mohenjo-daro’, in Schotsmans, J. & M. Taddei, (eds), South Asian Archaeology 1977, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples, 1979, pp. 433-462.
30 Lal, B.B., The Sarasvati Flows On°, pp. 93-95.
31 Jarrige, Jean-François, ‘Du néolithique à la civilisation de l’Inde ancienne’, in Arts Asiatiques, vol. L-1995, École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1995, p. 24.
32 See Ghosh, A., (ed.), An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1989, vol. 1, pp. 304-305. See also Lal, B.B., ‘Excavation at Hastinapura and other Explorations in the Upper Ganga and Sutlej Basins 1950-52’, Ancient India, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, no. 10-11, 1954 & 1955, p. 25, and Mani, B.R., ‘Excavations at Siswania (District Basti, U.P.) : 1995-97’, Puratattva, no. 34, 2003-2004, p. 103.
33 E.g. at Tripuri and Vaisali, see An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology, op. cit., p. 294; also at Hastinapura, see Lal, B.B., ‘Excavation at Hastinapura and Other Explorations in the Upper Ganga and Sutlej Basins 1950-52’, op. cit., p. 25 & plates X to XI.
34 Shaffer Jim G., ‘Reurbanization: The Eastern Panjab and Beyond’, op. cit., pp. 60, 58 & 63.
35 Malville, J. McKim & Lalit M. Gujral, (eds), Ancient Cities, Sacred Skies: Cosmic Geometries and City Planning in Ancient India, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts & Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2000, p. 3.
36 Bisht, R.S., ‘Urban Planning at Dholavira: A Harappan City’, in ibid., p. 20.
37 Danino, Michel, (1) ‘Dholavira’s Geometry: A Preliminary Study’ in Puratattva, no. 35, 2004-05, pp. 76-84; (2) ‘Unravelling Dholavira’s Geometry’, in Reddy, P. Chenna, (ed.), Recent Researches in Archaeology, History and Culture (Festschrift to Prof. K.V. Raman), Agam Kala Prakashan, Delhi, 2010, pp. 179-193; (3) ‘New Insights into Harappan Town-Planning, Proportions and Units, with Special Reference to Dholavira’, Man and Environment, vol. XXXIII, no. 1, 2008, pp. 66-79.
38 All references in this paragraph can be found in ‘New Insights into Harappan Town-Planning, Proportions and Units’, op. cit.
39 Shatapatha Brāhmana, III.5.1.1-6.
40 The Baudhāyana Shulbasūtra 4.3 specifies 30 prakramas for the western side and 24 for the eastern, a prakrama being defined as 30 angulas (or digits), therefore about 53 cm. See Sen, S.N. & A.K. Bag, (eds), The Sulbasūtras, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, 1983, pp. 81, 171 & 177.
41 Varahamihira, Brhat Samhita, 53.4, tr. Bhat, M. Ramakrishna, Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi, 1981, vol. 1, p. 451.
42 Varahamihira, Brhat Samhita, 53.5, ibid., p. 452.
43 In Danino, Michel, ‘Unravelling Dholavira’s Geometry’, op. cit.
44 See Danino, Michel, ‘New Insights into Harappan Town-Planning, Proportions and Units, with Special Reference to Dholavira’, op. cit.
45 Filippi, Gian Giuseppe & Bruno Marcolongo, (eds), Kāmpilya : Quest for a Mahābhārata City, D.K. Printworld, New Delhi, 1999, p. 10.
46 Filippi, Gian Giuseppe, ‘The Kampilya Archeological Project’, article published online at: http://atimes.com/ind-pak/DC21Df02.html (accessed 15 September 2009).
47 Ibid.
48 Filippi, Gian Giuseppe, & Bruno Marcolongo, (eds), Kāmpilya: Quest for a Mahābhārata City, op. cit., p. 11.
49 Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization°, p. 98.
50 Mainkar, V.B., ‘Metrology in the Indus Civilization’, in Lal, B.B. & S.P. Gupta, (eds), Frontiers of the Indus Civilization°, pp. 144-45.
51 Kosambi, D.D., ‘On the Study and Metrology of Silver Punch-marked Coins’, New Indian Antiquary 4(2), p. 53, quoted by Possehl, Gregory L., in Indus Age: the Writing System°, p. 75.
52 Mitchiner, John E., Studies in the Indus Valley Inscriptions, Oxford & IBH, Delhi, 1978, p. 14-15, quoted by Possehl, Gregory L., in Indus Age: the Writing System°, p. 75.
53 Sharma, Ram Sharan, Advent of the Aryans in India°, p. 48.
54 E.g. Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization°, p. 98.
55 Mainkar, V.B., ‘Metrology in the Indus Civilization’, op. cit., p. 146. (Mainkar mistakenly divided 46 mm by 27 graduations, which gave him an erroneous value; 46 must be divided by 26 divisions, not by 27 graduations.)
56 Raju, L. & V.B. Mainkar, ‘Development of Length and Area Measures in South India-Part 1’, Metric Measures, Ministry of International Trade, New Delhi, vol. 7, January 1964, pp. 3-12 (see Table, p. 10).
57 Chattopadhyaya, Debiprasad, History of Science and Technology in Ancient India, Firma KLM, Calcutta, vol. 1, 1986, pp. 231-33.
58 Mackay, E.J.H., Further Excavations at Mohenjo-daro, Government of India, Delhi, 1938; republ. Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1998, vol. 1, p. 405.
59 Balasubramaniam, R., ‘On the Continuity of Engineering Tradition from the Harappan to Ganga Civilization’, Man and Environment, vol. 33, 2008, pp. 101-105. Also Balasubramaniam, R. & J.P. Joshi, ‘Analysis of Terracotta Scale of Harappan Civilization from Kalibangan’, Current Science, vol. 95, no. 5, 10 September 2008, pp. 588-89.
60 Arthashastra 2.20.19. See Kautilya Arthasastra, tr. R.P. Kangle, op. cit., part II, p. 139.
61 Danino, Michel, ‘New Insights into Harappan Town-Planning, Proportions and Units, with Special Reference to Dholavira’, op. cit.
62 Varahamihira’s Brhat Samhita, tr. Bhat, Ramakrishna M., Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi, 1981, vol. 1, p. 642, 68.105.
63 Ibid., p. 556, 58.30.
64 Kak, Subhash, The Astronomical Code of the Rgveda°, pp. 101-02 & 124. The exact ratio is 107.6 (the sun’s average distance to the earth is 149.5 million kilometres while its diameter is 1.39 million kilometres).
65 Maula, Erkka, ‘The Calendar Stones from Mohenjo-daro’, in Jansen, M. & G. Urban, (eds), Interim Reports on fieldwork carried out at Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan 1982-83, German Research Project Mohenjo-daro, Aachen & Istituto Italiano Per Il Medio Ed Estremo Oriente, Roma, 1984, vol. I, pp. 159-170.
66 Balasubramaniam, R., ‘On the Mathematical Significance of the Dimensions of the Delhi Iron Pillar’, Current Science, vol. 95, no. 6, 25 September 2008, pp. 766-70. Balasubramaniam has extended this research to cave complexes of the Mauryan age and further to the Taj Mahal complex: ‘New Insights on Metrology during the
Mauryan Period’, Current Science, vol. 97, no. 5, 10 September 2009, pp. 680-682, and ‘New Insights on the Modular Planning of the Taj Mahal’, Current Science, vol. 97, no. 1, 10 July 2009, pp. 42-49.
67 Mohan Pant and Shuji Funo wrote at least six papers on their research, beginning in 2000; the main papers for our purpose are: (1) ‘Considerations on the Layout Pattern of Streets and Settlement Blocks of Thimi : A Study on the Planning Modules of Kathmandu Valley Towns’, Part I, Journal of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Engineering, Architectural Institute of Japan, no. 574, December 2003, pp. 83-90. (2) ‘The Grid and Modular Measures in the Town Planning of Mohenjodaro and Kathmandu Valley: A Study on Modular Measures in Block and Plot Divisions in the Planning of Mohenjodaro and Sirkap (Pakistan), and Thimi (Kathmandu Valley)’, Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, vol. 4, May 2005, no. 1, pp. 5159, available online at www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jaabe/4/1/51/_pdf (accessed 10 September 2008).
68 Pant, Mohan & Shuji Funo, ‘The Grid and Modular Measures in the Town Planning of Mohenjodaro and Kathmandu Valley’, op. cit., p. 57.
69 Arthashastra 2.20.18-19, see The Kautilya Arthasastra, tr. Kangle, R.P., op. cit., p. 139.
70 Pant, Mohan & Shuji Funo, ‘The Grid and Modular Measures in the Town Planning of Mohenjodaro and Kathmandu Valley’, op. cit., p. 54.
71 Ibid., p. 57.
72 Kenoyer, J.M., Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization°, p. 135.
73 E.g. Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark, Massimo Vidale & Kuldeep K. Bhan, ‘Carnelian Bead Production in Khambat, India: An Ethnoarchaeological Study’, in Bridget Allchin, (ed.), Living Traditions : Studies in the Ethnoarchaeology of South Asia, Oxford & IBH, New Delhi, 1994, pp. 281-306.
74 Lal, B.B., The Sarasvati Flows On°, ch. 4.
75 Ibid., pp. 132-35.
76 Mackay, E.J.H., Further Excavations at Mohenjo-daro, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 273 & 538.
77 Ibid., p. 532-33.
78 Kenoyer, J.M., Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, p. 44-45 & 186, also Jarrige, J.-F., Les Cités oubliées de l’Indus°, p. 87 (fig. 41) & 88 (fig. 42).
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