In an
earlier article, I have discussed about the water management systems
at Dholavira, a 5000 year old ancient city discovered by Indian
archaeologists in 1968. It was an important port and a trade hub of
the Indus-Sarswati civilization located in the south. It was also
probably a regional capital controlling smaller settlements like
'Surkotada' existing in that region. Considering its time period, it
can be said that Dholavira was a spectacular metropolis that was well
planned and built accordingly. Archaeologists have been able to
measure the dimensions of the city and its three main sectors quite
accurately and have proved that the length and breadth of each and
every sector of the city were planned to be integer ratios such as
5:4 or 4:3.
Dholavira
had three main sectors. An Acropolis or an administrative sector
(Citadel) consisting of a massive 'Castle' located on the city's high
point and an adjacent 'Bailey,' a middle town separated from the
administrative sector by a huge ceremonial ground and a lower town.
The city accommodated between 15000 to 20000 inhabitants.
Dholavira
had no natural sources of surface water like perennial lakes, rivers
or springs and the groundwater is mostly brackish and unfit for
animal or human consumption, even for agriculture. The only source of
potable water remains the unpredictable monsoon rains that flood the
two small rivulets in north and south of the city during summer
months. This region is almost at the edge of monsoon belt and monsoon
failure is not uncommon. Because of this reason that the ingenuity of
the Dholavira people really comes to the forefront. In my opinion,
Dholavira's water supply, rain water harvesting and sewage removal
systems are of such high grade that even today, many Indian towns
would be envious of these.
Realising
the critical importance of water for the city dwellers, Dholavira's
planners had allocated as much as 10 hectares or 24.7 acres of land
for creation of water reservoirs. According to conservative
estimates, these tanks could hold 300,000 cubic meters ( 79,250,000
gallons) of water. Not satisfied with this storage, additional water
storage was created outside the fortifications and floors of many
reservoirs were provided with deep depressions or troughs, where
water could remain in exceptionally dry years. A simple calculation
shows that for 15000 inhabitants, more than 54 liters of water per
day was provided by the city planners. Even today, not many places in
India can match this figure.
Out of
all six water reservoirs built around the city, perhaps the best was
the tank on the east side. It was found to be the largest, grandest
and best-furnished reservoir of rectangular shape measuring 73.40 m
N-S and 29.30 m E-W (ratio 5:2) at the top while above that there
should have been a 1 to 1.20 meter high embankment as evidenced at
four corners. Its floor was excavated into three levels the deepest
of which was 10.60 meter as has been ascertained so far. At three
corners, the north-western, north-eastern and south-western, it was
provided with a flight of 30 steps each for the people to walk down
to approach the water.
It is
however not known whether this tank was for water storage or it was
used as a public bath like the one at Mohenjo Daro. The Great Bath
of Mohenjo Daro was found to be 12m in length, 7m in width, and 2.4m
in depth. Earlier archaeologists had thought that perhaps this
eastern reservoir was just a water storage like the tanks to the
north, west and south. However there are number of reasons that
suggest that the eastern reservoir could have been actually a great
bath. Some of the reasons can be listed as under.
- No other reservoir provides flights of steps to approach water from three sides with such well elaborated steps.
- Beacuse of its location, the reservoir was accessible to all the city-dwellers, whether living in citadel, middle town or lower town or even outsiders.
- It was, perhaps, used by all on some social or religious occasions.
- There was an embankment on two sides of the reservoir, which also served as a broad walkway, being a part of a wide causeway connecting the entrance appurtenances of the castle and on the west, flush with a 20 to 22 meter promenade that lay between the castle wall and the reservoir.
Though
a waste-weir in the tank still remains to be investigated with more
excavations. A rock cut well with a few rock cut steps and a
stone-made enclosure of a later date, was found inside the tank in
the southeast corner.
Archaeological
Survey of India believe that a huge lake and an ancient shore line
could be buried under the site. With this new thinking and
availability of new and modern investigating equipments like 3D laser
scanners, remote sensing technology and ground-penetrating radar
systems, there is a rebound interest to investigate possible
existence of other reservoirs and stepwells, buried in Dholavira, as
well as the advanced hydraulic engineering used by Harappans for
building the stepwells. Archaeologist are expected to start new
investigations again in upcoming winter.
20th
October 2014
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