Compiled by: Kandiah
Thillaivinayagalingam]
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| [Homes] |
million.had homes which
were usually built from dried or baked mud or clay bricks,including Harappa and
Mohenjo-daro.Mainly the portion of the buildings of large cities where
contamination with water was possible,burnt bricks were used and for other
parts sun-dried bricks were usually used.Only between approximately 2600–1900
BC,in the Mature Harappan phase,were baked bricks used in quantity,especially
for walls and floors exposed to water.Stones were not used except only one large
city,Dholavira,where buildings were made of sun-dried mud bricks and stone.A
few other materials were also used to make the roofs,floors,interior walls etc.Although
hundreds of sites have been identified,only few cities have been yet
excavated.Harrapa was the first town discovered,Also all cities are believed to
have independent rulers,even though they are part of the same single state.With
few exceptions,most other buildings would be made from regular sized baked
bricks throughout the town,A common size was 7 cm high x 14 cm wide x 28 cm
long.with ratio of 1 : 2 : 4 .There is some evidence, the IVC may have been
transporting the bricks between towns.This is the reason the bricks are the
same.The IVC domesticated the elephant and were among the first to develop an
efficient type of wheeled transport.Stone was used only very rarely in very
important structures.
The first usage of mud bricks worldwide is recorded for Jericho or
Tell Aswad,dated to around
8000 BC.In the Indus Cultural Tradition, mud bricks
at Mehrgarh have been used since around 7000 BC.Baked bricks made their first
appearance at Jalilpur around 2800 BC Most of the Indus Civilization’s large
cities, e.g. Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Kot Diji, Ganweriwala, Rakhigarhi, and
Lothal have been constructed from both
mud and baked brick.Only one large city, Dholavira,is built completely from
stones and mud bricks.In contrast to the cities,most villages and towns of the
Indus Civilization are built from stones and mud bricks.The few exceptions are
Jalilpur, Kalibangan,and
Chanhudaro,where also baked bricks have been used.One functional reason
for using mud bricks could have been the better thermal insulation,one aesthetic
reason the better sound insulation of mud brick walls.Mud bricks harden very
fast—within one week of exposure to sun,and their utility as a construction
material is greatly improved by the addition of straw,which increases the
bending and compressive strength and avoids too much shrinkage during the
drying process.Mud bricks,however,are not as resistant to water and compression
as baked bricks.While most of the building continued to be performed with mud
bricks,baked bricks were extensively used where their improved qualities were
important.Water resistance was required for baths,drainage systems and flood
protection structures,which are recurrently or permanently exposed to
water;water resistance became a key factor in the expansion of Harappan villages
and cities into the Punjab flood plains and their sustained establishment in the
flooding zones of the river plains was facilitated by baked brick technology.The
protective function of baked bricks is exemplified by the massive and
technically refined flood protection structures around Mohenjodaro and
Harappa.Baked brick usage for all buildings in the flood-prone city Chanhudaro
demonstrates the importance of baked-brick technology for flood protection.The
construction of granaries,city walls, and citadels relied on the higher
compressive strength of baked brick;they were used for city walls and citadels
in the four largest cities Mohenjodaro, Harappa,Ganweriwala,Rakhigarhi,and
several minor cities and purpose sites.The production of baked brick,
however,is costly:bricks need to be heated to more than 500 degrees Celsius for
several hours to achieve sufficient strength.Baked brick structures also needed
continuous maintenance:on average,the flood protection lining needed to be
replenished at 200 year intervals in the pertaining climate conditions.The
baked brick technology,once invented,required skilled labor,standards,and
natural resources.All these were available in the Mature Harappan phase.There
is no evidence for scarcity of natural resources for baked brick production.Fine
silt (and water) abounded in the river plains of Punjab and Sindh.Irrespective
of potential climatic changes,the gallery forests along the perennial rivers
provided an ample and steady supply of fire wood:The second
requirement—standards—has been a long-standing and featured trademark of
Harappan masonry.the typical ratio of 4:2:1 (length to width to height) of
bricks the “Indus proportion.The adherence to this ratio was ensured by the use
of standardized molds that have been in use since 4000–3600 BC.While this ratio
was typical at Harappa for large bricks,some cities,like Kalibangan, also used
different brick ratios (3:2:1]
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| [Double-stair house] |
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| [Mohenjodaro toilets] |
Buildings of Harappa & Mohenjo daro were unique to the ancient
world & they used sophisticated technology to build planned cities with a
grid pattern of wide,straight streets & fortified with surrounding thick
walls and great baths.Most of the scholars are still wondering how did these
remarkable people acquire knowledge of such sophisticated technology?The
details of the bricks they used to build these Amazing and Wonderful buildings
were never recorded by these Indus valley people.However some details of the
bricks could be find from Shulba Sutras[Sulvasutras] of 500-600 BC,considered
to be appendices to the Vedas.“Sulba Sutra” by some is dated to 10th century BC
or perhaps older.TheŚulba Sūtras enumerates the rules for the construction of
Vedic fire altars with bricks of various sizes.Here the brick is mentioned as
istaka.Though the Controversy over the exact orgin of the word istaka is still
going on as any indo-aryan/Indo-european languages failed to give any
explanation,the Dravidian languages gave explanation for the word istaka. For
example,Telugu words for brick is Iṭuka[ఇటుక],kannada
word is Iṭṭigeyinda [ಇಟ್ಟಿಗೆಯಿಂದ],Malayalam word is iṣṭika
(ishtika)[ഇഷ്ടിക]
& Sangam Tamil word is ittikai[இட்டிகை]Hence
we can easily assume that it is Dravidian in origin, though eventually borrowed
by the vedic peoples,once they defeated the Indus people & settled down
there temporarily before they [the Indo-Aryan people] moved to northwestern
parts of the Indian subcontinent and spread to the Ganges Plain and wrote Rig
veda & other later texts such as Sulba Sutra etc .Also we find that Ista
occurs in Rig Veda in the sense of worship or sacrifice which was not connected
with brick at the early stage.Had it been so, istaka could have been used in
the Rig Veda, as it was done in later texts.There are twenty-five or more
Dravidian words in the Rig Veda, and also has noticed 85 or more such words in
later Vedic Texts.All these confirm that the details of bricks found in Sulba
Sutra might be borrowed from Indus valley people.Also we find that In the Vedic
India houses were built from wood,bamboo, strawmats etc only.This also again
indicates the origin of the word
istaka,probably from pre-aryan culture.We are now in a position to
explain firmly that the speakers of Indo-aryan who came to India through
Afghanistan, through the Khyber Pass and onto the Indus Plain picked up this
word from Indus people,ancestors of Dravidian people.
During sangam periods,People lived in two kinds of houses – those
built of mud and the others
built of bricks. According to the Sangam texts the
second category of houses were built of suduman,which literally means burnt
mud.Akananuru 167 indicate bricks as ittikai [இட்டிகை],here "Olki ittikai" means:"loose
bricks" & in Akananuru 187,"naraikkan ittikai"
means:"ruined brick altar" as below:
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| [Mohenjodaro toilets] |
"an elephant with large trunk eats murungai and
rubs its high back and nape on an old, ruined building with
small rooms, loosening bricks on its tall walls, its cross
beams have fallen down[ஒல்கி
இட்டிகை
நெடுஞ்சுவர்
விட்டம்
வீழ்ந்தென],
pigeons have abandoned the place,
the rafters on the ceiling have fallen down
ruined, the gods painted on its walls are faded, the veranda
is unwashed and dull with no continuous offerings,
[ஒழுகு
பலி
மறந்த
மெழுகாப்
புன்
திணைப்]"(Akananuru:167
:11-16)
"A beautiful small village,daily offerings
have been forgotten, the ruined brick altar
walls[நாள்
பலி
மறந்த
நரைக்கண்
இட்டிகை]
are covered by a banyan tree with
rough trunk, its long, aerial roots swaying
in the westerly winds, causing a pair
of pigeons to fly away in fear."(Akananuru:287 :5-9)
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| [mud or clay bricks] |
Shulba-sutra, which shows in details how to make the fire-altar
construction with different geometrical shape by unique sizes,shape and
arrangement of bricks.Sangam literature,Akananuru also indicate that the place
constructed by Itikkai[இட்டிகை]
is called fire altar.Hence when you link both,you will easily understand the
wide knowledge of kiln fired bricks of Indus valley people and the links
between Tamils & IVC..
Though the Indus valley civilization had most of the buildings made
out of mud bricks,the civilizations that replaced the IVC used stone in
building.Today in India especially it is possible to view many wonderful
temples,monuments and palaces made from stone.It raised an important
question.Why weren't Harappan homes built of stones?The possible reasons may be
as follows:
The lay-out and planning of Indus Valley towns was generally very
structured.So,It's much easier to make many bricks that are exactly the same
than to cut stone in standard sizes,especially before modern tools.Every Indus
Valley town used roughly the same city planning.They used the same standard
sized bricks in their towns.The bricks invented by the Indus Valley
Civilization were exceptionally strong and thus have still survived today,4000
years later.While stone is still stronger,its difficult to cut exactly flat on
four sides,as they used chisels,pickaxes,and saws,most likely made of
copper.The brick walls of Harrapa are very straight and that allows for the
city to be planned into neat quadrants.The IVC also rebuilt their homes and
public spaces on top of the old ones every few years,yet they were able to keep
the straight angles in the city planning design due to using brick,because its
easier to stack neatly with brick than stone without any extra efforts.Due to
their geography,which caused constant flooding,these rebuilding efforts were
constant.Hence brick may be better suited for the IVC,even though Stone is much
more permanent and makes sense.
PART :64 WILL FOLLOW
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