Early Pakistan (Mohenjo Daro)

For thousands of years, different races have poured through the Khyber and Bolan passes, especially from central Asia, into the northern part of the subcontinent. With good farmland, plenty of water and, in past times, many forests, it must have seemed a wonderful place after the dry plains of their homelands. As well as plenty of food, there was gold and silver, too. Same invaders came to raid for treasure and to take prisoners for slaves; other came to conquer and stay. Many of these invaders, conquerors or raiders, settled down,especially in the northwest where pakistan is now, and have added a wide range of races, languages, and customs to our country.

Mohenjo Daro and the Indus valley civilization:
 

About 4500 years ago, there was a mysterious and very civilized state in the Indus valley. It stretched over almost all of what is now Pakistan, and eastwards to Delhi. Thee remains of two great cities, Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, as well as hundreds of villages, have been discovered. The people populating these villages were called Dravidians, and seem to have been more civilized than any other people in the world at the time. Mohenjo Daro was about seven kilometres all round, with its main streets nine metres wide. Between these ran smaller streets, often with 'Z' bends in them.

The houses were made of mud bricks, and often had rooms on the upper level, which is very unusual indeed, in such early buildings. Richer houses had bathrooms with baths made of clay and lined with tar to make them waterproof. They also had simple toilets. These emptied into covered drains, which ran down the centre of the main streets.

In the centre of the city was an artificial  'hill' made of mud bricks. Here were the most important buildings, the main one being a huge bath with steps leading to it. It may have been part of a temple, and people had to bathe in it before going in for religious ceremonies. There are remains of a huge hall with many pillars, and archaeologists think this may have been some kind of parliament or government building. No sign of a palace has ever been discovered, and we believe the whole of the Indus Empire was ruled by priests. Other cities were built on similar lines to Mohenjo Daro, but were smaller.                                                    

                                                 

The people of the Indus Valley Civilization seem to have been peaceful farmers. They grew barley, wheat, lentils and peas.

Tiny fragments of cloth have been found, showing that the people knew how to grow cotton and weave cloth. They had almost no metal, except gold and a little copper and bronze, and the few metal tools that have been found are not very skilfully made. Wood and stone were used for most things. They do not seem to have invented money, and we think that the people were paid by the government in grain and other food. They had a very simple kind of writing, but no one has yet been able to read it, and the words usually appeared on clay seals.

About 2000Bce, some disaster seems to have struck Mohenjo Daro. When the houses fell down, they were rebuilt in a much rougher way, as if people did not care any more. New walls divided rooms, so that more families could crowd into each house. The streets were not all of this happened. Perhaps, there was a climate change that made it more difficult to grow crops, or perhaps the river changed its course today the ruins are five kilometres from the river. Perhaps all the trees were cut down for burning and building, and the soil was washed away. In some of the other cities of the Indus Empire, archaeologists believe that the people just left, and the buildings collapsed.