‘A mockery of snow’

‘A mockery of snow’

A truly astonishing things about this civilization are, first, its extent; second, its complete uniformity; third, the fact of its being virtually unknown until under 50 years ago; and fourth, the almost complete absence of any evidence of gradual growth. Unlike the cities of Sumeria, those of the Indus plains seem to have sprung into being by some sort of ideological explosion.

A double female head, the two faces exactly alike, separated
by a projection probably representing the fashionable
head - dress shown in the 'mother goddess' figure.

Like Sumer and Akkad the Indus cities were in a country which is today inhumanly barren and repelling – an arid salt desert where the stunted trees and shrubs are covered with what Piggott called ‘a Satanic mockery of snow’ and where the temperature rises to 120˚F in the summer. The Indus has eroded an other channel for itself and now flows several miles away. Yet this country must have been a flourishing jungle – clad land in the time of the great cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa for both cities, each over a mile square, were built of baked bricks; this implies an unlimited supply of wood fuel. Moreover, we know from designs on their seals that the Harappa’s knew the water – buffalo, the rhinoceros, the bear, monkey, squirrel, parrot and deer, to say nothing of various fish and crocodiles.

This problem of deterioration of climate confronts the geographer in many places, from Arizona to the Sahara and from Egypt to Turkestan. No one answer is satisfactory: here on the Indus plains, for example, there is evidence that the monsoon region has receded slightly, but human neglect and the denudation of the ancient forests must have been a major factor. At all events, the contrast between past and present is more striking here than almost anywhere in the world.

The goddess with her short skirt, neck - laces
and remarkable headgear, is a distinctive personality.

 The earlier prehistory of India can tell us little or nothing to throw light on the sudden maturity and vast bureaucracy of the Indus civilization. There are as yet few prehistoric human remains in the peninsula, and as Wheeler puts it, Man’s solitary memorial is an infinitude of stones, ranging from the great clumsy ‘pre – Soan’ stones of the Punjab to the puny little flaked stones of central India. We can deduce from the evidence of hand – axes and other implements that some of the great trade – routes round the Indian Ocean were known in prehistoric times, and the occasional Mongoloid skull at Harappa is evidence of contact with China, perhaps through the Burma passes to Yunnan and the Yang – tze; but this does not help us a great deal in our study of the Indus cities.