Question

Harappans were very fond of painting explain

Answer 1

Until a century ago, nothing was known about the ancient civilization whose remnants were buried deep inside the earth.  When inquisitive archaeologists started digging, what emerged was to change the history of the entire Indian subcontinent.

The discovery of the Indus Age was an act of pure archaeological adventure.  The first proper excavations in 1920’s were to push the recorded history of the region by over 5000 years. According to historians, the only recordable date in India’s history was 326 BC, when Alexander the Great crossed Indus to reach Punjab’s fertile plains.

The pioneer archaeologists like John Marshall, and his colleagues DR Sahni, RD Banerji, MS Vats and KN Dikshit, unearthed the initial sites of Mohenjodaro and Harrapa, along the former river courses of Indus and Ravi, respectively. Both the sites are in present day Pakistan.  After these major excavations, archaeologists went on to discover sites in other parts of India that highlighted the reach of Harappan civilization from Afghanistan to Gujarat in India. The other sites excavated in India were Rakhigrahi, Lothal, Ropar, Banawali, and Dholavira.  Though, much has been written and debated about the art and culture, and the highly developed architecture of the Harappan people, but the lack of decipherment of Indus script continues to confounds the historians.

According to historians, the mature phase of the Harappan civilization lasted from c. 2600 to 1900 BCE.  The discoveries at Mehrgarh, Pakistan, were to further push the primitive Harappa to 6,000 BC. Eminent Pakistani archaeologist, Ahmad Hasan Dani said, “Discoveries at Mehrgarh changed the entire concept of the Indus civilization.”

The table below describes the various stages of the Harappan civilization: