Excavations at Harappa (In 2 Volumes)

The excavations at Harappa described in this volume were carried out between the years 1920-21 and 1933-34. Being one of the two best known and important sites of the Indus Valley culture, large scale work was undertaken here by the Archaeological Department and the excavations have contributed not a little to our knowledge of the prehistoric civilization of India. On account of the close relation and mutual dependence of the discoveries made at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, this monograph has been planned as a complement to the three monumental volumes on Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civililization edited by Sir John Marshall and the two volumes of Further Excavations at Mohenjo-daro by Dr. E.J.H. Mackay. The arrangement of chapters and plates follows the fomer work as far as possible. In Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization, Sir John Marshall has most ably dealt with the art, religion, disposal of the dead, extent and the age and authors of the Indus civilization mainly on the basis of the discoveries made at the above two sites, while Dr. Mackay has fully described and illustrated numerous finds, mostly identical with those of Harappa–notably plain and painted pottery–and other experts have written on the Indus script, system of weights, minerals and metals, etc. To that extent, not only has it been possible for me to avoid much needless duplication and to curtail my own work, but what is more, I have derived infinite help and guidance from their masterly handling of so many difficult problems for which I am greatly beholden to them all. To Sir John Marshall I owe a very special and infinite debt of gratitude not only for the thorough guidance and inspiration I received from his great work and the instructions given by him from time to time both in the conduct of excavations and for the preparation of these volumes, but also for the very great trouble he generously undertook (at the sacrifice of much valuable time when he was fully occupied with several pressing works of his own) in preliminarily editing my work, in course of which he made numerous corrections and many valuable suggestions which I have gratefully incorporated.