Public administration and Religious aspects in Indus Valley Civilization

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Public administration and Religious aspects in Indus Valley Civilization

Public administration:

  • There is no evidence and a dearth of material. D. D.Kaushambi hypothecated saying — Priests were rulers in Indus Valley Civilization. R.S.Sharma denies this hypothesis and postulated merchants were rulers in Indus Valley Civilization. 
  • The administration was highly centralized, (Based on kind of city Planning, Sanitation etc.,) very powerful too. Bricks found were in the ratio of 4:2:1 standard / uniform that can conclude that administration was highly centralized.
  • Uniform weights and measures were used (16 as the basic unit).

 Town-Planning:

  • Uniformity in the plan, all cities have the same plan. Every city is divided into two parts i) Upper City (Western) ii) Lower City (Eastern). Upper City is called citadel and is protected by a fortified wall. Aristocrats used to live in the citadel. Lower City is for normal beings.
  • Chanhudaro is a city without citadel.
  • Dholovira is divided/ demarcated into three parts as Upper City, Middle City, and Lower City.
  • All the cities were built in a grid pattern. Roads are built in a straight line without curves. Parallel roads run from N-S & E-W. Roads intersect exactly at 90 degrees and each block is of equal size.
  • Banvali, Haryana where the grid pattern was not found. Roads are in a zig-zag manner.
  • Good underground drainage system even with manholes. Banavali is an exception.

Society:

  • Two important components of society were Stratification and Women.
  • A matriarchal society is a hypothesis developed by John Marshall based on scanty evidence of Indus Valley Civilization.
  • Indus Valley Civilization pantheon consists of both male & female deities. These people also worshiped bull (Agrarian Economy is the reason).

Religious:

  • Indus Valley Civilization pantheon consists of
  • Mother Goddess (Female deity - Prominently worshiped. Terracotta figurines of the goddess were found at every site).
  • Pashupati Mahadeva (A seal found at Mohenjodaro depicts this god; Multi-headed god; only at one site this was found). In the course of time scholars identified this god as Lord Shiva.

  • Linga (Phullic) - Stone Phullic were found at Mohenjodaro.
  • Bull Worship
  • Snake worship
  • Tree worship
  • A large number of amulets were found. This indicates the existence of demophobia, people believed in superstitious beliefs.
  • Rituals - Animal sacrifice.
  • Live after death - they believed (large no of grave goods along with skeleton was found. throughout the sites).



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