Dholavira and its tantalizing allure

As my family and I drove by the endless stretches of barren land, over the wide expanses of salt of the Little Rann and though the many families of camel lazing on the roads towards the tiny desert island of Khadir, we all thought we had a fair idea of what to expect once we got to our destination. In the preceding few weeks, we had poured devotedly over Gujarat tourism brochures, looked up all possible links on the internet and stocked ourselves with enough History books to last a lifetime. We were ready and raring to go. But nothing- none of any of this- was to prepare us for the impact Dholavira- one of the most recently excavated Harappan cities- has on an individual.

As we entered the village of Dholavira- which gave the site it's name- it seemed like any other settlement in Kutch- the rounded huts, the beautiful 'geri' work adorning the mud walls, the stunning white murals with dancing mirrors- simple, elegant, hardly awe-inspiring. We wondered where the ruins lay- the much-promised grand dilapidated structures of the ancient metropolis of nearly 5000 years ago. After going through the paces of putting away all our baggage, and washing away all traces of the nine-hour drive from our faces, we were ready- camera, notepad, et al.

When we were greeted by our guide- Jaimal-bhai- at the museum constructed at the base of the site, we expected this to be like just another guided tour- full of pre-prepared speeches with a dramatic flair and empty, error-ridden facts that just sounded good to the ears. It turned out to be anything but. Jaimal-bhai, despite having studied only up to seventh standard and being essentially monolingual (he spoke a fair bit of Hindi, but was most comfortable in Gujarati), spoke of Dholavira with the kind of authority and depth in understanding that could match up to any scholar. His story too unfolded as he led us through the ruins. Apparently, when excavation began in 1990, the director of excavations at ASI (Archeological Survey of India), R.S. Bisht took him under his wings and employed him in the careful excavation of the site over the next nearly twenty years. Jaimal-bhai was one among the many picked from the village of Dholavira itself, but one of the very few who remained to see it through till the very end. It is for this reason that as we walked across the site, he would point to places as if they were alive and bustling with people like they would have been five thousand years ago. He saw the city as a live, three-dimensional area-- while we stared at the flat, seemingly incomprehensible ruins with bafflement. He had seen this city- every tiny square millimeter- and it now practically ran through his blood. The flair and passion with which he talked about it, one could see how much love and sweat he had poured into aiding its rebirth. It was thanks to this man that we saw Dholavira for what it is- a remarkable desert-city far ahead of its times; and an absolute miracle- considering its geographical location.

For about 1500 years, between the 3rd and the 2nd Millennium BC, Dholavira was one of the five biggest cities of the Harappan Civilization. It was a city of many firsts. Embraced by two rain-fed rivulets- Mandsar and Manhar- on either side of the city walls, and situated on a desert island surrounded by endless stretches of parched land, the Dholavirans built up a city with a water management system so intricate, it's ingenuity remains unmatched even today in the desert state of Kutch. One gets the sense that, out of necessity, every single drop of water on this parched land was saved. Out of the 100 acres of area covered by this site, the reservoirs take up nearly ten- stretching along all four city walls- sixteen of them laid out end -to-end and connected with tiny channels to keep the water flowing and prevent stagnancy. Among these is the famous rock-cut reservoir in the south of the city- cut into living rock- probably one of the first of it's kind in the world. But the water management does not end with these awe-inspiring, yellow limestone structures. Every other building in Dholavira reflects an acute consciousness for the need to preserve water. There is a well laid-out drainage system throughout the city- and collected rain water from all over the city- including from little ducts in the fortification walls. All other drains also show remarkable sophistication. They are covered, well-connected and large enough to enable regular cleaning- usually big enough for an entire person to walk through! This understanding of how to conserve and channelize water enabled them to create a metropolis that, at its peak, is said to have supported a population of nearly 15,000. Even today, five thousand years hence, we do not find a city that matches it's scale and grandeur in the arid lands of Kutch.

But the firsts do not end here. Dholavira is laid-out as a parallelogram within a parallelogram, with the 'Castle' area- the area where the ruler must have lived and ruled from- lying at it's very heart. Adjoining it is the 'Bailey' area where the officials must have resided. The Middle Town shares it's boundaries with both, and stretches out towards the North. The Lower Town is larger still, and covers nearly the entire Eastern side within the fortification walls. What is remarkable about these structures is how the ratios of their widths and lengths are so precise and can so easily be rounded to whole numbers. This is true for every single wall that was built in the city, and thus cannot be mere coincidence. It could have been achieved only by precise mathematical calculations and drawings which were then translated on the ground that was undulating by 13 m in gradient. It was indeed an engineering marvel!

The wonders do not end here. Between the Middle town and the citadel is a large open field of about 550 X 45 mts. made of sun-baked bricks and plaster. This place could have hosted large gatherings of people on its many grandstands surrounding the structure- and could, at a time, hold up to 10,000 people! It is still unknown what exact purpose it served- whether is was a sports stadium, a market place, or a ceremonial gathering place. It could be quite likely it played more than one role- but it has been named the 'stadium' by Indian historians.

Facing this grand stadium is the largest of the citadel gates- the Northern gate- which had what Bisht has dared to call 'the oldest signboard of the world' over it. It was three meters in length and contained ten characters from the yet-to-be-deciphered logosyllablic Harappan script. It was gypsum inlaid into wood, so the signboard has completely decayed, but the gypsum impression remain- for present-day historians to express wonderment and raise questions over. What did this signboard proclaim? Could it's entire population read what was written? What kind of a social organization does this point to?

The questions are endless. With Dholavira, one realizes, they always are. This, uncharacteristically, remains one of it's most attractive aspects of this ancient metropolis. The fact that so much about it remains shrouded in mystery lends it an allure that is quite unlike the other, more extensively studied Harappan sites. It is something that makes you want to go back and revisit the site, to wrap your head around questions of how and why it rose and declined as and when it did, to have an opportunity to chance upon broken fragments of bangles, buttons and other artifacts that got skimmed over in the initial excavations. What Dholavira gives us is that rare opportunity to actually demystify the symbolism of all that has been found- and is yet to be. It indulges the visitor with an inclusiveness that cannot be felt in areas where all the answers have already been discovered. Dholavira tantalizingly flirts with you, revealing only enough to keep you coming back.