Tools provide great information about history. In this lecture we studied the tools discovered from the Indus valley civilization.
A tool is a device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function. Tools can be of various types –
- Utensils
- Gadget
- Instrument
- Appliance
- Apparatus
- Hardware
- Mechanism
- Equipment
Next we studied what a civilization is. It is the society, culture, and way of life of a particular area. It is a place where there is a food supply, religion is followed, development is on going and there is a particular language spoken by the people belonging to that civilization.
The Indus civilization is known to have consisted of two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, and more than 100 towns and villages, often of relatively small size. The two cities were each perhaps originally about 1 mile (1.6 km) square in overall dimensions, and their outstanding magnitude suggests political centralization, either in two large states or in a single great empire with alternative capitals, a practice having analogies in Indian history. It is also possible that Harappa succeeded Mohenjo-daro, which is known to have been devastated more than once by exceptional floods. The southern region of the civilization, on the Kathiawar Peninsula and beyond, appears to be of later origin than the major Indus sites. The civilization was literate, and its script, with some 250 to 500 characters, has been partly and tentatively deciphered; the language has been indefinitely identified as Dravidian.
On studying the objects, artifacts and paintings of the indus civilization we now know how they survived and what they did. It helps us, as designers, to understand how we have evolved and how our designs will evolve in the future as well.
DISHA KALYANI 