The Word of mAn[S]o0r

A childhood dream of mine was to visit the city of the dead Mohenjodaro. During this trip to sukkur, this dream was made a reality. On day 2 of our journey, we left sukkur at 11 AM and made our way towards larkana.

On the way, we stopped at a ‘amrood’ farm, known locally as Zaitoon, wanting to buy some. They didn’t sell anything less than a crate, but gave us armfuls of fruit to enjoy for the rest of our journey.

We reached Mohenjado at around 2 PM, after loosing our way a couple of times in larkana city. It looks like they’ve really made the old city come alive as a tourist stop, with a large park at the entrance, between the museum and the ruins, a hotel and a landing strip. That was not what i was expecting, but then, i had no idea about how the place had been developed recently. As we walked in, the first stop was the handicrafts shop to pick out souvenirs for people back home. Wanted to get that out of the way, in order to fully enjoy the experience. Next, we decided to head over to the museum, as it would give us some idea of what this place is all about. There were no guides so we had to pick our own pace.

At the entrance to the museum is a large wall display depicting the Indus valley civilization, and where else there are places of interest. I was surprised to find almost 10 places near Karachi itself. Those are now definitely on my list of places to visit. The museum has some pretty fantastic displays, especially a large Murial depicting life in the city when it was flourishing. Other items of interest were the clay figurines, the goddess figurines and other pottery excavated from the site. I was later told that everything of value was taken out of this area during the early excavations in 1922, so nothing like that was found. One display which really got to me was the one with weights, dices and a chessboard!!! The dice literally looked like the ones we have no, complete with similar markings! And the weights! The precision of cutting and weighing and even material selection were remarkable.

Next stop, on towards the ruins. We followed the signboards which led to the SK area (areas are named after the people who excavated them, since even the language of the people who lived here has not been deciphered yet). This is the same area depicted on the 10 rupee note. Just as we were heading over to the citadel mound, built about a 1000 years after the original city had been destroyed, we encountered a person who started talking about what this place was all about. He turned out of be the watchman, and was more than happy to take us around giving a full in-depth tour of the place. He showed us what had been excavated, where different parts of the city were located, what areas were still left to be excavated, where the Indus flowed initially (before the first flood), where it started flowing after it, and where it eventually went off to after the second flood. Even i didn’t know the city was destroyed THRICE (the third due to an earthquake) before being abandoned. He showed us signs of the flood, how they knew the city was rebuilt, and where each area/road led to. In my opinion, we were really really lucky to have found him, otherwise would’ve missed a whole lot of the place. Even my friend from sukkur, who’s been to mohenjodaro two times already, admitted to not have seen so much of it in one visit.

(You can read more about the city online in various searches, and get other pictures from http://www.mohenjodaro.net, so i will not include that here)

Reading about the civilization, and actually going through the place are two totally separate things. Theory cant even come CLOSE to what the practical brings. We went through the major administrative area of the city, with the granary, the great bath and everything.. and the level of planning really stood out to me. You cant really appreciate the magnitude of the problem, unless you place yourself in the middle of it.

The next stop we made was to the ‘elite residential’ area of the city, which housed the cheifs house and other large houses. We were shown the wells inside the houses, the roads/lanes, guardrooms, the sewerage system, even how waste water was collected from everywhere and sent off towards the river. We were shown the area of smaller houses, which are said to have housed the servants on the era, and how even they had the same sense of planning rampant in the city, with regards to structure, pathways and drainage.

The one thing which really was interesting was the fact that they did not use river water for consumption, instead relied on the river only for taking away sewerage. Drinking water was taken from wells. I was also amazed at how they lighted up the place at night, with ‘dya daans’ every few meters away (much like how lights are placed around aga khan hospital)

It was in this place, that i detached myself from the group, and randomly went around the walls, looking at each house, trying to image what life would’ve been like back then.. It was *so* quiet in there… as if the walls around me were daring the sounds to pass through them! I imagined the bullock carts, children running in the streets, adults shouting in some foreign language… it was an amazing experience! (the Murial i saw at the museum really helped bring the image to life).

That ended my trip there, and i came out totally satisfied and dead tired! (the pun was too good not to miss).

We left the city at 5PM and made our way back to sukkur, going full speed so as to avoid the ‘dharrial’ on the way. Dharrial are the local ‘daku’ of the area, who even though have been almost eliminated from the main highway thanks to National Motorway and Highway Police, still exist on the less frequently used highways of the province.

Thankfully, didn’t encounter any on the way.

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