Harappan Civilization – The Timber Trawler

The Kachch Chronicles: Rann of Kachch and Dholavira

After many years of dreaming of and planning a trip to Kachch and failing – in the manner similar to how people do for Goa – we finally managed to freeze a five-day block in December convenient for all our family members. But of course, the preparations had to start three months in advance – what with booking train tickets, local conveyance and accommodation, owing to our plan falling in peak season. Our trip dates would also coincide with a full moon, an occasion highly recommended for spending the night on in the ‘white desert’, warranting iterating through multiple permutations and combinations before we could firm up our itinerary.

Part 1: Rani ki Vav, Patan and Sun Temple, Modhera

Finally, the day came, and we took the overnight Ahmedabad Rajdhani from Gurgaon, arriving in Ahmedabad at 9AM. Checking-in at our hotel, and freshening up, we were out around 1 PM headed north to Patan to see Rani ki Vav, an 11th century step-well. The stepwell has 7 layers of stairs leading to a deep circular well, with the walls, pillars, columns , brackets and beams carved exquisitely with depictions of numerous flower and animal motifs, besides those of the many Vishnu avatars and other Hindu gods and goddesses, and representing scenes from daily life. A short distance away from Rani ki Vav, are also remnants of other waterworks.

Leaving Patan around 4 PM, we headed to Modhera to see the 11th century Sun Temple, racing against time apprehensive of the fact that the temple would be closed by the time we reached Modhera. However, reaching Modhera around 5.3o PM, we learnt that the beauty of the finely built temple is enhanced manifold when the decorative lights dotting the complex, are turned on around sunset. Admiring the temple facade and the adjunct stone-built pool surface shining in the evening lights, we ended up lounging about for more time than we had budgeted for, and only left reluctantly for Ahmedabad around 7 PM.

Part 2: Dholavira

On Day 2, we started at 7 AM from Ahmedabad, headed to our first stop in Kachch – Dholavira. Pushing westward from Ahmedabad, we first passed Sanand, the automobile manufacturing hub, and then as were passing below the Little Rann of Kachch, the vegetation became gradually sparser with the ground turning increasingly brown. Then as we winded around the Little Rann to cross channels of the Little Rann draining into the Arabian Sea, we got a preview of the kind of topography we would soon be experiencing, with the vegetation becoming all but absent and the ground simply wearing a veneer of white as we got closer to the Rann of Kachch. Salt production was in full flow on both sides of the road.

Crossing Rapar, a major town in Kachch, we then swerved left with the vegetation turning green, yet still sparse, reminiscent of the Thar. At around 1 PM, the land suddenly turned white, under a shroud of salt stretching for miles on end, only punctuated by a low hill in the distance and the tar road we were on cutting across the white expanse in a straight line – we had now entered the Rann of Kachch Lake. Crossing the stretch of white land, we were soon upon the Khadir Bet Island, where the desert vegetation was back on display. By 2 PM, we were at the Rann Resort Dholavira, our stay for the night, located right at the coast on the opposite side of the island.

Entering the Rann of Kachch lake on the way to Khadir Bet island, where Dholavira is located

Gorging on Kathiawadi cuisine for lunch, we were soon headed out to our first site on the island – the Harappan city of Dholavira. The ruins at Dholavira have traces dating back pre-Harappan age (3500 – 2600 BC), with continuity till the post-urban Harappan age (1450 BC), when decline seems to have been set in. The site now manifests as a high flat mound formed on the ramparts and the many buildings located inside the rampart. A remarkable fact about the site is that the structures are mostly built of stone, as opposed to bricks in other Harappan sites. The Dholavira Museum located onsite showcases the finds from excavations carried out at Dholavira, and is a must-visit for anyone interested to know more about the site.

As one walks to the edge on the north side of the mound, one can see the Khadir Bet’s low mountains and desert vegetation in the distance. Below is another entry to the city where a wooden signboard showing various Harappan symbols made from gypsum was found – it is now called the ‘Dholavira signboard’ and believed to have depicted the then-name of the city. Further, the strategic location of the city between two seasonal streams, Mansar and Manhar, and the scarcity of water, entailed the construction of dams and clever usage of multi-staged reservoirs enabling storage, filtration and pumping of water. The reservoirs can be found on the south-side of the city.

The mound formed on the of Harappan city of Dholavira

With it now already being 5.30 PM, we rode along the western coast of the island in a rush to see the sunset from the northern-most point on the island, from a location dubbed, unsurprisingly, the sunset point. In a race that we lost with time, we had to be content with seeing the sun setting from the road itself, although we did subsequently reach the sunset point to get a most exquisite view of the white marshy surface of Rann of Kachh Lake, stretching to the horizon, bathing in the twilight, with flamingoes lounging about in the distance with the back-drop of a small hillock jutting out from the white surface.

Twilight at Sunset point near Dholavira, Khadir Bet island

More high points were about to come later – after midnight, we headed straight into Rann of Kachch Lake on a road under construction linking the island to the other side of the lake, stopping at a point around 7 km out. Under the full moon, the salt-covered white surface shimmered and shone as far as our eyes could see, the horizon melding seamlessly with the night sky. With the winter chill hanging over the land, a foray into the vast expanse of white nothingness bathing in the moonlight is a must-have experience, especially on a full moon night.

Full moon night on the Rann of Kachch lake, notice anything?

We followed up the late night adventure with a sojourn at 5.30 AM the next morning to the same point, this time, to see the sunrise, and were promptly treated to a fascinating view of the sun in ascendance in the east and the moon still hanging around in the west, at the same time. Further up the road, where the surface was marshier because the surface had not dried up completely, we saw a flamboyance of flamingoes. However, the deeper into the lake we waded through the marshy water to get a closer look at the flamingoes, the farther the flamingoes kept moving from us – preventing us from taking clearer pictures of the flamingoes through our mobile phones! Already 8 AM now, we headed back to the resort.

Part 3: Rann of Kachch and Bhuj

Starting 11 AM, i.e. on Day 3, following breakfast, we drove down the same road, third time already in two days, but now headed to the other side of the lake. Cutting across the lake on the aforementioned road dubbed ‘Road to Heaven’, we stopped a couple of times to take photos in the white expanse, before reaching the mainland after a drive of 30 km. The desert topography with sparse vegetation was back again, supplemented by low corrugated hills running alongside us on our right . Reaching Khavda, where we fueled-up just at the verge of our vehicle’s fuel tank going completely empty, we turned north.

The Road to Heaven connecting the Khadir Bet island to the mainland on the west

Our next stop was the highest point on this hill range, in fact, the highest point in all of Kachch – Kalo Dungar, literally, Black Hill, which we reached after driving up a winding road with a gentle slope. Standing atop Kalo Dungar, we got a panoramic view of the Rann of Kachch lake spread from one end to the other with its periphery defined only by the horizon.Descending from Kalo Dungar, we headed to our next accommodation, Kutir Craft Village, Hodka, located amidst the Banni Grasslands ecological system. Here again, we had a sumptuous Kachchi meal, and retired to our Bhungas, the traditional circular mud-huts, surrounded by thatched roofs, typical of the Kachch, with floors made of compacted dried cow-dung.

Desert landscape of Kachch, on the way to Kalo Dungar hill

About 15 km north of Hodka, runs a band of salt flats of the Rann of Kachch, stretching from the Rann of Kachch lake on one side to the Arabian sea on the other, in the midst of which lies Dhordho, where the annual Rann Festival is held. This band of salt flats along with the Rann of Kachch Lake, together form the Rann of Kachch, Rann literally meaning desert. The Rann of Kachch is basically a marshy wetland that gets submerged in water during the monsoons, and the surface turns into white salt flats due to sedimentation of salt when the water evaporates in the dry season, which is why even the lake has salt-flats stretching for miles.

On Day 4, we started from our resort in Hodka for Bhuj, the capital of Kachch region. Founded in 151o AD by Rao Hamir and made the capital of Kachch in 1548, Bhuj, despite acknowledging Mughal supremacy, had to face multiple attacks at different times, and has been also ravaged by major earthquakes at various points of time, the latest being in 2001. At Bhuj, we first saw the Prag Mahal, a 19th century palace, now converted into a museum. Then, driving along the Hamirsar Lake, we reached the 19th century Kutch Musuem, which showcases artifacts ranging across archaeology, history, geography, the local culture and all things Kachch.

A view from the roof of Prag Mahal, Bhuj

Part 4: Little Rann of Kachch

Following a sumptuous unlimited Gujarati thali meal, covering a distance of 260 km, which included winding around the southern edge of Little Rann of Kachch, and then turning north, we reached – at around 8 PM – Bhavna Resorts and Farm, in Patdi, located at the edge of the Little Rann of Kachch. Early next morning at 6 AM, i.e on Day 5, as planned, we set off, armed with packed breakfasts, snug in our jackets, on an open-jeep safari to the Wild Ass Sanctuary located in the Little Rann. The Little Rann of Kachch and its surrounding areas are the only habitat of the Indian Wild Ass currently numbering about 2100, with the Wild Ass Sanctuary established to preserve the endangered species.

Accessing the sanctuary from the entrance at Bajana, we first drove over the sparsely grassed brown-coloured land for about a couple of kilometres in, as more shrub started appearing, we chanced upon numerous droves of the wild ass, most of them nonchalantly grazing away, and some frolicking and some rolling on the ground. As we approached them to take a closer look, the wild ass kept moving farther away. Driving further, we were awed by another form of desert – this time with a surface of mud-cracks, i.e. a mud desert. Driving for a while on the mud-cracks we reached a water-body where a pod of pelicans were lazily gliding away. Driving further up to a very large water-body, we came upon a very large population of flamingoes – and decided to have our breakfast while flamingo-watching!

A drove of Indian Wild Ass having their time in the morning sun, Wild Ass Sanctuary, Little Rann

Following breakfast, we proceeded to the last section of the safari – salt-pans where salt suitable for human consumption is produced. A salt farmer explained to us the process of how after monsoons, brine water is extracted from the ground using pumps and then diverted towards the salt-pans, rectangular or square in shape with embankment on all sides, then, left for months altogether to let the water evaporate naturally, even as the solution of water and sediment left behind becomes gradually more concentrated – by March-April, the salt is ready to be commercially transported and sold.

The salt farmers, otherwise living elsewhere, themselves only come to live beside salt-pans in make-shift shanties during salt production and harvesting season. In December, which is when we visited, the salt crystals were only beginning to form. To demonstrate the phenomenon, the salt farmer took us to one of the saltpans, dipped his hand in the water and drew out a flamingo feather laced with salt crystals along its length – an amazing thing to behold! That being an apt parting sight, we bid adieu to the Little Rann, and to Kachch, as we headed back to Ahmedabad to catch the 7 PM Rajdhani Express for Gurgaon.

Travel Guide

Reaching Dholavira

Located on an island in the middle of a marshy lake, the only way to reach here is by road. You can drive down from Ahmedabad (a 7 hour journey) if driving from the east of Gujarat.
If you were coming from Bhuj or Dhordo, it is about 2 hours and 1 hour respectively, provided you take the ‘Road to Heaven’ or the Khavda-Dholavira road. In fact, in dry season, the ‘Road to Heaven’ is a must-see/must-ride!
Bhuj, in turn, can be reached by train or road from any major city in Gujarat. Also, a train originating from Delhi runs to Bhuj. Bhuj also is connected by air through direct and connecting flights from major cities in India.

Reaching Rann of Kachch

To access Rann of Kachch, you are looking to put up at a village nearby (Dhordho or Hodka) or at Bhuj. In fact, Dhordho and Hodka, lie in between the Bhuj and the Rann, and can be accessed by road.

Reaching Wild Ass Sanctuary/Little Rann of Kachch

This is a tricky one, as there are two entrances – Dhrangadhra on the south of the Little Rann and Bajana on the east side. It is possible to make a day trip to the Little Rann/Wild Ass Sanctuary from Ahmedabad by road or train – but if you’re taking the train, you will need to make a choice between Dhrangadhra station (for the Dhangadhra entrance) or Viramgam station (for the Bajana entrance).
Dhrangadhra lies on the Ahmedabad-Bhuj highway, thereby reachable by public transport bus.
Alternatively, you can put up at any of the resorts near Patdi, Zaianabad or Dasada which are near the Bajana entrance – the resort can facilitate a safari. Safari price ranges as in 2023 ranged from Rs. 400 per jeep/car (Rs. 500 on weekends) to Rs. 3500 per heavy motor vehicle (Rs. 4375 on weekends), with additional fees of Rs. 300 for a guide, and Rs. 200 for taking in a camera.

Trip Summary

Day 1:
Ahmedabad to Patan, then Modhera, then back to Ahmedabad.
Overnight stay in Ahmedabad.

Day 2:
Ahmedabad to Dholavira (on Khadir Bet island), via Sanand and Rapar.
Sightseeing at Harappan site of Dholavira and sunset watching on the coast.
Overnight stay in Rann Resort Dholavira.

Day 3:
Dholavira to Kalo Dungar via Road to Heaven and Khavda, then to Hodka.
Hodka to Dhordho for seeing salt flats of the Rann.
Overnight stay in Kutir Craft Village, Hodka.

Day 4:
Hodka to Bhuj, sightseeing in Bhuj, then to Patdi via Dhrangadhra.
Overnight stay in Bhavna Resorts and Farms, Patdi.

Day 5:
Safari to Wild Ass Sanctuary from Bajana side, then to Ahmedabad.

Trip Map

Book Review: Finding Forgotten Cities by Nayanjot Lahiri

Finding Forgotten Cities is an exhilarating account of how Harrapa and Mohenjo-Daro were discovered and findings were pieced together to advance the case for the Indus Civilization for the first time in 1924, with ample attention given to all the major characters that played an indispensable part in the story.

From this account, the Britishers that were at the forefront of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), especially John Marshall himself, the Director General of the ASI during the discovery and, in fact, for a good part of the first quarter of the 20th century, seem to emerge as unlikely heroes, but for whose love and passion for the antiquities of India, the beauty and significance of portals to India’s past may have been lost to the sands of time.

At times thrilling, and at times exuberant, the narrative unfolds like in a novel, with interesting detours into circumstances within which the ASI had to work. I just wished there were more details on some of the people besides Marshall and Rakhaldas Bannerji. Also, modern colour photographs would have helped paint a more vivid picture. Sometimes, the narrative while being pegged in a certain year went forwards and backwards too often, thereby causing me to lose the base year.

Nevertheless, being enamored with the Indus Civilization since my childhood, I finally had the opportunity to be transported back to a time where I could be a fly-on-the-wall even as the ancient cities I was fascinated with were getting uncovered.

Highly recommended for history lovers in general, and Indus Valley Civilization aficionados, in particular.

Buy Finding Forgotten Cities on Amazon India.

Disclosure: I first posted this review on Goodreads.

A Date with the Harappan Age at Rakhigarhi

Alighting from the Haryana Roadways bus at Hansi, 20km before Hisar, my first reaction was one of regret. It was already 6pm and I was circumspect about the situation I had gotten myself into owing to my mad uncontrollable urge to venture into the Harappan Civilization clusters in and around Hisar. But then I fired up Google Maps and walked towards the Hansi Fort. And am I glad I did!

Earlier that day, I had ditched the India-Australia World T20 Cricket final 10 overs in, when it became clear that India were going to be decimated. And still reeling from the after-effects of finishing the book ‘The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati’, I had packed a few bare essentials and taken a bus to Hisar from Gurugram bus-stand, with no itinerary in place, except for one pointer – get as far into the purported Sarasvati Valley as possible.

The only trouble was – I did not know how to get there. A colleague from the Hisar region had earlier dissuaded me from venturing solo into that area. In fact, he did not know about the Harappan sites around Hisar. It also didn’t help that there was little material on the internet pertinent to tourists addressing these Harappan sites.

So in Hansi as I walked towards the fort through the city’s old-fashioned streets, and passed through the Barsi Gate, I pacified myself visualizing Prithviraj Chauhan’s troops rolling in. The Fort would have been closed by 6pm as per Google – still, something kept me clambering up the hilly incline to the entry point of the fort, where I realized there was no closing time, and there were most certainly no closed gates. With the sun already down, I entered the final gate and presently came upon the fort enclosure set upon the plateau atop the hill. As the few remaining visitors retreated in the twilight, I started surveying the scattered structures.

By the time I was done, it was pitch dark and not a single soul was in sight. With my heart pounding, but my blood awash with adrenaline, I was leaving a subterranean long hall-like structure with nothing but darkness inside, when I chanced upon silhouettes of 3 people sitting near the roof of the structure. If I had any survival instincts intact, my first reaction should have been to flee. But I decided to approach them to inquire about the structure. And as it would turn out – all I had to do was ask!

A view of the city from atop Hansi fort in the quickly engulfing darkness

They told me the structure was an erstwhile horse-stable, and as we spoke about the fort, they asked me as to what brought me to Hansi. I explained I had landed in Hansi since it would be the nearest hub to the Harappan sites, which I had been keen on exploring for a long time. One of these persons, who I learnt was from the Tehsil office, was so impressed with my motive that he assured me it was quite easy to reach these sites, especially Rakhigarhi, and he promptly gave me the phone number of a Mr. Ram Niwas, a Rakhigarhi resident no less! and local Tehsil official. He suggested I call him before I reached there.

So with an apparent lead in hand, I left the dark confines of the fort, illuminated with renewed hope of realizing my dream of setting foot on a Harappan site. I checked into an inexpensive lodge in front of the bus-stand, got little sleep from anticipation of the next day’s events, and woke up late! As I was stepping out after having a cheap quick breakfast, I beheld a bus headed to Jind already leaving the bus-stand exit. I ran in parallel to the driver’s window, asking in a scream if the bus was going to Narnaund. The bus slowed down, and I scurried around the front side of the bus and hopped onto it.

In 30 minutes, I was at Narnaund, where the diversion to Rakhigarhi originated. I called up Mr. Ram Niwas and in a short conversation comprising sentences alternating between pure Haryanvi from his end, and Hindi from mine, I only deciphered that he would indeed meet me at Rakhigarhi. I hopped onto a Scorpio that was carrying passengers headed to Rakhigarhi, and following 20 minutes of riding on a well-laid road, squeezed amidst the village folk, I was standing at the main cross of Rakhigarhi village.

Thereupon, Mr. Ram Niwas appeared on a motorcycle. He was nothing as I had imagined. Ram Niwas ji is a lanky white-mustachioed soft-spoken elderly gentleman, somewhere in his late 50s or early 60s. After exchanging pleasantries, I rode pillion with him towards his home ensconced somewhere within the rows and rows of brick-walled houses. The brick-laid streets for the most part cut each other perpendicularly, and in places, were slushy from puddles of rainwater and patches of cow-dung. On some walls, cow-dung cakes hung drying in the sun. Neat open drains lined both sides of all the streets we traversed.

One of the wider typical Rakhigarhi streets

The route we took headed to the north, went up an incline and then sloped down, and I wondered aloud if we were on one of the Rakhigarhi mounds, to which Ram Niwas ji answered in the affirmative. As we rode further down the slope I could see two huge mud mounds before me, one straight ahead and another to its left, with iron fences delineating each from the other and from the village streets. Turning to the east for a short distance, we turned south again into a lane which again went up an incline and suddenly diverted towards the left and opened up again to reveal a couple of havelis large enough in comparison to the basic box-shaped brick houses below, of which one belonged to Ram Niwas ji.

In his quaint unadorned drawing room that opened directly into the lane, we had tea and introductions to other members of his family. Ram Niwas ji laid out the plan for the day – he would show me around all the mounds and the upcoming museum on his motorcycle, and get me to speak to somebody who would then be able to identify the mounds from the pictures I showed him. And then I would have to have lunch! To my perfunctory remonstrations, his gentle yet firm Haryanvi-laced reply was, ‘khaana toh khaana padega (lunch will need to be had).’

And so we went first to a mound (RGR-4) on the east side of the village where a street had been carved from one of its sides revealing the brick lining of an old Harappan structure. Taking pictures, we proceeded to the two mounds I had spotted earlier. We rode up the mound on the left first (RGR-2) upon which tall shrubs were growing and children were playing. I alighted and was taken aback by the continuous layer of pottery shards and little portions from bricks strewn across the whole surface of the mound. The mound must have been about 40m by 20m. Excavations done on this mound had been back-filled with mud on top of polymer sheets to enable easy stripping for display or exposure of the excavated parts in the future.

Old and new co-exist near this excavation on the side of Mound RGR-4

Bricks of a Harappan-time structure revealed on RGR-4

I ambled across the northern side of the mound soaking in the energy of the place, transported to a day in the lives of our ancestors who inhabited the innards of the metropolis I was standing on at present. I zeroed in on a day sometime in 2500BC, where I walked through paved streets bustling with traders and carts rumbling along loaded with earthenware, and the air imbibing the fragrance of burning wood and food getting cooked in earthen ovens in the nearby brick houses. There I stood transfixed on the luscious grain fields down below, spread to the farthest my eyes could fathom, wondering if such fields stood at the same place back then or if they were now standing on metres and metres of silt deposited over more structures underneath. Ram Niwas ji told me the famous Rakhigarhi skeleton was dug up from somewhere amidst those fields.

Standing on Mound RGR-3 and looking at Mound RGR-2

Ram Niwasji with shards of ancient pottery

The mound to the east (RGR-3) was separated from the mound I was standing on, by a small pond of clear water. I walked my way to the top of RGR-3 where a small blue-coloured structure dedicated to a Pir saint stood. This mound too had pottery shards strewn all across its surface. We then rode further east to the mound (RGR-1) that had been excavated first. The same pattern of pottery shards and brick pieces strewn across the surface repeated, with the mound too having been excavated and covered up. It had other visitors besides us – a handful of Red-naped Ibises!

Signage at RGR-1, the first mound to be excavated

Moving further east and then turning to the north past a couple of clear-watered amply filled ponds, we got to the sprawling Rakhigarhi Museum, which is still under construction and is expected to be up-and-running in 2 to 3 years. Locals believe that once the Museum comes to life, and a settlement has been reached between the villagers and the Government with regards to the rehabilitation of locals whose houses are built on two major mounds, Rakhigarhi would be a major tourist hub.

The sprawling Rakhigarhi musuem under construction

It was already 2 hours since we had been riding around, and once back at Ram Niwas ji’s place and after having a spartan yet filling meal of chapatis and raita, another surprise awaited me! Ram Niwas ji’s younger son, in his early 20s, took me to one of the rooms where a waist-high iron chest lay huddled in the corner. From there in, he extracted a cloth wrapped into a pouch and opened its knots to reveal several relics gathered from the mounds – terracotta toys including miniature animals such as the bull and the dog, pieces of pottery of different styles and a seal! He went on drawing out relic after relic – this cloth pouch being the figurative gift that kept on giving – until I asked him to stop. My glee upon being able to touch these pieces from the past knew no bounds – money couldn’t buy the preciousness of the objects I held in my bare hands!

Treasures from Harappan times – terracotta figures and earthenware

At last it was time to bid adieu. Ram Niwas ji vehemently refused to accept some money I offered as a token of my appreciation. I touched his feet and got into his car with his son, who dropped me back at Narnaund. From there as I retraced my way back to Gurugram through Hansi on a local bus on the wide smooth highway, I could not help but smile at the sight of the seas and seas of wheat and mustard fields lining both sides of the highway. Whenever I saw a mound-like elevation, I wondered if there were cities of the past buried underneath. Maybe I used to live in one of them.