THE%20SINDH%20STORY

no lime in the area to use as cement, the bricks were so made and fitted into each
other that no cementing as such was necessary!
The whole thing thrilled modern city planners. Said S. S. Townroe, a British
housing expert, at the end of World War II: “Buried cities in the Indus Valley at
least 5000 years old, when excavated, showed they were well planned and
drained. Every large house had a bathroom. The old Vedic treatises afford
striking proof of the knowledge and commonsense of the early people of India in
regulating their building development and wisdom in their municipal
administration. When we think of the great urban civilization in the Indus Valley
5000 years ago, we gain humility in facing the issues of today. From India we can
learn both patience and wisdom in dealing with the redevelopment of our
bombed-out cities in Europe and North Africa and the Far East in the years to
come.”
Of the only two figures found, one is that of a dancing girl, and another the bust
of a man in orange apparel painted with a floral design.
Here was a huge and prosperous port-city with international commerce; but it
was so secure and peaceful that no arms were found. The thick wall, which was
first believed to be the rampart of a fort, was later found to be a section of a
public store-house. Said Sir Mortimer Wheeler, archaeologist: “It served both as a
state bank and treasury.”
Covered Drains
Aldous Huxley, the philosopher, was so impressed by the peaceful character of
Mooan-jo-daro that he wrote: “The civilization of the Indus Valley was as rich
and elaborate as those of Sumer and Egypt. But it was a civilization that knew
nothing of war. No weapons have been found in its buried cities, nor any trace of
fortification. This fact is of the highest significance. It proves that it is possible for
men to enjoy the advantages of a complex urban civilization without having to
pay for them by periodical mass-murders.”
And it was unarmed, not because there was nothing to defend in the city. For it
was a rich city with international commerce. Indeed Sir John Marshall, then
director-general of the archeological department, noted: “The old ornaments are
so well finished and so highly polished that they might have come out of a Bond
Street jeweller rather than from a prehistoric house of 5000 years ago.”
This city needed no arms because it was secure in its own law, order and justice.
Here was a fine great city which had no use for arms but which made many toys
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