Previous Year Question
Regarding the Indus Valley Civilisation, consider the following statements:
It was predominantly a secular civilisation and the religious element, though present, did not dominate the scene.
During this period, cotton was used for manufacturing textiles in India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Correct Answer: C
Detailed Solution
Statement 1:The term “secular” here should not be interpreted in the modern constitutional sense. Rather, it indicates that the archaeological record does not display the same overwhelming dominance of monumental religious or royal architecture seen in contemporary Egypt or Mesopotamia. Harappan cities lack clearly identifiable monumental palaces and exclusionary temples, while houses, drainage, water supply and other civic infrastructure are particularly prominent.
This does not mean that the Harappans lacked religious beliefs. The Great Bath, interpreted fire-altars at Kalibangan and Lothal, terracotta figurines, seals, plant motifs and possible ritual scenes have all been used to reconstruct aspects of Harappan religious practices. NCERT, however, cautions that many such interpretations remain speculative.
A more precise formulation is therefore that religious elements were certainly present, but the available archaeological evidence does not reveal an unmistakably temple-dominated or theocratic urban order. This is the sense in which Statement 1 should be understood for this PYQ.
Statement 2 is correct. There is direct archaeological evidence for the use of cotton textiles in the Harappan world. At Mohenjo-daro, a small fragment of woven material was preserved in association with a silver vessel. Microscopic examination revealed the characteristic convoluted structure of cotton fibres. The find was documented in the excavation material published under John Marshall.
Modern archaeobotanical research also identifies the Mohenjo-daro specimen among the earliest known cotton fabrics, dating it to the third millennium BCE. Thus, the evidence demonstrates not merely knowledge of cotton but its use in spinning and weaving textiles.
Evidence from Mehrgarh indicates that cotton fibres were being exploited in the Greater Indus region as early as the sixth millennium BCE, although whether the cotton used at that very early stage was already fully domesticated remains uncertain.