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Harappan town planning and drains

The cities of the Sindhu-Sarasvati civilisation were laid out in blocks, built of bricks of one standard ratio, and drained by covered sewers that ran under the streets, a level of public sanitation not seen again for many centuries.

Photo: Quratulain · CC BY-SA 3.0
Field
Engineering
Date
c. 2600–1900 BCE
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Cite

MLA

“Harappan town planning and drains.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/vijnana/harappan-town-planning-drainage/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Harappan town planning and drains. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/vijnana/harappan-town-planning-drainage/

01Bricks and blocks

From Harappa and Mohenjo-daro to Kalibangan, Dholavira and Rakhigarhi, bricks were made in the ratio 1 : 2 : 4 of thickness, width and length, whatever their size. Mohenjo-daro had a raised citadel and a lower town of streets running roughly north-south and east-west, with houses opening on lanes, not on the main roads. Many houses had a bathing floor of fitted bricks and a toilet draining into the street. Michael Jansen counted around 700 wells at Mohenjo-daro.

02Drains and the Great Bath

House drains ran into brick sewers along the streets, covered with bricks or stone slabs that could be lifted, with soak pits and inspection points where solids settled. The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro, about 12 by 7 metres and 2.4 metres deep, was made watertight with fitted bricks set in gypsum and a layer of bitumen behind, and emptied by a corbelled drain. Dholavira in Kutch cut a chain of large reservoirs into rock and diverted two seasonal streams to fill them, in a dry land.

03What is not known

No palace or royal tomb has been found, and the Indus script is not yet read, so who planned and maintained all this is unknown. The idea of one central authority is debated; some archaeologists see guilds or councils of citizens. Continuity into later Bharat shows in fire altars at Kalibangan and Lothal, in the standard weights, and in the ploughing pattern still used in Rajasthan. Dholavira became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.

More in this family

The basin at Lothalc. 2300–1900 BCEStepwells: vav and baoriRani ki Vav, c. 1063 CE; Chand Baori, 9th centuryDams and lakes: Sudarshana and the KallanaiSudarshana from Maurya times, repaired 150 and 456 CE; Kallanai, Karikala CholaTemple building as engineeringKailasa, 8th century; Brihadeeswara, 1010 CEShips and the monsoon seaHarappan times to the 16th century

Evidence 4

Mohenjo-daro excavationsExcavation
c. 2600–1900 BCE; excavated from 1922

Mohenjo-daro excavations

The largest city of the Sindhu valley, laid out in a grid of baked-brick streets with covered drains and a great bath on its citadel.

Harappa excavationsExcavation
c. 3300–1900 BCE; excavated from 1921

Harappa excavations

The first city of the civilisation to be dug, which gave its name to the whole culture.

The reservoirs of DholaviraExcavation
c. 3000–1500 BCE; excavated 1990–2005

The reservoirs of Dholavira

A Harappan city in a dry land that lived by catching every drop: dams on two seasonal streams fed a chain of reservoirs cut into the rock around the town.

Fire altars of KalibanganExcavation
Mature Harappan, c. 2500–2000 BCE; excavated 1961–69

Fire altars of Kalibangan

Rows of small clay-lined fire pits on raised brick platforms, with a well and bathing floors beside them.

Places 5

Mohenjo-daroExcavated
The Sindhu–Sarasvati Civilisation

Mohenjo-daro

The largest city of the Sindhu–Sarasvati civilisation, on the Sindhu in Sindh, with its Great Bath, its grid of baked-brick streets and covered drains. The bronze dancing girl and the yogi seal many see as Pashupati were found here.

HarappaExcavated
The Sindhu–Sarasvati Civilisation

Harappa

The city on the old course of the Ravi that gave the whole civilisation its first name. Railway builders carried off its bricks in 1856; the excavations of 1921 showed what had been lost.

DholaviraExcavated
The Sindhu–Sarasvati Civilisation

Dholavira

A Harappan city on Khadir island in the Rann of Kutch, famous for its stone-cut reservoirs and a signboard of ten large Indus letters. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.

KalibanganExcavated
The Sindhu–Sarasvati Civilisation

Kalibangan

A Harappan town on the dry bed of the Ghaggar, the river many identify with the Vedic Sarasvati, where B. B. Lal and B. K. Thapar found the oldest ploughed field yet excavated and rows of fire altars.

RakhigarhiExcavated
The Sindhu–Sarasvati Civilisation

Rakhigarhi

The largest Sindhu–Sarasvati city found in India, in the old Drishadvati basin of Hisar district. A genome from its cemetery, published in 2019, showed the people of the cities carried no steppe ancestry.