UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 56 of 150

Correct — D, Mohenjodaro and Lothal. The Lothal half of this pair is firmly attested and is the reason the option is right: terracotta models of boats were recovered at Lothal, the Harappan port in Gujarat, around the great brick-lined basin that excavators identified as a dockyard. Those little clay boats are the standard textbook evidence that the Indus people built and used watercraft. The Mohenjodaro half rests on a different kind of object — a boat depicted on a seal from the site, showing a vessel with birds carried aboard, the device ancient sailors used to find land. That is a 'figure' of a boat rather than a three-dimensional model, and the question's own wording, 'figures OR models of boat', accommodates both. In the interest of honesty a student should know that the unambiguous, physically modelled boats are the Lothal ones; the Mohenjodaro attribution is standard in Indian textbooks and is supported by the seal, but it is the weaker half of the pair. None of that disturbs the answer, because no other option contains a site associated with boats at all.

• (a)Harappa and Kotdiji — Neither is a maritime site. Harappa, on the Ravi, is the type site of the civilisation and is remembered for its great granary, its citadel and the cemetery designated R-37; Kot Diji, in Sindh, is best known for the fortified Early Harappan settlement and the distinctive pottery phase that carries its name. Both are inland river-valley sites with no boat finds attached to them in the standard accounts.
• (b)Kalibangan and Ropar — Both are inland sites on the northern rivers. Kalibangan in Rajasthan is famous for the earliest excavated ploughed field and for its rows of fire altars; Ropar (Rupnagar) in Punjab, on the Sutlej, was the first Harappan site excavated after Independence and is known for a burial in which a dog was interred with a human. Neither has produced boats or any evidence of seafaring.
• (c)Dhaulabira and Bhagatrav — This is the option that requires a moment's thought, because both sites lie in Gujarat and Bhagatrav is a small coastal Harappan settlement near the estuaries of the Narmada and Kim, so a candidate can reasonably associate it with the sea. But coastal location is not the same as a boat find. Dhaulabira — Dholavira, on Khadir Bet in the Rann of Kutch — is celebrated for something entirely different: its elaborate system of check-dams, channels and stone-lined reservoirs, and the great ten-sign inscription often called the world's oldest signboard. Neither site carries the boat evidence that Lothal does.

Maritime trade is one of the defining features of the Mature Harappan phase, and Lothal is the site that carries most of the evidence. It lies in Gujarat near the head of the Gulf of Khambhat, and its most striking structure is a large trapezoidal basin lined with kiln-fired brick, with an inlet channel and a spill-way; the excavator S. R. Rao interpreted it as a tidal dockyard where boats could be floated in at high tide. Alongside it were found a warehouse on a raised platform, a bead factory, Persian Gulf-type seals and the terracotta boat models. Together these support the wider picture drawn from Mesopotamian records, which speak of trade with Meluhha — generally identified with the Indus region — through the intermediate stations of Dilmun and Magan. Not every scholar accepts the dockyard interpretation of the basin; some read it as an irrigation tank. The boat models, however, are not in dispute.

The efficient way to handle a two-site option list is to test each site independently and reject the pair as soon as either half fails. Here, only one site in the whole question has any strong association with watercraft — Lothal — and it appears in exactly one option. That single association decides the answer without needing to adjudicate the Mohenjodaro half at all. This is also a reminder to store Harappan sites as site-plus-signature-find pairs rather than as a list of names: Lothal with the dockyard and boat models, Kalibangan with the ploughed field and fire altars, Dholavira with the water reservoirs and the signboard inscription, Harappa with the granary and cemetery R-37, Ropar with the dog burial, Alamgirpur in Uttar Pradesh as the eastern limit of the culture. Almost every prelims question on the civilisation is a test of that table.

• Terracotta models of boats were found at Lothal, in Gujarat, around the brick-lined basin usually identified as a Harappan dockyard.
• Mohenjodaro has yielded a seal depicting a boat carrying birds — the device used by ancient sailors to locate land; this is a depiction rather than a physical model.
• Lothal also produced a warehouse, a bead-making workshop and Persian Gulf-type seals, all pointing to organised overseas trade.
• Kalibangan is known for the earliest excavated ploughed field and for fire altars; Dholavira for its water-harvesting reservoirs and its ten-sign inscription; Ropar for a dog buried with a human; Harappa for its granary and cemetery R-37.
• Mesopotamian texts refer to trade with Meluhha, generally identified with the Indus region, via Dilmun and Magan.

• Assuming a coastal site must be the boat site. Bhagatrav lies on the Gujarat coast, yet the boat evidence belongs to Lothal.
• Accepting a two-site option because one half sounds right. In a paired option both halves must survive; the discipline is to test each name separately.
• Mixing up the Gujarat sites. Lothal means dockyard and boat models; Dholavira means water reservoirs and the ten-sign inscription. They are the two most-asked Gujarat sites and they are asked for opposite reasons.

UPPSC returns to the Indus civilisation almost every year and almost always through site identification — which state a site is in, which site marks the eastern boundary, which sites lie in Uttar Pradesh, which site goes with which find. UPSC asks the same table in match-list and 'which is not a Harappan site' form. The single most efficient preparation is a two-column list of about fifteen sites against their distinctive discoveries, with the modern state written beside each.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The earliest excavated evidence of a ploughed field in the Indian subcontinent has been found at which Harappan site ?

  • (a)Lothal
  • (b)Kalibangan
  • (c)Ropar
  • (d)Kot Diji

  Answer(b) Kalibangan — the site in Rajasthan on the dried Ghaggar course produced a ploughed field surface with criss-cross furrows, along with a well-known row of fire altars. Lothal is the port and dockyard site, Ropar is known for a dog burial and Kot Diji for its Early Harappan fortified phase.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following Harappan sites is best known for an elaborate system of check-dams and stone-lined water reservoirs, and for a large inscription of ten signs ?

  • (a)Dholavira
  • (b)Banawali
  • (c)Surkotada
  • (d)Chanhudaro

  Answer(a) Dholavira — on Khadir Bet in the Rann of Kutch, it is famous for channelling monsoon runoff into a chain of interconnected reservoirs and for the ten-sign 'signboard' inscription found near its northern gate.