Short Essay on Life of the People of Indus Civilization

Besides wheat, barley, milk, vegetables, legumes (lentils, chickpea, and field pea), oil (mustard, linseed, and sesamum), millets (finger millet, ragi, bajra, sorghum, jawar) and fruits (date, grape, and jujube) were included in the diet of the Harappan people.

In addition, animal food such as beef, mutton, pork, poultry, river-water fish and dried fish from the sea were also eaten. Grind-stones were used for grinding spices and cereals.

Costumes:

The costume as revealed by the terracotta figurines of the Mother Goddess tells that the ladies were scantily dressed. They wore a short skirt that reached up to the knee; and it was held by a girdle – a string of beads. The male used a robe with or without embroidery.

It was worn over the left shoulder and under the right arm. A man on a shred from Harappa wears a closer clinging dhoti. No footwear has survived nor is it shown in any of the figures. Cotton was used. There is no evidence of linen or wool, though sheep and goat were known and might have provided enough raw materials.

Hair Styles:

Women took special care of their hair. The dancing girl from Mohenjodaro has a pony tail. Some females have a plait tied with a bow at the end. The men had several styles of hairdressing. Hair was parted in the middle and tied with a fillet. Sometimes the hair was gathered up in a bun or coiled in a ring on top of the head.

The crawling child depicted on a clay figure from Mohenjodaro has curly hair. Beards were trimmed and upper lips were shaven. Completely shaven faces with a small beard on a chin are also noticed. Very long beards were not preferred. Mirrors of bronze were very common.

Ornaments and Jewellery:

With the traditional oriental fondness for ornaments, men and women, both rich and poor, decorated themselves with them and all known semi-precious stones and metals were utilized for manufacturing various ornaments. Women wore a fan-shaped head-dress. Small cones of gold, silver, copper, and faience, as also of shell, were worn on the sides of the head. The forehead was decorated with a fillet or a headband. Earrings were made of coils of gold, silver, copper, or faience.

It is doubtful whether any nose ornaments were used. There was a variety of necklaces having pendants in the middle with a number of rows of beads of various shapes and materials artistically arranged using spacers and terminals. Fingerrings were plentiful, and bangles and bracelets of gold, silver, copper, bronze, faience, shell, and pottery were commonly used. Gold and silver bangles were penannular in shape with their hollows filled with a fibrous or a lack core. A bracelet with six strings of globular beads is an excellent specimen of workmanship.

Girdles, of which two fine specimens have been found, were worn round the waist. Anklets, of the type still used by hill women, were worn. Various stones such as carnelian, steatite, agate, chalcedony, jasper, etc. were used for the manufacture of beads which evince fine workmanship and technical skills on the part of the lapidary. Of the various ornaments mentioned above, men wore fillets, necklaces, fingerings, and armlets; a yellow steatite pectoral was probably the insignia of the office of a priest.

Cosmetics:

Toilet jars were made of ivory, metal, pottery, and stone. Small faience vessels having four compartments were used for keeping expensive perfumes or cosmetics. It appears that the ladies at Mohenjodaro knew of the use of collyrium, face-paint and other cosmetics. Small cockle shells containing a red ochre-rouge, lumps of green earth, white face-paint and black beauty- substance show that the belles in ancient Sind attended to beauty and toilet culture.

It is interesting to note that Chanhudaro finds indicate the use of lip-sticks. Carbonate of lead, a face-paint, may also have been employed as an eye-ointment or hair- wash. Round metal rods in copper and bronze, with both ends rounded and polished, were probably used for applying cosmetics.

There were small toilet tables specially designed for women. Other articles on the dressing table included oval-shaped bronze mirrors, and ivory combes of different shapes. Some combs were probably worn in the hair. Bronze razors of various types served for the toilet of the male.

Music and Dance:

A pair of castanets has been found. A drum hangs from the neck of a figure in pottery. Some of the signs of script look like harps and lyres. Music and dance were both secular and religious.

Hunting and Fishing:

People enjoyed non- vegetarian food. Remains of stage, buffalo, pig, turtle, goat, ox and fish have been found. Sometimes in large jars, used as larders, the bones of oxen, sheep and goats have been found. Animal sacrifice was in vogue. On a few seals, hunting of wild rhino and antelope are shown.

Copper arrowheads and small pellets of clay used in sling were employed for bird shooting. Models of several hunting dogs including bulldogs have been found. Cock-fighting is seen on one seal. Partridges were trained to fight. Fishing was a regular occupation. A number of fish hooks have been traced. Traps were used for mice.

Customs and Amusements: Games and Sports

A large number of toys and objects used in games have been unearthed from all the important sites. The favourite toy was the baked clay cart. Rattles in the form of hollow balls with pellets inside are many. Singing birds were kept in cages. A whistle shaped like a bird, a small animal climbing up the pole and models of household vessels were the pastimes of the children.

Bulls with nodding heads, monkey with movable arms, figures which ran up and down a string were complex toys and must have been produced by professional toymakers. Dice were used in gambling. Chessmen of stone have been found. A brick has been marked out for a game played with pebbles. Marbles of Jasper and chert were played by rich children. Numerous small cones of pottery might be playthings or ninepins and the marbles were used to knock them down.