From the discovery of many spindles and spindle whorls in the houses of Indus valley, it is evident that spinning of cotton and wool was very common. That both the rich and poor practised spinning is indicated by the whorls being made of the expensive faience as also of the cheap pottery and shell no textiles of any description have been preserved in the Indus valley owing to the nature of the soil.
A close and exhaustive examination in the textile laboratory of the pieces of cotton, which were found attached to a silver vase, shows the specimen to be a variety of the coarser Indian cotton, cultivated in upper India today, and not of the wild species. Some more specimens of woven materials adhering to various copper objects have also been found to be mostly cotton, but some were bast fibres.
There is no indication from the ruins as to the existence of flax, which is largely grown in India at present and was known in ancient Elam and Egypt. The purple dye on a piece of cotton has been taken to have been produced from the madder plant. Dyers’ vats found on the site indicate that dyeing was practised.