Waqar Memon Journey to Mohen jo Daro

< Waqar Memon Media &Communication studies Department>

This is travelogue. will check later. ... Roll No MC/153 Feature>

WAQAR MEMON
2K17/MC/153
BS- III

Journey to Mohen jo Daro

Old bricked walls, old sculptures some old architecture that was my first visit to MohenjoDaro. I am not tourist kind of person but this journey turned me into heritage lover. When I reached at MohenjoDaro, it wasn’t like what I imagined, indeed, books were right, it was a city itself with well-planned system.

MohenjoDaro represents the existence of Indus civilization 5000 years before today. This site were discovered in 1922. Some researchers say that MohenjoDaro existed from 2500 BC to 1900 BC.

Journey to MohenjoDaro begun from Larkana. Those were cold days, Yousif and Rehman insisted me to come along with them. Rehman drove us to Cadet College Larkana, we picked Ali from there, who was our guide. MohenjoDaro starts from a huge gate written MOHENJO DARO in calligraphy.  While entering from the gate, I witnessed a statue representing the dancing girl of that time. This wasn’t the original statue which were discovered, it was the dummy of that statue, while the original statue is in India. The figure of statuewas totally naked all she wearing was the jewelry. Somehow this statue was contrasting with the Mesopotamia civilization. 

There was also a Dhaba near the Entrance gate where we had tea. After tea break we moved to the Museum near to that Dhaba. There were tourist guide as well, who were busy in guiding tourist around and providing the information.
According to those guides, 1200 seals were discovered while digging the MohenjoDaro, most of those were having the animal shapes like Buffalos and Rhinos.Many other statues were discovered from MohenjoDaro as well, from those 5 were seem to be of same person. Except human, there were also miniatures of animals. The big statue was of the Priest King that captured everyone’s sight, which is mostly used as symbol of MohenjoDaro,that statue relates to the priests of Buddha, wearing anAjrak printed shawl.

“MohenjoDaro was one of the modern cities of that time in 2500 BC.” Ali Taqui, Lecturer at Department of Archeology and Anthropology, University of Sindh, told. 

Beside the statue of Priest King there was old bricked road having instruction boards beside it which lead us to actual MohenjoDaro city. While entering the city, one can witness the city planning of that time even their drainage system were better than ours. I guess they never witnessed those open gutters neither they would have smelled the shit, that we usually smell and witness in our modern cities.

Everything we witnessed there were purely made of mud. Their toys, dolls, statues, seals, roads, stairs even houses and furniture inside were also made of mud.

From the center of MohenjoDaro, where the main house is situated, it was the place where King were used to stay and rest we can call it Haram, one can have the sight of whole city. The walls were showing the structure of whole city, structure of rooms and houses.

From the Haram, my sight caught a hole on surface it seemed to be a swimming pool. “It is the great bath.” Ali said. To reach there, we crossed the main streets, which were used to be main Market Street of the city. Structure of The Great Bath were contrasting to our modern Swimming pools, the only difference was that, that pool was made of bricks and our pools are made of expensive tiles and marbles.

Talking from the cultural aspects, MohenjoDaro is as important as the Sumer and Egypt. According to some researchers MohenjoDaro city lived for 700 years.

After exploring the city, I would say that the ancestors of Indus civilization were highly advanced in their social, cultural, economic and religious conditions, and it was being reflected from their town planning.

Sun was almost dawn, lights were fading out and we also had to travel back to Hyderabad, due to that we couldn’t explore all of it but still, whatever I saw there, “Chief House” Assembly Hall, Covered Drains, Wells, Skeleton Rooms, Statues of King Priests, Dancing Girl and more, indeed this turned me into history lover. While walking through those main streets, I felt the way they lived, the families, the lifestyle, indeed they were well civilized than our current modern civilization. We should learn from their lifestyles, this is what history is for to learn from it and that’s how our trip ended which actually never ended, I still have that view in my mind…

< Waqar Memon Media &Communication studies Department>