Theme one

Bricks Beads and Bones

History Class XII
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DISCUSS THE FUNCTIONS THAT MAY HAVE BEEN PERFORMED BY THE

RULERS OF HARAPPAN SOCIETY.
PALACE FOUND PROVES THE EXISTANCE OF A KING.
A large building found from the excavations of Harappa has been
labelled by the historians as Palace. However no such evidence has
been found which proves that the king may have lived there.
THE STATUE OF PRIEST KING FOUND SIMILAR TO THAT OF
MESOPOTAMIA
A stone statue found from a Harappan site has been named as the
priest king. This was done because the archaeologists were familiar
to the priest king of Mesopotamia which was contemporary to the
Harappan civilization. However it is not clear whether the functions
performed by the priest king of Mesopotamia were similar to that of
the priest king of Harappa.
NOT KNOWN WHETHER PEOPLE WHO PERFORMED RITUALS HAD
POLITICAL POWERS
Archaeological remains indicate that the Harappans practised
rituals .However it not indicated if the people who performed rituals
processed political powers too.
OPINION OF ARCHAEOLOGISTS ABOUT POLITICAL POWER
ALL ENJOYED EQUAL STATUS: Some of the archaeologists are of the
view that here were no rulers in Harappa and everybody enjoyed an
equal status.
THE CONCEPT OF SEVERAL RULERS
Other archaeologists believe that Harappa did not have a single ruler
but had several rulers. So according to these archaeologists Harappa
had its own ruler whereas Mohenjodaro had another ruler.
A SINGLE STATE WITH UNIFORM POLICIES
Yet others argue that there was a single state because of immense
uniformity spread all over the civilization e.g. similarity in artefacts ,
evidences of a planned settlement ,the standardized ratio of brick
size and establishment of settlements , near the sources of raw
material.
CONCLUSION
The last theory i.e. a single state with uniform policies seems most
plausible, as it is unlikely that entire communities could have
collectively made and implemented such complex decisions.

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