India’s Earliest Smart City

Context: The Harappan metropolis of Dholavira is a precious piece of heritage now recognised by UNESCO and can be regarded as India’s earliest smart city.

Background

• UNESCO inscribed Dholavira in its World Heritage List, making it India’s 32nd cultural site and 40th overall site on the list.
• It  granted the inscription on the basis of two of its listed 10 selection criteria: 
  • The third, ‘a unique, or at least exceptional, testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared. 
  • The fourth, ‘an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history.
• The status of the World Heritage List comes with some obligations: 
  • International principles of conservation,
  • Preservation and management strategies are to be followed,
  • A buffer zone must be maintained around the inscribed property to safeguard it from future threats.
  • Developmental activities should be regulated and in consonance with ancient remains.
• Dholavira is located on Khadir Island in Gujarat’s Great Rann of Kachchh, near the sleepy village of Dholavira; its ruins are locally known as ‘Kotada’ (walled city).

Significance of Dholavira

• History of Dholavira:
  • Dholavira is one of the six largest Harappan cities of the 3rd millennium BCE.
  • Dholavira witnessed a long occupation between 3000 BCE and 1500 BCE, expanding to a full-blown city in about 2600 BCE. 
  • By 1900 BCE, it had started declining; it was briefly deserted, shrank in size, survived for a couple of centuries and, after longer desertion, was finally reoccupied by fully deurbanised people.
• Contributions towards understanding of Harappan, or Indus civilisation:
  • A planned city: Revealed meticulous planning with strict ratios and proportions, multipartite fortified occupational units, a sophisticated water management system consisting of series of reservoirs on the south and east of the castle, whose imposing gates displayed exquisitely polished pillar members.
  • Connectivity: These pillar members were also exported to distant Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, probably through a navigable Rann and upstream the Indus River.
• Cultural significance:
  • A highly secured Ceremonial Ground to the north of Castle and Bailey must have witnessed markets, craft activities, festivals and melas. 
  • Craftspeople worked stone, shell, copper, gold, silver and lead into bangles, beads, inlay pieces and other ornaments, ladles, weights and metal implements.
• Economic linkages: 
  • Evidence for trade contacts with West Asia is present in the form of a specific type of ceramics known as ‘black-slipped jar’.
  • Dholavira was strategically located to harness Gujarat’s mineral resources, controlling a huge hinterland engaged in commercial activities, which included important Harappan settlements such as Bagasra, Shikarpur, Surkotada, Nagwada, Kanmer and Lothal.
  • The city was a manufacturing hub: Procuring and redistributing both raw and finished materials with a developed a reliable subsistence regime of agro-pastoral activities.
• Religious traditions:
  • Followed distinct funerary traditions: Erecting memorial burials using locally available stone slabs. 
  • Created earthen tumuli, the largest of them reaching 30m in diameter, up to a height of 2 m.

Way Forward: There is an opportunity to ensure that this precious piece of Indian heritage is properly highlighted and carefully conserved for posterity.