Pakistanis truly take pride in their 5,000 year old history which goes back even further into the hoary past yet untraced.
In the words of Sir Mortimer Wheeler, famed British Archaeologist, Pakistan enjoys a high international position in the history of past achievements by virtue of possessing the greatest vestiges of one of the first three mature civilizations of the world.
Pakistan is the known heir to one of the most ancient civilizations of the east - the Indus Valley Civilization, traces of which are found in the ruins of Moen-jo-Daro, Amri (on the right bank of the Indus in Sind), Kot Diji (on the left) and way up in the plains of the Punjab (near the city of Sahiwal), the remains of Harappa.
The transition from rural past to urban life in the Indus valley was so sudden that the outside influence looks very probable. It appears that merchants of Mesopotamia who traded with settlements on the coast of the Persian Gulf made deeper voyages and penetrated into the Indus to find new trading partners, bringing with them their way of life.
Indus seals - both from Moen-jo-Daro and Harappa - show a remarkable similarity with the finds at Tell Asmar, Ur and Kish in Sumer and at Susa in south-western Iran. So do the pots and utensils found in Mesopotamia and all along the Mekran coast and the cities on Indus.
Later day evidence show signs of organised civil life and thriving cities borne by the ruins of Taxila in the Haro valley, some 30 km west of Islamabad.
The famed Gandhara civilization flourished in the lush green valley of Peshawar and the enchanting Swat. The developments on Pakistan's western frontiers made and un-made the history of South Asia.
The old Indus served as the cradle of most civilization. The economy of the area still continues to be closely linked with this giant river as it was during the Bronze Age when Moen-jo_daro and other cities flourished on its banks, having trade and commerce with contemporary civilizations in Iran and Mesopotamia.
Most traces of the Indus Valley civilization known abroad are the ruins of Moen-jo-Daro. To save them from the rising sub-soil water UNESCO is cooperating with Pakistan, which has resolved to save the remains from total destruction at all costs.
The 'brink towers' of Moen-jo-Daro which impress and fascinate the visitors were, in fact, wells. They are evidence of the fact that the well-planned city with its Great Bath and Granary and 'palatial' houses and civic centers was build orginally 40 feet below the surface of the present ground level. It would be worthwhile mentioning here some of the well-known finds from Moen-jo-daro which have over the years become familiar. They are the figure of the dancing girl, the head of the priest king and a large number of seals which bear animal figures, mostly bulls, with pictographs. Reproductions of these steatite seals decorate many a house in Pakistan and world capitals. Wooden doors found during excavations show high order of carpentry.
These cities did not grow in a haphazard manner rather, they were build taking into consideration not only security but also the hygiene and public utilities. The planning and buildings were of high order and showed ingenuity.
The unity of the long corridor of civilization is also testified by a uniform system of weights and measures, traditions in arts and crafts, social objectives and ideal, religious beliefs and rituals and a system of pictographic writing and perhaps one language.
The river served as the main means of communication-north to south and south to north.
In the rugged mountainous regions of western Pakistan the tribal traditions exist even today. Their love of freedom in reflected in their folklore. Nomads as these people were, they moved eastward to the plains of Ganges and got mingled with the caste-ridden culture of what they called Bharatvarsha.
Recorded history of the region begins in the middle of the sixth century B.C. when the whole of the Indus region gradually became a part of Iran's Achaemenian empire under Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes.
A notable feature of this period was the consolidation of separate identity of the Indus zone from that of Bharatvarsha. A stream of ideas and social patterns also followed via Iran from Mesopotamia and the Levant.
The Persian rulers introduced their own weights and measures and the coin as a medium of exchange.
Kharoshti scripts took the place of pictography and new values gave rise to such seats of learning as Taxila near which a fine example exists in the hill-top monastery of Jaulian. Stone cutting and engraving were introduced which led to the finest production of sculpture of that period - specimens of which are sometimes found even today buried in the fields, in and around the ruins.
In-between the southern metropolis of Moen-jo-Daro and the northern capital of the Indus Valley - Harappa - are found traces of many flourishing cities dating back four to five thousand years. One of these is Amri, also on the right bank of Indus, some 160 km south of Moen-jo-Daro which French Archaeologist J.M. Casal put as 4,000 years old. He also traced cities dating back to 2,500 B.C. in the Kalat Division of Baluchistan - Nindowai and Ornach.
But Kot Diji, 40 km east of Moen-jo-Daro on the left bank, is one of the earliest known fortified cities with a wall four to five meters high. It was a starting discovery in the late fifties which gave ew evidence of pre-Harappan culture and pushed back Pakistan's history by another 500 years.
The story of the discovery of Harappa, which lay buried for many centuries, is interesting. In 1856 when the British were building the Lahore to Multan railway, they needed ballast and they found it in the form of finely baked bricks of Harappa - millions of them. It was only in 1872 that notice was taken of the mounds which stood 14 to 18 meters above the level of the fields. It goes to the credit of Sir John Marshall that the site was preserved in 1924-25.
Excavation showed a city very similar in planning to Moen-jo-Daro and it seemed to have almost everything for comfortable living and a well-disciplined life. Objects found here are an unending variety of pottery, jewelry, ornaments, human and animal figurines, stone vessels, copper, bronze and silver utensils, metal objects, beads, household implements and, of course, seals. Like Kot Diji, it too has fortification wall with watch towers and bastions.
Harappa's layout showed a lofty fortified citadel and low lying city with public and private buildings, workers colonies, work platforms and furnaces.
The burial system was the same as found in Sumer in 3 B.C. - bodies buried with ornaments and pottery in urn or otherwise.
Archaemenians' was a popular rule as people fought shoulder to shoulder with the invaders from the west, including Alexander.
Alexander's invasion (327 B.C.) left lasting impressions in the Indus Valley and its traces are found right from the north in Bajaur to south at Sehwan in Sind where he built a fort. The Macedonian could not proceed further east beyond Beas. Though his rule was short-lived, the Indus valley absorbed many Hellenistic traditions.
Taxila is not just one site. It is said, over hundreds of years several cities were built and destroyed in this small area among beautiful hills which once full of forests.
Among the well-preserved sites the oldest is Bhir Mound near the famous Taxila Museum which houses some of the finest specimens of Ghandhara sculpture, gold ornaments and even scientific instruments dug out from the ruins.
Other sites include the Dharmarajik Stupa, Sirkup - which was once a well-planned city on both sides of a broad road with straight streets crossing it at right angles. Near it are the ruins of the other city of Sirsukh and monasteries and temples and the very interesting remains of the Buddhist monastery stop a small hill which is in a well-preserved state, having small stupas showing the social structure of the time.
The structure of the buildings is very different from that of Moen-jo-Daro. Instead of bricks, pebbles and bare rocks have been piles up to make walls and fortifications. North of Peshawar is the valley of Swat which is known for its beauty and remains of the Graeco-Roman origin. It was called Udayan in the ancient times (now Udegram) and the nearby town of Mingora, the capital of Swat, was called by Chinese traveller Hiueu Tsang as Meng-Chie-Li. Near here as many as 2,000 pieces of sculptured slabs and panels on the life of Buddha were discovered which included gilled statues. Some of the finds are housed in the Swat Museum. The most important King of Kushans, Kanishka, controlled the main trade routes from China and South Asia to the western world. His was one of the most prosperous empires in the early history of this area. It led to the flourishing of arts: the Ghandhara school of sculpture thus blossomed.
