traditions of the ancient peoples were lost, their language forgotten, and their cities disappeared under mounds of earth and debris left by later occupiers. But from evidence accumulated by archaeologists during the past thirty years, more and more is being learned concerning this lost civilization. From a study of pottery _styles, it has. been possible to trace the beginnings of "Harappan culture in the hill-villages of the upland valleys, where the remote ancestors of the. city-builders of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro lived before descending to the plain. At one site, Jarmo, in the foothills of northern Iraq, radio-carbon datings have given 5000 B.C. or a little later as an approximate date.

Eventually, settlements grew up along the banks of the Indus and its tributaries, and gradually, an integrated society developed, apparently dominated by Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, twin capitals linked by the great rivers. In the absence of any written records, one can only speculate as to the type of society represented by those two cities, but they suggest a highly-disciplined state, drawing its tribute of grain on which the community depended, and storing it in the great granaries under the shadow of the citadels. The regimented rows of barrack-like buildings, the rows of platforms where the corn was ground under supervision, all suggest a powerful state organization, probably governed, as in Sumeria by_priests or priest-kings.

On the whole the picture is a grim one. While admiring the efficiency of Harappan planning and sanitary engineering, one's general impression of Harappan culture is unattractive. There is a drab, inhuman-almost sub-human-atmosphere about their cities; streets of plain, undecorated, mud-brick buildings, which, as Wheeler remarks, "however impressive quantitatively, and significant sociologically, are aesthetically miles of monotony."

One imagines those warrens of streets, baking under the fierce sun of the Punjab, as human ant-heaps, full of disciplined, energetic activity, supervised and controlled by a powerful, centralized state machine; a civilization in which there was little joy, much labour, and a strong emphasis on material things. Modern parallels are not difficult to find. Was this, perhaps "1984"-B.C.?.

V. Race Movements and Prehistoric Culture

Unlike the earlier selections, the pages which follow require careful study. They are taken from a chapter on 'Race Movements and Prehistoric Culture' which is found in the first volume (The Vedic Age) of the series on the History and Culture of the Indian People, edited