Page 35 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

the bath in which tne puonc cleansing ceremonies icine piacu wi*
the festival days prescribed by religion. And he makes a detour
to the south to one of the seats of government, the immense pil­

lared brick hall of assembly. And then he goes on, to buy the cot­
ton cloth and oil for which he has come, in one of the large

brick-floored shops of the merchants of the town, and to chaffer
for the hire of a donkey to carry his wares back to the village.
We must admit that we know nothing of the form of gov­

ernment of the realms of the Indus, little of the religion, and al­
most nothing of the previous history of the region. This is largely

because we cannot yet read the pictographic script which the
men of the Indus valley used. It would be natural to imagine
two realms, each governed from one of the two cities, like up­

per and lower Egypt before the union, or like Babylonia and
Assyria in later times. The close association of the government
buildings with the state granary and the public baths would

suggest a priestly rule, or at least a state religion. Baths, both
public and private, are such a prominent feature of the Indus ci­
ties that it is difficult to argue against the view that bathing had

a religious significance, as it has in the Hindu religion of our
day. The religion had many other facets. A large number of ani­

mals were considered sacred, chiefly perhaps the bull; and a
god portrayed on several of the square stamp seals used by most
of the merchants of the cities has many of the attributes now as­

sociated with the name of Shiva. In other words, many of the
characteristic features of modern Hinduism seem already to be

associated with the Second Millennium civilization of the Indus
valley.

It seems likely that at least the southern realm of the Indus
valley, with its capital at Mohenjo-daro, was known to its inhabit­
ants as Meluhha. For the Mesopotamians knew of a land of that

name, a land with many kings, out beyond the entrance of the
Persian Gulf. And from Meluhha they imported gold and ivory

and carnelian and lapis lazuli, products which can hardly have
come from lands other than India. (That the later conquerors of

the Indus valley civilization refer to its inhabitants as the
Mleccha may possibly add confirmation.)
Just what background our countryman, standing at the top

of the citadel steps at Mohenjo-daro, possessed we simply do