Exploring the ruins of Kot Diji

Posted on December 6, 2007 | 852 views
Filed Under History & Culture, Pakistan |

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To all the citizens of this region, lived in ancient past or living today, river Indus appears as a life line. Such is the power of this majestic river that it gave birth to one of the greatest and oldest Civilizations in the world, the Indus Valley Civilization, located on both left (Kot Diji) and right banks of the river Indus (Mohenjo Daro).Kot Diji

In my previous post about Kot Diji, I had brought the Fort of Kot Diji under discussion. We had concluded that Kot Diji fort was a product of need for defense by the then rulers of this area, Talpurs. In that post we had also established that Diji is an archeological site that has links with Indus Valley civilization and we need to bring it under discussion separately. Since last week I dedicated my post to Kot Diji fort, today I will give you some insight of Diji, the mound or some folks take pleasure in calling it the ruins of Kot Diji but to me it is a misnomer.

History

Kot Diji site is 25 Kilometers (15 miles) south of Khairpur town in the Khairpur District of Sindh. The Kot Diji is significant to an extent that its discovery revised the pre-history of this region and we now start counting it from 2,800 BC instead of 2,500 BC. It is around a push back of 300 years.

The excavations carried out in Kot Diji link it to Indus Valley Civilization in a way that it appears sending a direct impact on Mohenjo Daro and Harappa. It is said the some of the basic cultural element in Mohenjo Daro and Harappa has roots in Kot Diji. Not only this but Kot Dijians were very creative craftsmen who used unique techniques to design and decorate the pottery. The ‘fish scale’ intersecting circles and the pipal leaf pattern found in Harappa were evolved from the Kot Dijian decorated elements like the horizontal and wavy lines, loops and simple triangular patterns. Though excavation has been done to a good extent in Kot Diji but the where abouts of ancient Kot Dijian people are yet to be discovered.

The Site

The site is divided in two, one citadel, the high ground for the rulers and elite of the area and other for the common men. It is quite evident that this area was also having the similar caste distribution as we notice in Mohenjo Daro.

Tail Piece

To Sir Mortimer Wheeler, famed British Archaeologist, Pakistan boasts of Indus Valley Civilization, which was one of the first three mature civilizations of the world. He is quite right in saying that our country is home to this great Civilization but my heart aches over the apathy of people and authorities who are reluctant to think critically and understand the need of conservation. It is required that the concerned authorities pay attention to this aspect on priority basis else we will loose such valuable indicators of our history and culture.

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Comments

3 Responses to “Exploring the ruins of Kot Diji”

  1. M.Ilyas on December 6th, 2007 9:39 pm

    Dear Farrukh,

    For second time i have this oppourtunity to write..Dear your last Post about Moenjo Daro was excellent one but this one about Kot diji was more than excellent. I Really get a lot of information abt Kot Diji..Keep it up

    Regards,
    Muhammad Ilyas

  2. Dr Farrukh Malik on December 6th, 2007 10:38 pm

    @Ilyas:
    Thank you very much for appreciating my write up,keep coming back!

  3. murtaza on June 9th, 2008 7:44 pm

    heyyyyyyyyyyy waaaaaaaaaooooooooooooooo i am proud to be a citizen of kotdiji

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