Kalibangan

Kalibangan (literally black bangles) is located at Pilibangān, between Suratgarh and Hanumāngarh in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan. It was one of the main sites of the Indus Valley Civilization and most scholars agree that it was located on the bank of River Saraswati which dried up by 2000 BC.  Kalibangan has given the evidence of both Pre-harappan culture in the lower layer and harappan civilization in the upper layer. The Kalibangan flourished for at least 450-600 years.

Discovery

Kalibangan site was discovered by Luigi Pio Tessitori, an Italian Indologist and linguist.  He died at a tender age of just 32 years but did a remarkable work in the arena of Indian Pre-history. He was a degree student at Florence and was doing work on Ram Charit Manas of Tulsidas, when he was appointed to head the Bardic and Historical Survey of Rajputana under the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He worked and got very useful information about the Bardic culture. He also worked for archaeology and sought direction from J Marshall. He discovered inscriptions, sculptures, earthenware pottery, coins and seals in that Pilibangan Area at the border of Hanumangarh and Suratgarh and thus a great site of Indus Valley Civilization, Kalibangan was discovered. However, he fell ill in 1919, and just after a short illness died at Bikaner in Rajasthan.

By that time the works on Harappa excavations were at full swing. Nobody could even imagine that the site which Luigi Pio Tessitori discovered could be a Pre-Mauryan or Pre Historic site. But it was and the credit does to Luigi Pio Tessitori.

Most extensive work on Kalibangan was done by A Ghosh in 1951-55 and later by BB Lal & B K Thapar in 1961.

Student Notes on Kalibangan

  • “Kalibangan in Rajasthan has given the evidence of the earliest (2800 BC) ploughed agricultural field ever revealed through an excavation” – Dr. B Lal
  • Kalibangan is also a site which has given an evidence of earliest recorded “Earthquake”. The earthquake is dated back to 2600 BC and is considered to have contributed to the end of this remarkable site of the Indus Valley Civilization.
  • The Fire altars discovered at Kalibangan reveal that the people were ritualistic and believed in worship of fire.
  • A charging bull which is considered to signify the “realistic and powerful folk art of Harappan Age” has been found at Kalibangan.
  • The most important discovery of Kalibangan is a ploughed field.
  • A wooden furrow has been found, 7 fire altars in a row have been found and they suggest the practice of sacrifice.
  • Bones of camel have been found at Kalibangan.
  • At Kalibangan a tiled floor which bears the intersecting signs of circleshas been found.
  • The burials have been found in two types of pits viz. circular graves and rectangular graves.
  • The bricks used in Kalibangan were earthen ones and Kalibangan was not as better planned.
  • There was no drainage system in Kalibangan.

7 Comments

  1. mohan sidhu

    May 26, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    kalibanga now in hanumangarh district of rajasthan

    • RAJESH SUTHAR

      July 21, 2019 at 12:56 pm

      kalibangan was now located in hanumangarh on the bank of the saraswati river , 4500 year ago .

  2. shelendra patidar

    August 8, 2012 at 7:17 pm

    sir,
    kis sabhyta me shav(dead body)ka head north direction me rakhkar dhafnaya jata thaa?

    kalibanga / aahad

    plz give me answer

  3. Lalit k. chouhan

    October 28, 2012 at 3:15 pm

    kalibanga is present time in hanuman darh district

  4. ghulam akhter raza

    February 22, 2013 at 3:14 pm

    sir”
    could you please tell me the time period of kalibangan civilization.

  5. chakshu shukla

    May 15, 2014 at 12:38 am

    @shekenda patidar-
    Three types of burials were found in mature harappan phase kalibangan culture(harappan yugin kalibanga) having direction of body head in the north .so right ans is kalibanga.

    source of this information is-
    history of rajasthan from earliest to 1956 AD by VMOU

    @Ghulam akhter raza
    -The radio carbon c14 dates available for pre harappan kalibangan period settlement span a time period between circa 2920BC to 2550 BC*,A cluster of six dates between 2550 and 2440BC suggest the beginning of the mature harappan period at the site.
    the mature harappan kalibangan period has been dated between c.2500BC and 2000 BC .previously the pre harappan kalibangan period was thought to date between circa 2400BC to 2250BC and the mature harappan kalibangan period between 2200BC to 1700 BC.However with the “MASCA CALIBRATION” or correction of c14 dates,this earlier time framework stands revised.
    *-ALlCHIN and ALLCHIN 1982 PP 159.

    SOURCE OF THIS INFORMATION IS -A history of rajasthan by rima hooja book page no.53 and 55.

  6. Madhu

    July 29, 2017 at 12:14 pm

    Please define the Harappan time period division. I am little confuse in pre harappan, mature harappan and post harappan. Sometimes I find 5 time period divisions of Harappa.

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