Ahimsa : 100 Reflections on the Harappan Civilization – Devdutt Pattanaik (Hardcover)

Description

In September 1924, John Marshall, Director General of the Archaeological Society of India, informed the world about the existence of the Indus (Harappan) civilization: as ancient as Mesopotamia, as grand as ancient Egypt.

Was this civilization part of the Bronze Age Trading Network? How did it contribute to later Vedic and Tantrik thought? Did the Harappans follow monastic ideals that later contributed to Buddhism and Jainism? Was their script like today’s emojis, conveying ideas? Why are there images of rivalry, but no images of war and no images of romance either to be found at the Harappan sites? Why did the cities disappear while the villages continued to flourish?

An eventful century later, Devdutt Pattanaik uses the lens of mythology to reflect on this most mysterious of ‘peaceful’ civilizations, now spread across geographies in India and Pakistan. With over 500 illustrations, he draws attention to how much Harappan memory persists in our lives today.