In September 1924, John Marshall, Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, informed the world about the existence of the Indus (Harappan) civilization: some 4,500 years old, as ancient as Mesopotamia, as grand as ancient Egypt, and a part of the Bronze Age trading network.

How did the Harappan civilization contribute to later Vedic and Tantrik thought?

Did the Harappans follow monastic ideals that later became part of Buddhism and Jainism?

Was their script like today’s emojis, conveying ideas?

Why did they have images of rivalry but no images of war and no images of romance either?

Why did the cities disappear while the villages continued to flourish for some time?

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. A medley of text and illustrations, Ahimsa draws attention to how much Harappan memory persists in our lives today.

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