MOHENJO-DAKO AND THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION OF 

 THE INDUS VALLEY ^ 



By Dorothy Maokay 



[With 4 plates] 



In all the wealth of archeological discovery since the war, three 

 finds of supreme interest stand out : The tomb of Tutankhamen, the 

 royal graves at Ur, and the ancient Indus Valley civilization. 



The importance of the tomb of Tutankhamen lies not so much in 

 wdiat it has contributed to our previously considerable knowledge 

 of that period of Egyptian history as in the world-wide interest that 

 its wonderful art and wealth aroused in the work of the excavator, 

 hitherto apt to remain unknown to all but the interested few. To 

 that spectacidar find, the other two discoveries might almost be said 

 to be due ; for public interest means funds, and without ample funds 

 digging up a dead city or clearing temples or tombs from en- 

 shrouding debris of the ages is too costly a business to be lightly 

 undertaken. 



The royal graves at Ur have not only yielded up objects of a re- 

 markable and before then unknow^n art and technique; they have 

 also revealed an extraordinary and scarcely believable savagery in 

 the ritual of the grave. That such moral backwardness should have 

 been coupled with such beauty of conception in the realm of art has 

 been something of a shock to a world in which, more and more, 

 respect for human life and happiness tends to surpass in its develop- 

 ment artistry of form and expression. 



The third of these discoveries, though still shrouded in a veil of 

 mystery which the careful excavations of the last nine years have 

 only partially removed, may ultimately prove to be the most im- 

 portant. For it will clearly bring to bear on the whole history of 

 early races and religions a revealing light whose rays will penetrate 

 far beyond the limited area of the one river valle}' and even of 

 India. 



Of the religions and philosophy of India, its races in pre-Aryan 

 times and now, this pushing back of history through some two 



1 Reprinted, with slight changes in text and illustrations, by permission from Asia, 

 vol. 33, No. 3, March, 1932. 



429 



