CBSE(NCERT) GRADE 12 HISTORY 2025 SET2

About the drains, Mackay noted: “It is certainly the most complete ancient system as yet discovered.” Every house was connected to the street drains. The drains were made of burnt bricks and covered with bricks or stone slabs. They were provided with inspection holes for cleaning. In some cities, the drains first emptied into a cesspool or a soak pit in which solid matter settled before water flowed out into the street drains. Many Indus drainage channels were provided at intervals with such devices for cleaning. It is a wonder of archaeology that “little heaps of material, mostly sand, have frequently been found lying on the street sides, showing that the drains were not always kept clean”. Drainage systems were not unique to the larger cities, but were found in smaller settlements as well. In Mohenjodaro, for example, while houses were built of mud bricks, drains were made of burnt bricks. About the drains, Mackay noted: “It is certainly the most complete ancient system as yet discovered.” Every house was connected to the street drains. The drains were made of burnt bricks and covered with bricks or stone slabs. They were provided with inspection holes for cleaning. In some cities, the drains first emptied into a cesspool or a soak pit in which solid matter settled before water flowed out into the street drains. Many Indus drainage channels were provided at intervals with such devices for cleaning. It is a wonder of archaeology that “little heaps of material, mostly sand, have frequently been found lying on the street sides, showing that the drains were not always kept clean”.

In passing through a village in the lower Rajmahal hills Buchanan wrote: The view of the country is exceedingly fine; the cultivation, especially the narrow valleys, in all directions are full of scattered rice-fields with cleared tracts and rocky hills are in perfection; all that is wanted is some appearance of progress in the area and a vastly extended and improved cultivation, of which the country is highly susceptible. Plantations of Asan and Palas, for Tassar (Tassar silk worms) and Lac, should occupy the place of woods to as great an extent as the demand will allow, while what is not fit for the purpose might rear Palamira and Mahua.