The Ancient Indian Port of Lothal -
An incredible 4500-year-old story of human ingenuity, international trade, and climate change
Around 6,000 years ago, a nascent civilization emerged on the banks of the Sindhu and the Saraswati rivers.
Over the next two millennia, it spread around the region in all directions, from Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, and Rakhigadi to today’s western Uttar Pradesh in the West and Dholavira in the south.
The town of Lothal, along with Dholavira, was one of the southernmost points of this civilization.
There is evidence that Pre-Harappan cultures occupied the region, and around 2,700–2,400 years ago, they amalgamated into the prosperous Harappan civilization.
Lothal sits in the Gulf of Cambay, near where the Sabarmati river system meets the Arabian Sea. It is situated 80 KMs southwest of Ahmedabad.
Overseas trade was a vital driver of the prosperity of Lothal. The town developed several local industries to fulfill the needs of Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Sumerian cultures.
The Indian Ocean was perhaps the ocean to be explored for trade purposes. The thousands of miles of the sea were the bridge that connected Indian, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Sumerian cultures.
It exported beautiful beads from the Narmada valley, cotton, timber, and ivory in return for baser metals, wool, and cosmetics. Between 2,450 BCE to 2,350 BCE, it was a small dock that could house small boats.
However, the small trading town of Lothal had a natural nemesis: floods. Every few years or floods would ravage the village. The flood of 2,350 BCE was particularly brutal, and it leveled the town completely.
The people of Lothal created an opportunity from the calamity.
While planning the new town, or rather the new city, they added an artificial dock for berthing larger ships in a more significant number than was hitherto possible.
The engineers took care to build the dock away from the main water stream but close to the city so that the ships could be safely berthed
even during the storms.
In the first instance, a trapezoid basin, 214 × 36 meters, was excavated
on the eastern margin of the city and enclosed with massive brick walls. The excavated earth was used for making bricks needed for constructing the wharf, warehouse, and private dwelling.
The structure’s design reveals that all problems relating to dockyard engineering, such as the rate of silting, the velocity of the current, and the thrust of water in the basin, were carefully considered. First-class kiln-fired bricks were used in the construction.
Dr. S. R. Rao (ASI), in his 1964 essay “Shipping in Ancient India,” offers an astonishing comparison of Lothal with the modern-day ports of Mumbai and Vishakhapatnam.
This new port transformed Lothal into a booming and prosperous city for almost 350 years.
However, a massive flood in 2,000 BCE caused tremendous damage to the port. Though strategic repairs were made swiftly, a natural shift rendered them void.
As a result of the flood, the river silted its mouth and abruptly changed its course towards the east. It cut off the ships’ access from the Gulf of Cambay to the dock.
The citizens did not give up. They dug up a canal, 2 meters deep and 2 KM long to connect the dock to the gulf again. It, however, diminished the viability of larger ships entering the port.
The trade declined as a result. While disasters dealt a sudden blow, a consistent process of climate change, which included weakened Monsoons and resultant land aridity and deforestation, were harbingers of a slow death.
The declining city was wiped out of existence by a deluge in 1900 BCE. While people continued to inhabit the region for eons to come, Lothal did not reach its earlier height again.
However, it is undeniable that at its peak, Lothal was a shining example of the evolving human race and the ingenuity and gumption of the ancient Indian civilization.
