Real Story of Harappa City and Mohenjo-daro Civilization
History of the two ancient cities lost in the void
The Harappa and Mohenjo-daro sites remain puzzles for contemporary archaeologists: many of their peculiarities are indeed unknown. The two cities of the Indus Valley in present-day Pakistan gave birth from 2000 BC to a flourishing civilization, apparently from nothing and which has since returned to nothing.
Their structures represent an example of modern town planning that literally leaves the architects of our time speechless. It is not given to us to know where such knowledge came from. The enigma is still obscured by toponymy: Mohenjo-daro was indeed called the "tumulus of the dead", which makes the atmosphere of this place dominated by the impression of abandonment but also in many respects by that of perfect constructions.
Around 1500 BC, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro were deserted, left to graze in the dust: no sign of struggle or destruction, just tons of sand that seem to have forever engulfed the secrets of the two cities.
Indeed, the excavations carried out by archaeologists in 1944 have not uncovered elements allowing the reconstruction of the political organization of these two "metropolises of Antiquity"; as if everything had been deliberately hidden, in order to dissipate the memory forever.
The worship of the mother goddess in the culture of Harappa
The mystery also prevails on the religious level, even if excavations made it possible to discover some effigies of female deities, testifying, according to the experts, of the worship devoted to the mother goddess.
Different cultures have built, around the mother's archetype, a sacred dimension deeply rooted in traditional rites and in the psychology of men of all times. Archeology has confirmed that the religions of the past were characterized by a great diversity of female deities, from which came cults and traditions which, even today, in these times apparently so detached from things of the mind, exercise an influence on men.
For Jung, we find in the maternal archetype the roots of magical feminine authority, wisdom, spiritual asceticism which transcends the limits of the intellect: it harbors what is benevolent, protective, tolerant, which favors growth, fertility, nutrition and rebirth. Alongside the creative father, the mother therefore represents the essential element in which power is ritually contained, between the two combatants in a duel which has lasted since religions have existed.
It seems that the great distinction between men and women in terms of power appeared between 3500 and 2500 BC, following the marked influence of invasions from the east, when the matriarchal model, otherwise typical of agricultural society, was supplanted by the patriarchal culture based on war, hunting and a predatory and destructive economy. The evolution of female deities has given rise to many positive or negative representations, considered differently depending on the civilization. The mother goddess is a source of life, a key figure in early community-based cultures, particularly of agricultural origin, for which she is the guarantor of immortality and rebirth. If the mother goddess is generative, the father god is, as we have already said, creator: patriarchal societies invent a warrior father god, thus valuing their rationality, their strength and light; on the other hand, in matriarchal societies, values, such as mystery, the moon and water as opposed to fire, occupy a preponderant role.
The primitive archetype of the mother has undergone many changes over time; Christianity conforms to it by preserving certain symbolic elements typical of the pagan world. All of this suggests that there is a kind of continuum that directly links the ancient world with the modern world. Beyond the cultural reminiscences and the archetypes inscribed in our mind, the environment has certainly played an important role in the celebration of the sacredness of the feminine.
