Haryana Government would set up a museum of international standards at Panchkula and a State level museum at Rakhigarhi to display significant archeological findings in the State. “Rs30 crore would be spent to set up museum of international level at Panchkula while a provision of Rs five crore have been made for state level museum to be set up at village Rakhigarhi in district Hisar,” said Haryana Archeology Minister, Ram Bilas Sharma while addressing a Press conference here on Wednesday.
He said that the museum at Rakhigarhi would be set up at over five acres land donated by the village panchayat. Rakhigarhi is the biggest site of Harappan civilisation in the South-east Asia. The Minister said that while the work to set up museum at Panchkula would commence within next 3 to 4 months, the work on museum at Rakhigarhi would be taken up within a month.
Apart from Rakhigiri, Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa in Pakistan and Dholavira in Kutch, Gujarat in India were the other biggest civilisations in the world. The Rakhigiri site is under the protection of ASI. Additional Chief Secretary, Archeology, Vijai Vardhan informed that the excavations reflect signs of drainage at Rakhigarhi during Indus Civilisation. It has been noticed that in Rakhigarhi, there used to be developed drainage system of two types including public and private.
“Terracotta pipes used for drainage have also been found. Private drains possibly connected to platforms have been observed at the uppermost levels of the mature Harappan phase of Rakhigarhi,” he said. The excavations findings include utensils, human skeletons and images of ox, cow and buffalos and ornaments made of stones, stone statues and weapons made of bones. The finding of clay toys of cattle makes one believe that during those days, people used to worship them. An important seal of Rakhigarhi depicts a composite figure of a man, bull, unicorn, elephant and tiger.
A seal of a tiger excavated could be the logo of the museum to be set up at Rakhigarhi, he added. Referring to the future plans of the Department, Vijai Vardhan said that the earlier excavated structures would be uncovered, preserved and protected for the benefit of the public. Dome structures would be raised on them so that they are safe and viewed all year around. Excavations will be undertaken at the habitation as well as burial portion of the site to establish proper cultural sequence, understand settlement pattern, health, diet and composition of Harappan population.