During a recent online discussion, Salima Hashmi, daughter of the great Pakistani poet poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz, mentioned that he had written a single English poem, The Unicorn and the Dancing Girl. It was published, amended most likely by Faiz himself, in the book The Unicorn and the Dancing Girl in 1988. The original version was published in 1961. >
A Southasia Peace Action Network (SAPAN) discussion pegged on Harappa Films’ award-winning documentary Mohenjo daro: Unsealing an Ancient Indus City (37 min, 2026) recently released on YouTube. >
A compact and thought-provoking piece by Dr. Asko Parpola, inspired by Dr. Heidi J. Miller's article New Ivory Rods from Mohenjo-daro and an Exploration of This Object Class presented at the 2014 Stockholm EASAA conference. He narrows the focus to rods with incised inscriptions — about 32 texts, 26… >
Dr. Heidi J. Miller discusses 18 previously unpublished ivory rods from Dr. George F. Dales's 1964–65 joint Pakistan Department of Archaeology/University of Pennsylvania season, excavated from a 20-meter square in the southwest corner of the HR mound. This is a large amount to have been discovered … >
It is with real sadness that I report the passing away of Dr. Richard H. Meadow, Director of the Zooarcheaology Laboratory at the Peabody Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology at Harvard University. He was also one of the key contributors to Harappa.com – in fact it was an email from him in 1995 that set me down the road to building Harappa.com as a website that ultimately became fully dedicated to the ancient Indus civilization. >
The sun sets on the Stupa Mound at Mohenjo-daro in early 2026 [Image 1]. The so-called "Divinity Lane" at Mohenjo-daro [2] separates the Stupa from the Great Bath, "College" and other areas. >
Mohenjo-daro: Unsealing an Ancient Indus City has been selected for two upcoming film fests in India, the 15th Bangalore Shorts Film Fest, where it will be shown on June 21st, 2026. It has also been selected for the 9th South Asian Short Film Festival (SASFF) in Kolkata, where it will be shown on July 8th in the 1 pm slot at NANDAN – The Film Centre. >
A decade after writing about a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York's small Indus collection, I returned to find a number of new objects on display and others removed from view. Unfortunately. the larger issue with the display had not been solved. >
What are the AI platforms doing to websites like Harappa.com which have been around since the dawn of the Internet? Like colonial powers, they happily claim territory through extra-legal procedures (although they are said to be far more intelligent than human beings, they can't understand our terms of service which kindly asks them to not crawl!). >
The case for Indus egalitarianism has rested on apparent absences: no palaces, no royal tombs, no exclusionary temples, no individual-aggrandizing art. Adam Green, who already argued in Killing the Priest-King that we should perhaps retire the assumption of Indus elites altogether, has long pushed … >
An exclusive interview with Dr. Romila Thapar, one of India's most distinguished historians, author of numerous books on early Indian history, and winner of the US Library of Congress Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement. >
The 37-minute film explores one of the world's greatest lost civilizations through the eyes the founder of Harappa.com walking the site and exploring what we know — and still don't — about one of the world's greatest lost civilizations. >
The booklet Kot Diji published by the Department of Archaeology details the excavations carried out at the site of Kot Diji, located in the Khairpur district of Sindh about 40 km from Mohenjo-daro. >
While visiting Mohenjo-daro in early 2025, I asked one of the best guides to this vast ancient city, Sheikh Javed Ali Sindhi, whether there was a booklet or guide available. He said no, but that he w… >
The recent evidence from Mohenjo-daro of a "Kot Dijian" layer beneath its Indus ruins, including the city wall, dating from 2600 BCE or earlier, brings renewed interest to this precursor culture to the Indus civilization. >
