paved with tiles, decorated with intersecting circle designs. Two more
examples of this type of decoration come from Balakot and Ahladino.
    The doorways were simple, probably wooden and closed against jambs.
The entrance doors usually opened into the side-lanes and alleys and rarely
into the main streets. The windows are noticeably rare. The primary source of
light inside the house must have been the inner open courtyard.
    A distinctive feature of the houses is their bathrooms and privies. The
bathrooms, carefully paved with a water-chute or drain to carry off the
wastewater, were almost an invariable feature of the Mohenjodaro houses.
On the other hand, the privies were less common.
Generalisations
Within the common elements, there is a fairly wide range of variations. For
instance, Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Kalibangan, Lothal, Banawali, Surkotada,
Dholavira and Kuntasi—the sites where the basic settlement type is clear—
are all different in detail. There is a complete grip over the technical details.
The fort layout down to the watch-tower, bastions, gateways and possibly
even ditches, was understood. There is no confusion about water disposal
(drains with gradients, cess-pits, soakage jars) and water management (dams
across the Dholavira rivulets, wells in many places). The housing materials
were also well understood: bricks were of standardised measurements, stones
were set in mud-mortar and there was large-scale stone cutting and polishing
where necessary (Dholavira). All settlements were integrated into the
landscape and their characters hardly depended on size. The variation in size
between Mohenjodaro and Lothal, or for that matter, Kuntasi, is high, but
they retain the common features of organised layout, etc. Functional
variations too are only to be expected; some like Kuntasi could be
dominantly mere outposts to procure and process raw materials.
Special Features
Mohenjodaro It is the largest of all the Indus cities and has all the above
mentioned common features. Its population has been estimated to have been
between 41,000 and 35,000.
    The Great Bath of Mohenjodaro           is the most important public place,