A Sindhi - on Mohen-jo-Daro

What people say?

Some people, historians, experts, and Wikipedia claim Mohenjo-Daro موئن جو دڙو to be ‘Mound of the dead.' It is an archaeological site in the present province of Sindh, Pakistan. Mohenjo-Daro was a metropolis in the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation. The site was rediscovered in the 1920s. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

Location

Mohenjo-Daro is located west of the Indus River in Larkana District, Sindh, Pakistan. It is centrally positioned between the Indus River and the Ghaggar-Hakra River, around 28 kilometers (17 mi) from the town of Larkana.

Excavation and Findings

Large-scale excavations of Mohenjo-Daro were led by Kashinath Narayan Dikshit in 1924–25, John Marshall in 1925–26, and many others thereafter. In 2015, dry core drilling conducted by Pakistan's National Fund for Mohenjo-Daro revealed that the site was larger than initially unearthed.

Mohenjo-Daro was found to be a well-planned city with rectilinear buildings built of fired and mortared brick and some sun-dried mud-brick and wooden superstructures.

The city had planned wells and water systems and various large buildings. One such large building was a 'Great Granary' with grain storage-bays and air-ducts to dry the grain. There was also a 'Great Bath', a bathing area. Moreover, the city was fortified with guard towers on the western part of the main settlement, and with defensive fortifications in the southern area.

On excavation, various kinds of objects were found, like seated and standing figurines, copper and stone tools, pottery and terracotta sherds, and carved seals. The excavators also recovered balance scales and weights, gold and jasper jewellery, and children's toys.

While I was researching, I found an article published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2020, in a Pakistan newspaper 'What's in a name?: The curious case of Mo(h)(a)(e)njo Daro. You can see the subtitle which says it all - 'A century of excavation later, still no consensus on what the 5,000-year-old world heritage site should be called.'

Did they find uncountable skeletons that they named it so? I wonder what they found, to name a vast planned city like Mohenjo-Daro as 'The mound of the Dead'. I am not an archaeologist, but was any nomenclature followed to name the city - Mohenjo-Daro? I wonder.

According to the Sindhi language

We Sindhis know, that ‘dead’ in Sindhi is ‘Mual’ (مُئل (مُ + ئ + ل  मुअल (मु + अ+ ल). It is definitely not ‘Mohen’.

In Sindhi, ‘dar’ در दर is ‘door’ in English. Habitually, some Sindhis may end the word with an ‘o’ or a ‘u’. For example: ‘hiku’ which reads just ‘hik’ and means ‘one’ in Sindhi. Hence, 'Dar' could mean, portal or threshold or a gateway.

Coming to think of it, there is a saying in Sindhi - पहनजो घर, दाता जो दर - 'Pahnjo Ghar, Daata jo Dar.' In English which translates to ‘Home Sweet Home.' Daata is the 'Giver'. Here, Pahnjo means 'Ours' and can be replaced with the word 'Muhinjo' which means ‘Mine’ or ‘My’. The saying will read as Muhinjo Ghar, Daata jo Dar. Literally, it means 'My Home, God's door' or 'There is no place like home.'

On the other hand, 'der' (ڍ + ي + ر) ڍير ढेर (ढ + य + र) and this certainly does not sound like 'daro.' On excavation, the archeologists usually find skeletons and objects of value like mentioned earlier, why did they name the site as Mohenjo-Daro? It's not that other old cities that were discovered were living cities? Have those cities also been named 'Mound of the dead'? I am thinking like any layman would.

My take

🤔I understand words tend to lose meaning and sense when they are translated. So, probably when historians and archaeologists must have interacted with the locals, their words must not have been understood. It surely must have been something different, hence Mohen-jo-Daro got translated to ‘Mound of the dead.'

According to my learned Dad, it means ‘My land or home’ because Muhijo (موھنجو) मुईंजो or महिंजो means mine in English, obviously, being a Sindhi he carries those sentiments.

After keeping these facts before you, was Mohen-jo-daro really Mohen-jo-daro? Or was it ‘Muhinjo daro’ in English ‘My door’ or ‘My home’? You can share your thoughts on this.

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