Reconstructing religous beliefs and practices of past is not an easy task. Now reconstructions of Harappan religion are made on the assumption that later traditions provide parallels with earlier ones. This is because archaeologists often move from the known to the unknown, that is, from the present to the past. While this is plausible in the case of stone querns and pots, it becomes more speculative when we extend it to “religious” symbols.

However attempts have been made by the scholars to reconstruct the religious beliefs and practices by examining the seals of the harappan civilization. And studying these seals and the motifs printed on it scholars have come out with ideas regarding the religious practices of the Harappan people. For example there are some seal which seem to depict ritual scenes. Others, with plant motifs, are thought to indicate nature worship. Some animals – such as the one-horned animal, often called the “unicorn” – depicted on seals seem to be mythical, composite creatures. In some seals, a figure shown seated cross-legged in a “yogic” posture, sometimes surrounded by animals, has been regarded as a depiction of “proto-Shiva”, that is, an early form of one of the major deities of Hinduism.

Even then there still remain doubts when it comes to religious practices for instance, at the “proto-Shiva” seals. The earliest religious text, the Rigveda (compiled c. 1500-1000 BCE) mentions a god named Rudra, which is a name used for Shiva in later Puranic traditions However, unlike Shiva, Rudra in the Rigveda is neither depicted as Pashupati (lord of animals in general and cattle in particular), nor as a yogi. In other words, this depiction does not match the description of Rudra in the Rigveda. 

Hence even though seals does help in reconstructing religious beliefs and practices of the Harappan civilization but even then it is no more than a speculation.

1. Urban Civilisation: The sight of the towns of Mohenjodaro and Harappa reflect the supremacy of the then architecture and town planning. There were wide roads ranging from 9 to 34 feet in width. The horizontal roads cut the vertical ones on right angles. The towns had brick houses, both big and small ones. There was provision of cross ventilation and sufficient lighting. The sight of drains and huge dustbins outside the houses revealed that there must have been some local institution to manage sanitation and such other activities smoothly.
2. Architecture: There were varieties of building that were unearthed:
(i) Buildings for the dwelling of the citizens.
(ii) Buildings for public purposes.
(iii) Public fire places.
3. The Great Bath: The Great Bath, discovered during excavations was 39 feet in length, 23 feet in width and 8 feet in depth.
Verandahs and rooms were constructed around it. There was a provision of filling the bath with water and emptying it. There was a well closely which might have been serving as the source of filling fresh water into the bath. This structure is an excellent symbol of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
4. Food: The people of Indus Valley ate barley, wheat, fruit and flesh also.
5. Clothes: The available needles and spinning and weaving tools and button show that the people knew spinning and weaving. Both the cotton and woollen clothes were worn. The people wore coloured clothes. There was a close similarity in the clothes of men and women-folk.

(i) The Mughal rulers believed in Divine theory of Kingship. They tried to convey this theory and vision through the writing of dynastic history. For this purpose they appoint court- historians to write accounts. These accounts recorded the events of the emperor’s time. In addition, their writers collected vast amounts of information from the regions of the subcontinent to help the rulers govern their domain.
(ii)    Modem historians’ writings in English have termed this genre of texts chronicles, as they present a continuous chronological record of events.
(iii)    Chronicles are an indispensable sources for any scholar wishing to write a history of the Mughals. At one level they were a repository of factual information about the institutions of the Mughal state, painstakingly collected and classified by individuals closely connected with the court.
At the same time these texts were intended as conveyors of meanings that the Mughal rulers sought to impose on their domain. They therefore give us a glimpse into how imperial ideologies were created and disseminated.
(iv)    Chronicles commissioned by the Mughal emperors are an important source for studying the empire and its court. They were written in order to project a vision of an enlightened kingdom to all those who came under its umbrella. At the same time they were meant to convey to those who resisted the rule of the Mughals that all resistance was destined to fail. Also, the rulers wanted to ensure that there was an account of their rule for posterity.

The Fifth Report was submitted to the British Parliament in 1813. It was called the Fifth Report as it was the fifth in a series of reports about the working of East India Company. The core issue of the Fifth Report was the administration and activities of the East India Company. This report had 1002 pages. About 800 pages were in the form of appendices which included petitions of zamindars and ryots, reports of Collectors, statistical tables on revenue returns and the official notes on the revenue and judicial administration of Bengal and Madras.

Objectives of the Report : Many groups of people in Britain were not happy with the working of East India Company in India. They opposed the monopoly enjoyed by East India Company over trade with India and China. Many British traders wanted a share in Company’s trade in India. They emphasised that the Indian market should be opened for British manufactures. Many political groups even argued that the conquest of Bengal benefitted only the East India Company and not the British nation as a whole. They highlighted the misrule and maladministration by East India Company. As a result, the British Parliament passed several acts in the late 18th century to regulate and control the rule of East India Company in India.