RAS question
What evidence at Kalibangan suggests an earthquake?
Correct answer: (A) Displaced walls and faulted strata in pre-Harappan layers.
At Kalibangan, displaced walls and faulted strata in the pre-Harappan layers are treated as evidence of an earthquake before the Harappan occupation.
Explanation
Kalibangan is important because its excavated sequence separates Period I, described in Archaeological Survey of India, Essays in Indian Protohistory as pre-Harappan, from Period II, the Harappan phase, with a break of occupation between them. The same chapter records fortified pre-Harappan mud-brick walls, houses and structural sub-periods, giving the archaeological setting in which such disturbance is read. The key earthquake evidence is displaced walls and faulted layers between the pre-Harappan and Harappan periods, possibly around 2600 BCE. That is why option A is the best answer: it names physical deformation in the early layers, not a later belief, text or architectural label.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Earthquake-proof building design is not the evidence; the record points to damaged or displaced structural and stratigraphic remains, not a protective design system.
- (C) Written records cannot establish this earthquake because the Indus script remains undeciphered, so the inference must come from archaeology rather than readable texts.
- (D) Ritual offerings to earthquake gods are not part of the evidence, and the Kalibangan context concerns settlement layers, walls and occupation phases.
Concept
This tests how archaeological evidence is used to infer events at protohistoric Rajasthan sites. RAS asks such points because Kalibangan links Rajasthan history with the Indus tradition, the Ghaggar-Sarasvati landscape and periodisation from pre-Harappan to Harappan phases.