There is a lot to like about this well-written and engaging set of reflections on ancient Indus life and culture. It does not hesitate to examine its biases: "much of our acceptance of the past is a function of the present," writes the author (p. 8), and "what I present are not arguments . . . these are not free of my prejudices. So approach this book in the spirit of curiosity, not combat," (p. 27).

A fair request when dealing with a civilization whose writing still eludes us. Pattanaik makes the most of this license to bring up a range of sophisticated reflections on what we might surmise about the people, culture and times during this seminal period of the subcontinent's history, when the first cities were established and much of what we have since loosely called Indian culture emerged. One may not agree with all of his reflections, but they are worthy of attention and easy to digest in a hundred single page sections flanked by an introduction and conclusion.

One of the strengths of the book is that each of the hundred page sections is accompanied by a line drawing of the seal, object, personage or object under discussion. This can really brings the reader into the process of thinking about the argument themselves. As in the case of Nikhil Gulati's The People of the Indus (2022) the author's own drawings turn out to be effective pedagogical tools.

One of the author's major propositions is that the ancient Indus civilization was largely peaceful, thus the title Ahimsa, which means non-violence and is a key ethical principle in numerous ancient Indian religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and especially Jainism. It was critical in modern times when Gandhi embraced compassion and peaceful protest against foreign rule, a concept that spread widely in the 20th century much like ancient Indian religions did throughout Asia in previous eras. He is affirming the "soft power" of ancient Indus culture, and while one may argue as to the merits of this interpretation (many of the seals discussed show or hint at violence, for example or see the discussion How peaceful was Harappan Civilization?), Pattanaik extends it by suggesting that the ancient Indus trading class of merchant-guilds, was manned or supervised by a priestly class, austere monks who also traded.

This is not far-fetched given how involved religious orders have been in trade in India and elsewhere, with Buddhism and Hinduism traveling east, west and north in pursuit of economic riches in the millennia that followed. Temples, gurdwaras, mosques and tombs too have long been repositories of land and riches. Networks of adherents are optimal tradespeople, bringing goods and beliefs far and wide throughout world history. The frequent mention of Jainism is not unwarranted – though usually dated almost two thousand years after the decline of the Indus civilization, its combination of an unusual non-theistic belief system and commerce seems to fit the apparently unusual and unique profile of the Indus civilization whose elites too must have had an exceptional world-view. Indeed, he points out possible correspondences between later Jain Tirthtankars and many of the animals on seals and shown on the "Pasupati" seal in particular. In any event, one cannot help but think that the extraordinary fertility of the Indian subcontinent in the invention and development of religious beliefs must have had an origin in ancient Indus times.

Pattanaik claims that "Harappan cities rose primarily to satisfy the Sumerian demand for ritual goods," (p. 37) – we cannot know this, and trade with Mesopotamia seems to have been intermittent or the record is unclear, but internal trade within what was itself the largest ancient civilization would have been enough to sustain a high level of economic activity and groups of traders. Nonetheless, Pattanaik's frequent drawing of parallels between the ancient Indus and Mesopotamia, in culture, art, religion and more, brings a real cross-cultural perspective to understanding the Bronze Age. Here is someone well aware of the fact that ancient people moved around, influenced and affected each other, built on each other's innovations, often frustrating the search for indigenous origins. He is even willing to speculate that the so-called "priest-king" could be of western Asian origin (see A "Priest-King" at Shahr-i Sokhta? for example). There is also the nice point that "merchants across the world, in later times, saw India as the home of stories," (p. 221), something he then uses to offer interpretations of drawings on pottery that may be early examples of global stories like that of the fox putting pebbles in a pot to drink or a fox tricking a bird to dropping the meat in its beak.

Overall, the effect is to try and link many of the traditions in later times to precursors in the Indus civilization, opening many angles for the lay reader to contemplate the depth and richness of those traditions. Many though not all conjectures come from recent scholarship. No less that fifty such experts (many published on this website) are given credit at the end. He is also critical of some of the inter-scholarly "cantankerous debates," and delivers this: "The alternative is to listen to other truths and negotiate with multiple truths, a skill that ancient Harappans probably developed. For they worked with multiple merchant-guilds, spread across multiple cities, located in multiple geographies, and served multiple markets. This enabled them to be less violent, if not non-violent, and more accommodating of differences," (p. 11).

In his conclusion, Pattanaik also pleads for a more inclusive and expansive view of cultural traditions and celebrates the diversity that is in the subcontinent today and likely was present in ancient Indus times, pointing for example to some of the many examples of "queer folk" on Harappan figurines. Pattanaik's parsing of genetic evidence, the differences and long gaps between Indus and Vedic times in his conclusion is also helpful: "In our obsession with the Vedas we are so focussed on Aryan fathers that we forget Harappan mothers. We forget that the Indian river has many more tributaries besides the Vedic one," (p. 249). And given that many of the Indus-era rivers flow in areas not part of the nation India today, and that the two key cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro whose excavation riches form the spine of the book are in Pakistan, one might add that the ancient Indus civilizational river has coursed well beyond today's India too, both literally and figuratively. Ahimsa : 100 Reflections on the Harappan Civilization is a fine addition to informed popular discourse and debate about the ancient Indus civilization.