Is global citizenship a modern concept? A new gallery at CSMVS shows how India went global 5,000 years ago

Imagines reconstruction of the ancient Harappan city of Dholavira (Kutch, Gujarat) – a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Courtesy: Special Arrangement/CSMVS)

Developed over four years, the gallery which was inaugurated on Friday, brings together seven international museums, eight Indian lenders, and more than a hundred experts, conservators, researchers and designers. Three hundred carefully chosen archaeological objects from 15 institutions trace long-distance trade, shared beliefs and cultural exchange across the great riverine civilisations — the Indus, Mesopotamia, Egypt and China — as well as the Greco-Roman worlds. The approach is thematic rather than chronological, spotlighting key moments that shaped human history and challenging isolated, nation-bound narratives of antiquity.

The Harappan civilisation: planning, precision and sustainability

The journey begins with Dholavira. As Nilanjana Som, one of the curators, explained, “The Harappan civilisation was remarkably well planned. They had drainage systems, harvested water, built reservoirs and practised water management techniques we still talk about today — but they did all this 5,000 years ago.” She emphasised that the civilisation was deeply sustainable: “They could have built monumental structures, but they chose to build with local materials and in harmony with their environment.”

Many of the objects Harappans left behind were utilitarian and made from materials found around them. Fired clay was shaped, baked and used for everything from beads to building bricks. Som draws attention to one such baked brick on display: “It follows the sophisticated 4:2:1 ratio — a standard we see consistently across sites. These standardised bricks were literally the building blocks of their society.”

Harappan bricks display a striking uniformity in size and proportion, reflecting the civilisation’s advanced understanding of standardised construction. (Courtesy: Special Arrangement/CSMVS)

Even their weight system reveals precision. “They used soft stones and followed a binary progression — one, two, four, eight, sixteen. In these small details, you realise how advanced they were,” she said.

The Harappans used standardised weights across cities, produced in sets where each doubled in weight progressively that the previous one. (Courtesy: Special Arrangement/CSMVS)

Harappan carnelian beads, exported as far as Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), Oman and beyond, illustrate their expansive trade networks. “This was an interconnected, technology-driven society with large cities, smaller towns and villages, each supplying the other. That networked way of functioning is something we still see in India today,” Som noted.

Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, is typically seen with a panther, but here he reclines on a very Indian tiger, referencing his mythical journey to India. (Courtesy: Special Arrangement/CSMVS)

Another exhibit highlights continuity in Indian craft traditions. A trefoil (three-petal) motif, likely an early form of Ajrak or block printing, appears beside modern textiles bearing similar designs. The Harappans traded extensively with Mesopotamia and Oman, and much of the lapis found in their sites likely came from Afghanistan. “We tend to think global citizenship and long-distance trade are modern ideas,” Som said. “They’re not. The ancient world traded vigorously 5,000 years ago. They understood monsoon winds and sea routes, and navigated far-off places — and they were aware of other cultures.”

Egyptians and the afterlife

As one enters the gallery, on the right is an Egyptian wooden model of a farmer ploughing a field with oxen placed alongside a clay plough from Harappa. The pairing highlights how the invention of the plough, simple yet transformative, boosted agricultural output, enabled surplus production and supported the growth of urban centres.

The Harappan plough is likely a child’s toy. Its Egyptian counterpart, around 4,000 years old and excavated from a tomb, tells a different story. “Egyptians believed deeply in the afterlife. So the wealthy carried into their tombs everything they needed, including farmers,” Som explained. Hence, entire scenes, the granaries, bakeries, farmers, were recreated in miniature and placed in tombs.

This statue of a wealthy Egyptian official in-charge of farming, carved from a single piece of erotic imported ebony, was made for the tomb, to carry his soul in the afterlife. (Courtesy: Special Arrangement/CSMVS)

One wooden granary model reflects how centralised storage and distribution systems gave rise to administrative hierarchies. “Large surpluses required central oversight. Earlier, a village headman might have handled this. But as societies grew more urban, specialised administrators are likely to have emerged,” Som said.

Wrapped in elaborate bandages, this is the body of a mummified cat. (Courtesy: Special Arrangement/CSMVS)

Among the striking objects is a mummified cat wrapped in elaborate bandages, its remains visible in an accompanying video exhibiting its X-ray. Cats had a practical and religious role. They guarded granaries from mice, were often buried with their owners, and were sacred to the goddess Bastet. Egyptians also mummified lions, monkeys, crocodiles and birds — animals associated with various deities.

Chinese mastery, writing for record-keeping

The gallery then turns to China, a civilisation that flourished slightly later but developed remarkable mastery over materials. “China refined high-quality porcelain and excelled in metallurgy and jade carving,” Som said. Jade artefacts, produced nearly 8,000 years ago, include thin ceremonial axe blades and dragon pendants. One panel rightly notes: China’s economy was powered by coordinated, labour-intensive mass production supported by an extensive canal network.

Across cultures, as surpluses grew and trade expanded, writing emerged — not for literature, but for management. “We invented writing to record how much grain we stored, how many animals we had, how much we were trading,” Som notes. Very quickly, these systems evolved into scripts capable of narrating epics and histories.

Nearby are early coins and currency forms that track the evolution of transactions. A gold coin with a stamp indicating demonetisation underscores how value systems shifted even in the ancient world.

How do we know what we know about these civilisations? Part of the answer lies in the objects — and in the ability to read them. “The Egyptian civilisation, which lasted nearly 3,000 years, was lost for the next 2,000 because no one could read its script,” Som noted, adding, “The Rosetta Stone (the museum has a replica) had Greek text, which when the scholars could read, they cracked open Egyptian hieroglyphs. Harappa awaits a similar breakthrough. We have so many artefacts but haven’t deciphered their script.”

Trade did not move only goods; it carried ideas. One gallery section charts the spread of Buddhism across regions. Among the objects is a limestone sculpture of Buddha with distinctly Chinese features and pleated robes, another is a photograph of a standing Buddha carved in Egypt from expensive Eastern Mediterranean marble, with distinctly Mediterranean features. The transfer of ideas can also be seen in a mosaic of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, who is typically seen with a panther, but in the mosaic, he is seen reclining on a very Indian tiger, referencing his mythical journey to India.

Buddha in a typical Chinese robe smiles engagingly. (Courtesy: Special Arrangement/CSMVS)

Sculptures, inscriptions, coins, paintings, jewellery, global pottery and miniature models form the heart of this exhibition. Their shared motifs, materials and technologies illustrate that ancient civilisations evolved through dialogue and exchange — the essence of human progress.

The gallery concludes with two of the world’s most renowned ancient centres of knowledge: Nalanda in India and Alexandria in Roman Egypt, cosmopolitan hubs where ideas converged and reshaped the world.

A first-of-its-kind global collaboration

Supported by Getty’s Sharing Collections Programme, the initiative was four years in the making and is the result of an international collaboration between CSMVS and its longstanding partner, The British Museum, London; along with Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Museum Rietberg, Zurich; the Benaki Museum, Athens; the Al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait; and the Ephorate of Antiquities of the City of Athens.

The project is endorsed by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and features important antiquities from the Archaeological Survey of India; the National Museum, New Delhi; Allahabad Museum, Prayagraj; the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Maharashtra; the Indian Museum, Kolkata; the Bihar Museum, Patna; the Government Museum, Mathura; and the State Museum, Lucknow.

The gallery will remain on display for three years.