The common thread binding the three books being reviewed here is that they are all part of a body of work funded by the US based Infinity Foundation. Infinity aims to explore aspects of science and technol¬ogy from India until the end of the 19th century, to reject the notion that Indians were 'traditional and mystical', to 'replace colonial notions of intellectual dependency', and to 'build India's brand of cultural capital and soft power' through producing a series of books ostensibly modelled on Joseph Needham's seminal work on Chinese science and technol¬ogy. These are the first three books in this series, with others planned on wootz produc¬tion, zinc distillation, astronomy, textile technology, and so forth.   Joshi's book deals with a specific aspect of Harappan technology, on architecture and civil engineering, one that is often overlooked. The latter half of the book is devoted to the title while the first part of the book that includes chapters on the history of discovery, nomenclature, spatial extent, origins, settlement patterns, settlement types and town planning, are c;~mmon to most general textbooks on archaeology. The title of chapter 4 ('PrincipaloHarappan settlement types'), for example, is deceptive as the discussion evolves, around major sites rather than on a theoreti¬cal working out of Hirappan settlement types. The considerable amount of repetition between chapters 4 and 5 too makes for tedious reading. Similarly, a short list of antiquities found at tlte site of Lothal (p. 60) sits oddly with a general' discussion of the architecture.   The usefulness of a book such as this, written by a former Director-General of the, Archaeological Survey of India, concerns the access to material from hitherto unpublicized sites, such as Dholavira. Thus, the illustration of the section of the fortifications at Dholavira and its growth on page 67 is useful. ,The reference to a washbasin at Banawali on page 105 is tantalizing, given the brevity of information and the fact that the site ains little known. One wonders however, on what basis the excavator identified the feature as a washbasin.   The chapter on religious architecture raises many issues. Much of the discussion is on 'fire altars' and the 'fire temple' at Banawali. The apsidal shape of the 'fire temple' automatically assumes a religious connotation. At Kalibangan, a number of these 'altars' were found and according to Joshi (p. 143), S.R. Rao, the excavator of Lothal, was 'singularly lucky' in obtaining a fire altar ...