The Indus Valley Civilization

Ancient History

The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC), also known as the Harappan Civilization, was one of the world’s earliest urban cultures, flourishing around 2500–1900 BCE in present-day India and Pakistan. It was contemporary with civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt but had its own unique identity.

Known for its advanced town planning, drainage systems, trade networks, and craftsmanship, the IVC had well-planned cities such as Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, and Lothal. The people of this civilization were skilled in architecture, metallurgy, and trade and had a standardized system of weights and measures. However, their script remains undeciphered, leaving many aspects of their life and governance a mystery.

The civilization declined around 1900 BCE, possibly due to climate change, drying rivers, or socio-economic factors. Despite its fall, the legacy of the Indus Valley Civilization lives on, influencing later cultures in the Indian subcontinent.

There are four important stages or phases of evolution: Pre-Harappan, Early Harappan, Mature Harappan and late Harappan.

Four phases of IVC:

Pre-Harappan Phase from 5500 to 3300 BCE: Found in Mehrgarh, Pakistan which was an era of early food production
Early Harappan Phase from 3300 to 2600 BCE: Characterised by rudimentary town planning in form of muddy structure and elementary treat hearts and craft.
Mature Harappan Phase from 2600 to 1900 BCE: Marked by well-developed town with a burnt brick structure established foreign trade crafts of various types.
Late Harappan Phase from 1900 to 1300 BCE.: It is the declining. During which several cities were abandoned and the trade disappeared. A gradual decay of significant urban Traits is noticed.

Pre-Harappan Stage [7000-3300]:

This stage located in eastern Baluchistan.
Excavation at Mehgarh- northwest of Mohenjodaro reveal existence of Pre Harappan culture.
Earliest evidence of farming and herding in south Asia. Shows the first evidence of cotton cultivation
Nomadic people began to lead settled agriculture life.

Early-Harappan Stage [3300-2600]:

Also related to Hakra Phase, identified with Ghaggar-Hakra valley.
Village settlements in plain areas; Gradual growth of town in Indus valley.
Transition from rural to urban life in this period.
Sites of Amri and Kot Diji remain evidence for this stage.

Mature-Harappan stage [2600-1900]:

Excavation at Kalibangan with its elaborated town planning and urban features prove this phase of evolution.
Slow southward migration of south Asian monsoon allowed villages to develop by taming floods of Indus and tributaries.
Large urban centres include: Harappa, Ganeriwal, Mohenjodaro, Dholavira, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Rupar, Lothal

Late-Harappan stage [1900-1300]:

Decline of civilisation started around 1900 BCE.
Excavation at Lothal reveal this stage of evolution.
Multiple regional culture emerged within area of IVC: Cemetery h culture was in Punjab, Haryana, Western UP; Jhukar culture in Sindh, rangpur culture was in Gujarat.
Largest late Harappan sites are Kudwala in Cholistan, Bet Dwarka in Gujarat and Daimabad in Maharashtra.

Important Sites:

Harappa

Harappa is the first discovered site of this civilization excavated in 1921 by a team led by Daya Ram Sahni.
It was a major urban centre during its mature phase surrounded by extensive walls.
It is located in Punjab Province, Pakistan, on an old bank / bed of the River Ravi.
Its location along old course of Ravi provided access to trade networks, aquatic food and water for drinking and cultivation.
Further, Harappa was also a meeting point of trade routes coming from east.

Mohen-jo Daro

Mohenjo-Daro (mound of dead) was excavated by a team led by R.D. Banerjee in 1922. It is located in the Larkana District of Sindh Pakistan on bank of Indus River.
Notable findings at Mohenjo-Daro are the magnum opus Great Bath, uniform buildings and weights, hidden drains and other hallmarks of the civilization.
The famous bronze dancing girl, seal of supposed Pashupati, steatite statue of bearded priest, numerous terracotta figurines are another notable finding’s of Mohenjo-Daro.

Great Bath

The most famous building found at Mohenjo-Daro is a great bath. It is a 6×12 metre specimen of beautiful brick work.
The water for the bath was provided from a well in an adjacent room. The floor was made up of bricks.
Floor and outer walls were bituminized so that there is no leakage of water.
There are open porch’s on four sides of the bath. There is use of Burnt bricks, Mortar and Gypsum in the Great bath but NO use of stone is there.

Kalibangan

Kalibangan (black bangles) is in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan.
It was located on the banks of now dried up Sarwaswati River and flourished for at least 5 centuries.
The site was first discovered by Italian Luigi Pio Tessitori and was later excavated extensively by A Ghosh.
The oldest ploughed field, evidence of earliest recorded Earthquake, Fire-Altars, Charging bull, tiled floor, two kinds of burials (circular and rectangular graves), bones of camels etc.
The bricks in other sites were baked ones, while Kalibangan bricks are earthen ones.
There was no drainage system in Kalibangan.

Dholavira

Dholavira is located in Rann of Katch of Gujarat.
It is relatively a new discovery, excavated in 1990s by a team led by R S Bisht.
It had several large reservoirs, an elaborate system of drains to collect water from the city walls and house tops to fill these water tanks.
3 citadels or principal divisions have been found which have been duly protected by fortifications. There is an open ground out of the fortifications.
In Dholavira there has been found the inner enclosure of the citadel too which has not been found in any other cities of the Harappan culture.
One of the most important findings of Dholavira has been a signboard with Indus Script.

Lothal

Lothal is located in Ahmadabad, Gujarat.
It was a coastal town and had different type of town planning. The city was divided into six sections and each section was built on a wide platform of unripe bricks.
Entry to the houses were on Main Street while other sites of IVC have lateral entry.
Important findings of Lothal include an artificial dockyard, rice husk, bead making factory etc.
Lothal is thought to have direct sea trade links with Mesopotamia because of finding of an Iranian seal from there.

Suktagendor

Suktagendor was located around 55 kms from the shore of Arabian Sea on the Bank of Dasht River near the Iran Border.
It was an important coastal town along with Lothal and Balakot (in Pakistan) and is considered to be the western border of Indus Valley Civilization.
It was originally a port and later cut off from the sea due to coastal upliftment.
The conclusion has been drawn up that Suktagendor had trade relationships with Babylon.

Kot Diji

Kot Diji was a pre-harappan site and located on the left bank of River Sindh. This city was destructed by Force or some fire.
A tar is the major object found here. Statues of bull and mother goddess are other things found in Kot diji.

Ropar

Ropar in Punjab was excavated under Y D Sharma.
There is another site Bara near Ropar, which shows an evidence of the decaying culture of pre harappan era.

Mittathal

Mittathal is located in the Bhiwani district of Haryana. A terracotta cartwheel has been found.
Weights of stones have also been found.
The evidence of residence outside a Citadel have been found in Mittathal.

Chanhu-Daro

Chanhu Daro is situated 130 kms south of Mohenjo-Daro in Sindh and is the only harappan city which does not have a fortified citadel.
The Chanhu Daro has given evidence of factories of various figurines, seals, toys, bone implements so it has been interpreted that it was a settlement with lots of artisans and was an industrial town.

Banawali

Banawali is located in Hisar district of Haryana. High quality barley has been found at Banawali.

Alamgirpur

Alamgirpur is located in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and is considered to be easternmost boundary of Indus Valley.
Important findings of Alamgirpur include pottery, plant fossils, animal bones and copper tools.

Salient Features of Indus Valley Civilisation:

Town Planning and Structure:

Streets and lanes cutting across one another almost at Right Angle.
Harappa and Mohen-jo-Daro each had its own citadel or acropolis, which was possibly occupied by members of the ruling class. Below the citadel in each city lay a lower town containing brick houses, which were inhabited by the common people.
Harappa, Mohen-jo-Daro and Kalibangan each had its own citadel built on High podium of Mud Brick.
The remarkable thing about the arrangement of the houses in the cities is that they followed the grid system.
Granaries constituted an important part of the Harappan cities.
The use of burnt bricks in the Harappan cities is remarkable, because in the contemporary buildings of Egypt mainly dried bricks were used.
At sites such as Dholavira and Lothal (Gujarat), the entire settlement was fortified, and sections within the town were also separated by walls.
The large tank found in Dholavira may be compared to the great bath.

Political Life

Systematic planning of the streets and uniformity that is seen throughout the area of the Harappa culture in matters like size of the bricks, layout of cities, weights and measures suggest that there existed a single centralized state rather than a number of free republican communities
Scholars have not been able to decipher the Indus script so far.
No temples have been found at any Harappan sites. Therefore, the possibility of priests ruling Harappa can be eliminated.
The excellent drainage system suggests that the municipal administration should have been efficient.
There is no evidence of a dynastic rule of divine warlords. Harappa was possibly ruled by a class of merchants.

Social Life

Social divisions: Excavation at Mohen-jo-Daro reveals- presence of various class like Priests, merchants, traders, artisans, cultivators.
Hierarchy in urban habitation: Attributed to the city of Harappa, its structure evidences three distinct localities, and the latter is true also of Kalibangan and Dholavira.
Food: Wheat, barley rice important items. Animal food was eaten.
Amusement: Evidence of games- terracotta figurines, Dice found at Mohen-jo-Daro.
Fishing-Hunting is another hobby.

Agriculture

Wheat, barley, rai, peas, sesame, lentil, chickpea and mustard were produced. Millets are also found from sites in Gujarat. The Indus people were the earliest people to produce cotton.
Special arrangements were made for storing grain in huge granaries. While the prevalence of agriculture is indicated by finds of grain, it is more difficult to reconstruct actual agricultural practices.
Representations on seals and terracotta sculpture indicate that the bull was known. Archaeologists extrapolate shows oxen were also used for ploughing some places.
Since No hoe or ploughshare has been discovered.
Traces of canals have been found at the Harappan site of Shortughai in Afghanistan, but not in Punjab or Sindh.
The use of horse is not yet firmly established.
Wild animals: mention may be made of tiger, rhinoceros, elephant and deer.

Trade and commerce

The importance of trade in the life of the Indus people is witnessed by the presence of numerous seals, uniform script and regulated weights and measures in a wide area.
Main exports: Agriculture products such as Wheat, Barley, Peas, Oil seeds and Finished products including cotton goods, Pottery, beads, Terracotta figures and ivory products.
Metal money was not used and trade was carried by barter system. They practised navigation on the coast of the Arabian Sea.
They also carried commerce with those in the land of the Tigris and the Euphrates.

Industry

Textile industry: The discovery of spindles and spindle whorls and a piece of woven cotton suggests that spinning and weaving were known to the Harappa people.
Cotton and wool were used in this industry.
Brick industry: Huge brick structures indicates brick laying was important craft.
Brick-Storages found at Mohen-jo-Daro.
Metal Industry: Use of stone, copper bronze to make weapons, utensils and tools.
They had knowledge of making bronze by mixing tin with copper.
Toy industry: Another important industry is toy manufacturing. Toys were clay models of men, women, animal and wheeled cart.

Arts and Crafts

Seals:

About 2000 seals have been found, and of these a great majority carry short inscriptions with pictures of one horned animal’s called unicorns, buffaloes, tigers, rhinoceroses, goats, elephants, antelopes, and crocodiles.

Pottery:

The Harappa pottery consists of very fine wheel-made ware.
Hand-made pottery was rare.
Pottery was of different kinds—plain or painted or ware with designs. The household pottery was made in different shapes and sizes.

Religion

In Harappa numerous Terracotta figurines of Female found. In one figurine a plant is shown growing out of the embryo of a woman.
The Harappans, therefore, looked upon the earth as a fertility goddess [Mother Goddess] and worshipped her in the same manner as the Egyptians worshipped the Nile goddess Isis.
The male deity is represented on a seal with three horned heads, represented in the sitting posture of a yogi.
This god is surrounded by an elephant, a tiger, a rhinoceros, and has a buffalo below his throne. At his feet appear two deer. The depicted god is identified as Pushupati Mahadeva.
Pot Burials found at Lothal.
Numerous symbols of the phallus and female sex organs made of stone have been found. The people of the Indus region also worshipped trees and Animals.
Linga worship was prevalent.
Use of amulets: They believed in ghosts and evil forces and use amulets as protection against them

Harappan Script

Harappan writing is pictographic, not yet Completely Deciphered
Consist of 400 signs and written Right to left called boustrophedon style. Used Ideograms (Graphic symbol or character to convey idea directly)

Decline of the Indus Valley Civilization

The IVC declined around 1800 BCE but the actual reasons behind its demise are still debated.
Aryan Invasion: One theory claims that Indo-European tribe i.e. Aryans invaded and conquered the IVC.
Natural Factors: On the other hand, many scholars believe natural factors are behind the decline of the IVC.
It is believed that the Indus Valley region experienced several tectonic disturbances which causes earthquakes which also changed courses of rivers or dried them up.
Another natural reason might be changes in patterns of rainfall.
There could be also dramatic shifts in the river courses, which might have brought floods to the food producing areas.

The Indus Valley Civilization was a remarkable urban culture that showcased advanced city planning, trade networks, and craftsmanship at a time when much of the world was still developing. Its well-structured towns, drainage systems, and economic activities highlight the ingenuity of its people. However, despite its achievements, the civilization mysteriously declined around 1900 BCE, leaving behind undeciphered scripts and unanswered questions about its governance and society.

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Subject: Ancient History

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