Overview
The Indus Valley civilization was an ancient civilization located in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent.
The Indus Valley is contemporary with the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. The civilization is famous for its large and well-planned cities. Over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found. Most of these are small, but amongst them are some of the largest cities of their time, especially Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
Geography
The Indus Valley civilization covered most of what is today Pakistan and the Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab. Settlements which were closely related to the core civilization – and may have been colonies of it – have been found in Afghanistan and central Asia.
The huge Indus river system waters a rich agricultural landscape. The Indus plain is surrounded by high mountains, desert and ocean, and at that time dense forest to the east.
Well-planned Cities
The early phase of the civilization lasted from circa 3300 BC until 2800 BC. This saw farming settlements grow into large and sophisticated urban centres.
The quality of municipal town planning indicates that these communities were controlled by efficient governments. These clearly placed a high priority on accessibility to water. Modern scholars tend to see in this the influence of a religion which places a string emphasis on ritual washing – much like modern Hinduism.
Hygiene was also important to the inhabitants. The urban planning included the world’s first known urban sanitation systems. Within the city, people obtained water from wells. Within their homes, some rooms had facilities in which waste water was directed to covered drains. These lined the major streets. These ancient Indus sewerage and drainage systems were far in advance of anything found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East.
The advanced architecture and construction techniques of the Indus cities is shown by their impressive dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. Their massive walls were probably designed to protect them as much from floods as from attack.
Most city dwellers were traders or artisans. They lived with others of the same occupation in well-defined neighbourhoods. Although some houses were larger than others, Indus civilization cities do not show the kind of massive gulf between wealthy and poor dwellings that is found in those of other civilizations. Their society seems to have been egalitarian to a remarkable degree – but perhaps we should not make too much of this until the civilization in understood more, as this seems to contradict so much of what we know about other ancient societies. However, all the houses had access to water and drainage facilities, which gives the impression of a society where even the poor had a decent standard of living (though there may have been extensive “shanty towns” outside the walls, which have left scant archaeological remains).
Writing
For an archaeological point of view, the most frustrating thing about this civilization is that the script has not been deciphered. Over 400 distinct Indus symbols (some say 600) have been found on seals, small tablets, or ceramic pots, and on over a dozen other materials. Typical inscriptions are no more than four or five characters in length, most of which are tiny.
Some modern scholars have wondered whether these symbols actually constitute a proper writing system. Whatever the case, the lack of decipherable texts means that we can gain no real insight into many of the details of Indus society, and virtually none about its government and politics. Was it a unified state – or was it numerous kingdoms and city-states? Or perhaps both, at different times? Was it ruled by priests or warriors? We simply do not know.
Trade and Transportation
Like all pre-modern societies, agriculture would have played the most important part in the Indus Valley economy. An extensive canal network, used for irrigation, has been discovered in the vicinity of the city of Lothal, near the coast of western India; and it is almost certain, given the vast floods that the Indus river can inflict, that other cities would have had extensive water control systems.
Trade was clearly important too. Materials from distant regions were used in the cities for constructing seals, beads and other objects. Judging from the wide area in which Indus civilization artefacts have been found, their trade networks reached out as far as Afghanistan, the coastal regions of Persia, northern and western India, and Mesopotamia. Many of the as yet indecipherable Indus texts were on clay seals on what look like trade goods.
Trade would have been facilitated by a major advance in transport technology. The Indus Valley civilization may have been the first to use wheeled transport. These were bullock carts identical to those seen throughout South Asia today.
Most of the boats were probably river craft, small, flat-bottomed boats perhaps with a sail, similar to those plying the Indus River today. The Indus people clearly also had seagoing craft as well. There was an extensive maritime trade with Mesopotamia. Archaeologists have discovered a dredged canal and what they regard as a docking facility at the coastal city of Lothal in Western India.
Religion
Reconstructing Indus valley religion is impossible, however some Indus Valley seals show swastikas, which are also found in Hinduism and its offshoots, Buddhism and Jainism. Many Indus valley seals show animals presented in a format reminiscent of later Hindu gods Shiva and Rudra. The large number of figurines found in the Indus valley have led some scholars to argue that the Indus people worshipped a Mother Goddess symbolizing fertility, a common practice among rural Hindus even today. All these pieces of evidence point to the Indus religion having a large measure of influence on the beliefs and practices of the Aryan peoples who came after them.
In the earlier phases of their culture, the Indus people buried their dead; later, they also cremated them and buried the ashes in burial urns.
Arts and Crafts
All kinds of artefacts have been found in the Indus Valley cities: seals, glazed beads, pottery, gold jewellery, and anatomically detailed figurines in terra-cotta, bronze, and soapstone. Various gold, terra-cotta and stone figurines have also been discovered, of dancing girls, men (perhaps gods?), animals (cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs) and a mythical beast (part bull, part zebra, with a huge horn). Shell, ceramic, agate and soapstone beads were used in making necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments. All these show that these cities housed a busy and highly refined craft industry.
Science
The people of the Indus Civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures, although, as in other civilizations of the time, actual weights were not uniform from city to city. Their smallest division, which is marked on an ivory scale found in Lothal, was approximately 1.704 mm, the smallest division ever recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age. The weights were in a perfect ratio of 5:2:1, on a scale very similar to the English Imperial ounce or Greek uncia.
The engineering skill of the Indus people was of a very high order, a an be seen most clearly in building docks after a careful measurement of tides, waves, and currents.
The Decline of the Indus Valley civilization
It was once widely accepted that Indus Valley cities were the victims of assaults by Aryan (Indo-European) nomadic invaders from central Asia. However, archaeological evidence seems to suggest a gradual decline, in the middle centuries of the 2nd millennium B.C. The later layers of building at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, as well as at other sites, show a marked deterioration in the quality of construction.
The causes of that decline are disputed. It is probable that a combination of factors were involved. Severe flooding may have been a factor. Some modern scholars suggest long-term changes in the climate. Shifts in the monsoon pattern and changes in temperature may have begun to transform the region into the arid steppe that it has remained for most of recorded history. Rapid changes in types of pottery suggest a series of migrations into the region, which may have been highly disruptive for the Indus cities.
These migrants were probably groups of Aryan herders entering the Indus region over an extended period of time, rather than as a single militant conquest. As cattle herders, they may have destroyed or neglected the dikes and canals on which the agrarian life of the Indus peoples depended. There is also some evidence of violent conflict: groups of skeletons in postures of flight have been found on the stairways at some sites, and traces of burned-out settlements have also been uncovered.
Indus Valley Civilization
Duration: 3300 BC to 1700 BC
Indus Valley Civilization was an ancient civilization that thrived in the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys, now in Pakistan, along with the northwestern parts of India, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. The civilization, which is also known as Harappan Civilization, lasted from 3300 BC to 1700 BC. The discovery of the Ancient Indus River Valley Civilization was made, when the Harappan city, the first city of Indus Valley, was excavated.
Discovery
The first description of the ruins of Harappa is found in the Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan and Punjab of Charles Masson. It dates back to the period of 1826 to 1838. In 1857, the British engineers accidentally used bricks from the Harappa ruins for building the East Indian Railway line between Karachi and Lahore. In the year 1912, J. Fleet discovered Harappan seals. This incident led to an excavation campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall in 1921-1922. The result of the excavation was discovery of Harappa by Sir John Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats and Mohenjodaro by Rakhal Das Banerjee, E. J. H. MacKay, and Sir John Marshall.
Further Excavations
Even though most of the Mohenjodaro city had been unearthed by 1931, the excavation campaigns continued to be undertaken. Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the then director of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), led one such campaign in 1944. After the partition of India in 1947, the area of the Indus Valley Civilization was divided between India and Pakistan. In 1949, Sir Mortimer Wheeler conducted excavations as the Archaeological Adviser to the Government of Pakistan. The next three decades were full of discoveries of the remnants of civilization.
Geography
The Ancient Indus River Valley Civilization extended from Balochistan to Gujarat and from the east of the river Jhelum to Rupar. Some time back, a number of sites were also discovered in Pakistan’s NW Frontier Province. Harappan Civilization covered most of Pakistan, along with the western states of India. Even though most of the sites have been found on the river embankments, some have been excavated from the ancient seacoast and islands as well. As per some archaeologists, the number of Harappan sites, unearthed along the dried up river beds of the Ghaggar-Hakra River and its tributaries, is around 500. Apart from that, those along the Indus and its tributaries are approximately 100 in number.
Phases
The three main phases of the Indus Valley Civilization are:
Early Harappan (Integration Era)
Mature Harappan (Localization Era)
Late Harappan (Regionalization Era)
Early Harappan Phase
The Early Harappan Phase lasted from 3300 BC to 2800 BC. It is related to the Hakra Phase, identified in the Ghaggar-Hakra River Valley. The earliest examples of the Indus script date back to 3000 BC. This phase stands characterized by centralized authority and an increasingly urban quality of life. Trade networks had been established and there was also domestication of crops. Peas, sesame seeds, dates, cotton, etc, were grown during that time. Kot Diji represents the phase leading up to Mature Harappan Phase.
Mature Harappan Phase
By 2600 BC, Indus Valley Civilization had entered into a mature stage. The early Harappan communities were turning into large urban centers, like Harappa and Mohenjodaro in Pakistan and Lothal in India. The concept of irrigation had also been introduced. The following features of the Mature Phase were more prominent:
Cities
Approximately 1052 cities and settlements belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization have been excavated till date, mainly in the general region of the Ghaggar and Indus Rivers and their tributaries. The artifacts discovered in these cities suggest a sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture. The concept of urban planning is also widely evident. There is also the existence of the first urban sanitation systems in the world. the sewerage and drainage system found in the each and every city of Indus Valley comes across as even more efficient than those in some areas of Pakistan and India today.
Dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms and protective walls have been found in almost all the cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. The evidence suggests that most city dwellers were traders or artisans, who lived with others belonging to the same occupation in well-defined neighborhoods. Social equality seems to be widely prevalent in the cities of Indus Valley, though there are some houses that are bigger than the others.
Science
The people of Indus Valley are believed to be amongst the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. Their smallest division was approximately 1.704 mm. Decimal division of measurement was used for all practical purposes. The brick weights were in a perfect ratio of 4:2:1. The numerous inventions of the Indus River Valley Civilization include an instrument used for measuring whole sections of the horizon and the tidal dock. The people of Harappa evolved new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead and tin. They also had the knowledge of proto-dentistry and the touchstone technique of gold testing.
Arts and Culture
Various sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry and figurines in terracotta, bronze and steatite, etc, have been excavated from the sites of the Ancient Indus Valley Civilization. Other crafts that have been unearthed include shell works, ceramics, agate, glazed steatite bead making, special kind of combs, etc. There is also evidence of seals, toys, games and stringed musical instruments in the Indus Valley.
Trade and Transportation
Trade seems to the major occupation of the people of the Harappan Civilization. The main forms of transport include bullock carts and boats. Archaeologists have also discovered an enormous, dredged canal and docking facility at the coastal city of Lothal. The pottery, seals, figurines, ornaments, etc, of the civilization show great similarities with those of Central Asia and the Iranian plateau, indicating trade with them. Then, there are signs of maritime trade network between the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations also.
Agriculture
The major cultivated cereal crop was naked six-row barley, a crop derived from two-row barley. However, not much information is available on the farmers and their agricultural methods.
Symbol System
As many as 400 distinct Indus symbols have been found on seals, ceramic pots and other materials excavated from the Indus Valley. Typical Indus inscriptions are, at the most, four or five characters in length and quite small. The longest inscription on any object is 26 symbols long. Indus symbols have been found on ritual objects also, many of which were mass-produced.
Religion
The large number of figurines found in the Indus Valley Civilization suggests that the Harappan people worshipped a Mother Goddess, who symbolized fertility. Some of the seals of that time also have the swastikas engraved on them. Then, there are some others in which a figure is seated in a yoga-like posture and is surrounded by animals. The figure is quite similar to that of Lord Pashupati, the Lord of Creatures.
Late Harappan Phase
The signs of a gradual decline of the Indus River Valley Civilization are believed to have started around 1800 BC. By 1700 BC, most of the cities were abandoned. However, one can see the various element of the Ancient Indus Valley Civilization in later cultures. Archaeological data indicates the persistence of the Late Harappan culture till 1000-900 BC. The major reasons of the decline of the civilization are believed to be connected with climate change. Not only did the climate become much cooler and drier than before, but substantial portions of the Ghaggar Hakra river system also disappeared.
