3. IntroductionThe Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BC)
extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and
northwest India. Along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of
three early civilizations of the Old World, and of the three the most widespread.
It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, one of the major rivers of Asia, and
the Ghaggar-Hakra River, which once coursed through northwest India and
eastern Pakistan.
At its peak, the Indus Civilization may have had a population of over five
million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques
in handicraft and metallurgy . The Indus cities are noted for their urban
planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems,
and clusters of large non-residential buildings.
The Indus Valley Civilization is also known as the Harappan Civilization,
after Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated in the 1920s, in what was
then the Punjab province of British India, and is now in Pakistan.
4. Discovery and history of excavation
The ruins of Harappa were first described in 1842 by Charles Masson in
his Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab,
where locals talked of an ancient city extending "thirteen cosses" but no
archaeological interest would attach to this for nearly a century.
In 1856, General Alexander Cunningham, later director general of the
archaeological survey of northern India, visited Harappa to find archaeological
sources.
Following the Partition of India, the bulk of the archaeological finds were
inherited by Pakistan where most of the Indus Valley Civilization was based,
and excavations from this time include those led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in
1949, archaeological adviser to the Government of Pakistan.
In 2010, heavy floods hit Haryana in India and damaged the archaeological site
of Jognakhera, where ancient copper smelting were found dating back almost
5,000 years. The Indus Valley Civilization site was hit by almost 10 feet of
water as the Sutlej Yamuna link canal overflowed.
5. Geography
The Indus Valley Civilization encompassed most of Pakistan and parts of
northwestern India, Afghanistan and Iran, extending from Balochistan in the
west to Uttar Pradesh in the east, northeastern Afghanistan to the north
and Maharashtra to the south. The geography of the Indus Valley put the
civilizations that arose there in a highly similar situation to those
in Egypt and Peru, with rich agricultural lands being surrounded by highlands,
desert, and ocean. Recently, Indus sites have been discovered in Pakistan's
northwestern Frontier Province as well.
There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in
Pakistan and the seasonal Ghaggar River in India. Many Indus Valley sites have
been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds. Among them
are: Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, and Ganwariwala.
According to some archaeologists, more than 500 Harappan sites have been
discovered along the dried up river beds of the Ghaggar-Hakra River and its
tributaries, in contrast to only about 100 along the Indus and its tributaries.
6. Cities
Town Planning System
The Town Planning System of Indus Valley Civilization was city based. The excellent drainage and
sanitation systems are remarkable. The ruins of the cities so far unearthed show remarkable town
planning system and excellent system of drainage and sanitation of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Both at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro and also at Kalibangan, the city was divided into two main
parts. The higher and upper portion of the city was protected by a construction which looks like a
fort. The ruling class of the towns perhaps lived in the protected area. The other part of the towns
was lower in height than the former and common men lived in this area. The lower area of the towns
generally spread over one square mile. The main streets ran from north to south and east to west
intersecting one another at right angles. The streets were broad varying from 9 feet to 34 feet. They
were suitable for wheeled traffic. Street lamps were provided for welfare of public.
A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley
civilization. The quality of municipal town planning suggests knowledge of urban planning
and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene. The streets of
major cities such as Mohenjo-Daro or Harappa were laid out in a perfect grid pattern,
comparable to that of present day New York. The houses were protected from noise, odors, and
thieves.
7. Arts And Craft
Various sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry, and anatomically detailed figurines in terracotta,
bronze, steatite have been found at the excavation sites. A number of bronze, terracotta, and stone
figurines of girls in dancing poses reveal the presence of some dance form. Also, these terracotta
figurines included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. The animal depicted on a majority of seals at sites
of the mature period has not been clearly identified. Part bull, part zebra, with a majestic horn, it has
been a source of speculation.
Agriculture
The nature of the Indus civilization's agricultural system is still largely a matter of conjecture due
to the limited amount of information surviving through the ages. Some speculation is possible,
however. Indus civilization agriculture must have been highly productive; after all, it was capable
of generating surpluses sufficient to support tens of thousands of urban residents who were not
primarily engaged in agriculture. It relied on the considerable technological achievements of the pre-
Harappan culture, including the plough. Still, very little is known about the farmers who
supported the cities or their agricultural methods. Some of them undoubtedly made use of the fertile
alluvial soil left by rivers after the flood season, but this simple method of agriculture is not
thought to be productive enough to support cities. There is no evidence of irrigation, but such
evidence could have been obliterated by repeated, catastrophic floods.
8.
9. SealsThe Indus Valley Seals consist of about 400 to 600 symbols. These symbols are
read from left to right. The seals were usually very small. They commonly
consisted of four or five symbols, but one seal has been found that contained 26
symbols. These seals have only been recently found in the past few decades. There
are most likely more seals still undiscovered which may help decipher these
symbols.
The Great Bath
There is an impressive building which was used as a public bath. The overall
dimension of the Bath is 180 feet by 108 feet. The bathing pool is 39 feet by 23
feet with 8 feet depth. There is a device to fill and empty the water of the bathing
pool. There are galleries and rooms on all sides of the bathing pool. Men used to
bathe in the tanks as a ritual for the mother goddess to whom the citadel belonged.
This public bath was attached to the Mohenjo-Daro fort where upper class people
lived. Most scholars agree that this tank would have been used for special religious
functions where water was used to purify and renew the well being of the bathers.
10.
11. Writing System
The writing system is largely pictorial but includes many abstract signs as well. The script
is written from right to left, and sometimes follows a boustrophedonic style. Since the
number of principal signs is about 400-600, midway between typical logographic and
syllabic scripts, many scholars accept the script to be logo-syllabic (typically syllabic scripts
have about 50-100 signs whereas logographic scripts have a very large number of principal
signs). Several scholars maintain that structural analysis indicates an agglutinative
language underneath the script. However, this is contradicted by the occurrence of signs
supposedly representing prefixes and infixes.
Drainage System
The elaborate drainage system was a remarkable feature of the civilization. The drainage
plans of the Indus cities definitely establish the separate identity or independent
character of the Indus civilization. No ancient civilization before the Roman civilization
had such an advanced drainage and sanitation system. Each house had horizontal and
vertical drains. There were underground drains for the streets. These drains were covered
by stone slabs. The soak pits were made of bricks. The house drains were connected with
road drains.
12. 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.
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.
13. Collapse Of The Civilization
The Indus Civilization flourished between about 2600 and 1800 BC
when it collapsed into regional cultures at the Late Harappan stage.
Some ascribe it to decreasing fertility on account of the increasing
salinity of the soil caused by the expansion of the neighboring desert.
Others attribute it to some kind of depression in the land which
caused floods. Others point out that the Harappan culture was
destroyed by the Aryans but there is hardly any evidence of a mass
scale confrontation between the two.
Finally the weakened cities would have become easy victims of the
raiders from Central Asia, whose arrival heralded a major cultural
discontinuity in South Asia.
