The document provides details about the Indus Valley Civilization: (1) It developed over 5,000 years ago along the Indus River valley and extended throughout parts of modern day Pakistan and North India. (2) Important sites include Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, and Dholavira, which had well-planned cities with drainage systems and baked brick homes. (3) The civilization began declining around 1900 BCE possibly due to environmental factors like drought or flooding.

3. The Indus Valley Civilisation
•It developed more than 5,000 years ago in the valley of the Indus
River.
•It covered an area as large as that of the Mesopotamian and
Egyptian civilisations put together.
•The civilisation spread -
•westwards to the present Iranian border,
•southwards to the banks of the river Godavari,
•eastwards to areas beyond Delhi,
•And northwards to the present Afghanistan border.

5. THE DISCOVERY OF THE CIVILISATION
•Over the centuries, the ruins of the civilisation got buried
under mud and sand, and people forgot about this ancient
civilisation.
•Then, in the 1850, British engineers building a railway line
from Lahore to Multan found several perfectly shaped
bricks of a high quality.
•Curious about this mysterious bricks, the Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI) started excavations here.

6. •In 1921, Dayaram Sahni, an Indian archaeologist working with
the ASI, unearthed the ruins of Harappa city.
•In 1922, Rakhaldas Banerjee, another Indian archaeologist of
the ASI, excavated the city of Mohenjo-daro (meaning the mound
of the dead).
•Their excavations showed that between 2600 and 1900 BCE, a
highly advanced civilisation had established along the banks of
the Indus.

8. LOCATION AND IMPORTANT SITES
•Some are in present-day Pakistan, while some are in India.
•Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Mehrgarh are in Pakistan.
•Sites located in India include Dholavira in the Rann of Kachchh,
Lothal in Gujarat, Ropar in Punjab, Kalibangan in Rajasthan,
Alamgirpur in Uttar Pradesh and Banawali in Haryana.
Rakhigarhi in Haryana.
•India, is believed to be the largest Indus Valley Civilisation site
discovered till date.

10. THE ENVIRONMENT
•Today, much of Sindh, Rajasthan and parts of Punjab
is a desert.
•But 5,000 years ago, when the Indus Valley civilisation
flourished, the land here was fertile. There was plenty
of rainfall, and wheat, barley and rice grew
abundantly.
•There were dense forests, and animals like the
elephant, tiger and rhinoceros.

11. SETTLEMENTS OF THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILISATION
•Most of the sites discovered so far are small villages or
towns, with only a few large cities.
•The villages covered around eight hectares each, while
cities like Mohenjo-daro extended over 32 hectares.
•Historians say that most of these cities seemed to have
followed the same town plan.
•They had well-planned cities.
•Careful attention was paid to the layout of the roads, to the
drainage and the sewerage systems.

13. TOWN PLANNING
•The cities of this Civilisation were built using the grid system
of town planning.
•The main roads were around nine metres wide and ran
parallel to one another from north to south, Roads lying
east to west cut across these main roads at right angles.
•The city was divided into square or rectangular blocks.
•Each street and lane had a public well.
•Buildings in this civilisation fall under three broad
categories - houses, public buildings and baths.

15. The Citadel
•The Indus cities were divided into two main parts.
•One part of the city was built on a higher platform,
Archaeologists call it the citadel. The most important
buildings in the city were built on this citadel.
•These massive citadels are thought to have protected
the people from floods.
•The lower part of the city consisted of houses for the
common people.

17. Houses and Drainage
•The walls of the houses were made of baked bricks.
•This was the first ancient civilisation to bake bricks
for building purposes.
•The roofs were flat and made of wood.
•Each house had a courtyard with rooms built on two
or three sides.

18. •Remains of staircases prove that some houses were
double-storeyed.
•This civilisation had wells within most houses for the
supply of water.
•It was also the only ancient civilisation in which every
house had a bathroom with brick flooring.
•The floors of the bathroom were sloping, so that the
water could drain easily. These bathrooms had outlets
to carry the dirty water to the drains outside.

20. •The drains ran along the sides of the roads.
•They were built of baked bricks and were covered
with stone slabs.
•There were inspection holes at intervals; they
allowed the drains to be cleaned easily.
•The waste water was let out beyond city walls.

22. Other Important Buildings
•In Mohenjo-daro, there is a large structure on the citadel,
which archaeologists have called the Great Bath.
•It looks like a swimming pool with 'changing rooms'
surrounding it.
•Bitumen (coal tar) was used on the floor and walls of the
tank to make them waterproof.
•Some historians believe the Great Bath may have been a
public bath. Others believe it was used for religious
purposes.

24. •At Harappa, the Great Granary, made mostly of
timber, built near the river so that grain could be
carried easily to the boats.
•Such granaries were used to store excess grain for
trade.
•The granaries were well ventilated.
•Similar granaries have been found in Mohenjo-
daro.

26. QUICK RECAP
• The Indus Valley civilisation developed on the banks
of the Indus River around 5000 years ago. It reached its
peak between 2600 BCE and 1900 BCE.
• Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Mehrgarh, Lothal,
Rakhigarhi, Dholavira, Ropar, Kalibangan, Alamgirpur
and Banawali are important sites of the Indus Valley
civilisation.

27. • The cities of the Indus Valley civilisation were
extremely well planned. The main roads cut each
others at right angles. Drains ran along the side of
every road. Houses were made of baked bricks.
Most houses had a well and a bathroom.
• The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro, the Great
Granary at Harappa and the dockyard at Lothal
were some of the important buildings found at the
Indus Valley sites.

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30. INDUS VALLEY SOCIETY
They had three social classes-
priests and rich merchants made one group,
traders, craftsmen and farmers made up the next,
and the labourers formed the third group.

31. CLOTHES
•The people this civilisation knew how to spin and
weave cotton clay spindles.
•Archaeologists say that men wore flowing lengths
of cloth.
•The women wore skirts, draped shawls over their
shoulders and tied up their hair, decorating it with
combs. Women used kajal or kohl for the eyes.

33. •They kept their cosmetics in small jars made of
ivory, clay or stone. They used bronze mirrors and
ivory combs.
•Both men and women wore ornaments. Earrings,
bracelets, nose-rings, bangles and anklets have
been recovered from the ruins.
•These were made of gold, silver, copper, bronze
and ivory.

35. Food
•Archaeologists studied the grains, seeds and bones
found at the Indus Valley sites.
•They saw that wheat and barley formed the staple
food of the Indus Valley people.
•Grain was ground in millstones and the flour baked
into chapatis.
• People ate meat, fish and fruit, especially bananas
and pomegranates.
•Milk and dates were an important part of their diet.

36. ART AND CRAFT
•The cotton cloth they made was very popular.
•The pottery was beautiful and made mostly of red
clay, with dots, lines, geometric designs and animal
figures painted in black.
•Several statues and toys of terracotta (unglazed,
brownish-red clay) have been found.
•Some statues like the bronze dancing girl are
excellent works of art.

38. •Many of the toys found at Harappa and Mohenjo-
daro had parts which moved. Bulls and rams were
made to shake their heads and tails, and birds moved
up and down a rope. In villages of India, we still find
toys like these made of wood.
•Expert metalworkers made metal figures.
•They also made vessels, weapons and tools.
•Goldsmiths made ornaments of different kinds.

40. Seals
•Seals of different shapes, made of stone, clay and
metal, made figures of animals, trees, human
beings or natural scenes have been found in great
numbers.
•They were probably used as units of exchange.
•Since money had not yet been invented.

42. SCRIPT
•It is a pictographic script and has around 400 basic
signs with several variations.
•The longest continuous set of 10 characters has
been found on a fallen signboard near the north
gate of Dholavira.

44. OCCUPATIONS
•The main occupation of the Indus Valley people was
agriculture.
•The people cultivated wheat, barley, rice, mustard,
vegetables and cotton.
•Other occupations included weaving, pottery, metal-
working jewellery-making, toy-making, animal
rearing and fishing.

45. TRADE
•The people of the Indus Valley traded with other civilisations by
both land and sea.
•The merchants traded with Mesopotamia and with towns along
the Persia ( presently called Iran)
•Cotton was the main export.
•Stone beads, objects made from ivory and seals belonging to the
Indus Valley civilisation have been found at Ur ( presently Iraq) in
Mesopotamia.

46. •These finds prove that trade existed between the
Indus Valley civilisation and other cultures of the
time.
•A dock has also been discovered at Lothal.
•A dock is a place where ships and boats land and
unload or load their cargo.

47. RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
•The people believed in a mother goddess.
•It is believed to represent the Hindu god Shiva as Pashupati
(lord of the animals).
•The peepal tree and the humped bull were considered sacred.
•The people of the Indus Valley civilisation believed in life after
death.
•When a person died, food, utensils, ornaments and mirrors
were placed in the grave along with the body.

49. THE END OF THE CIVILISATION
Some historians believe it ended because of natural
factors -
•There may have been repeated floods caused by
changes in the environment.
•Some historians believe that there was a shift in the
course of the river flowing through this region,
causing the land to dry up and forcing people to move
away.

50. • It may also be that the civilisation decayed steadily due to a
gradual decrease in rainfall, leading to long drought.
• As population increased, people began to clear forests for
food, shelter and agriculture.
• This could have led to deforestation and gradual
desertification.

51. •The reasons behind the decline of the Indus Valley
civilisation will remain a mystery.
•Many practices and customs seen in India today
seem to have originated in the Indus Valley civilsation.
•For example, Indians still wear jewellery of the kind
worn by the people of the Indus Valley civilisation,
children still play with toys similar to the ones played
with by children of the Indus Valley civilisation.

52. QUICK RECAP
• Statuettes like those of a bronze dancing girl and the bust
of a bearded priest, and painted pottery are examples of
Indus Valley art and craft.
• Seals of different shapes and sizes made of clay, stone and
metal are valuable finds of the Indus Valley civilisation.
• Natural causes are believed to have brought the
Indus Valley civilisation to an end.

53. • The Indus Valley people followed various
occupations. There were farmers, weavers, potters, metal-
workers, jewellers, toy-makers, shepherds and others in the Indus
Valley. The people traded with other countries, both by land
and by sea.
• The Indus Valley people believed in the mother
goddess. They also appear to have worshipped
Shiva in the form of Pashupati.

54. THANK YOU
FOR WATCHING