Indus valley civilization UPSC

 

Indus valley civilization UPSC Notes

The Indus Valley Civilization, also known as the Harappan Civilization, was an ancient urban culture that thrived in the Indus River Valley of present-day Pakistan and northwest India during the Bronze Age, around 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE. This civilization is known for its advanced urban planning, sophisticated architecture, and intricate social and economic systems. Here are detailed notes about the Indus Valley Civilization: The term Indus Civilization refers to the urban and literate culture of Roughly the third millennium BCE that flourished in the Area around the Indus River and its tributaries. Its  first Known city were Harappa on the bank of river Ravi, an Indus tributary.

A civilization in Totality

The Indus phenomena is called a civilization because it incorporated within itself the social configurations and organizational devices that characterize such a cultural form. Besides over 4000 inscriptions found so far, it was the only literate subcontinental segment of its time .The nucleus of the civilization was a settlement pattern with planned cities and towns .That such urban center’s contained monumental structures whose construction required large outlays of labour and resources ,and were marked by heterogeneous economic activities are other conspicuous indicators. Today apart from Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa we knows many more cities which stud out civilizations large cities. These are Dhola-Vira  in Kutch and Rakhigarhi in Haryana .The largest variety and quantity of jewellery ,stone images and seals are found in urban centers and indicate that craft production was in the main geared to the demand of city jewelers .Further the characters of planning, the necessity of written transaction and the existence of settlements hierarchy  in which various types of urban and rural settlements were functionally connected,

Discovery, origin and chronology of civilization  

This discovery of India's first civilization initially posed a historical puzzle. seemed to have suddenly appeared on the stage of history, and this understand- ing led scholars, such as Mortimer Wheeler to believe that it was a colonial off shoot of the Mesopotamian civilization which was brought to the Indus region by the Sumerians. However, the striking difference in seals, town planning, skill in making of burnt brick, etc., between the Indus and Mesopotamian civilizations clearly show that the Indus Civilization owed little to Mesopotamia.

However, on the basis of the extensive excavation work conducted at Mehargarh in Baluchistan (between 1973 and 1980 by two French archaeologists namely J. F. Jarrige and Richard H. Meadow), the historical puzzle regarding the origin of the civilization could largely be solved. The settlement in Mehargarh gives us an archaeological record with a sequence of occupations, which clearly shows a process of continuing elaboration that affected cereal cultivation, animal husbandry, crafts, architecture and even ideology. Such developments gradually set the stage for the growth of the complex cultural patterns that became manifest in the great cities of the Indus Civilization in the middle of the third millennium BCE.

Research over past eight decades has established a continuous sequence of strata.

These strata have been named: Pre-Harappan Phases: 5500-3500 BCE; transition of nomadic herdsmen to settled agriculturists in eastern Baluchistan.

Early Harappan Phases: 3500-2600 BCE; growth of large villages and rise of towns in the Indus-Hakra valley.

Mature Harappan Phases: 2600-1800 BCE; emergence of great cities.Late Harappan Phases: 1800-1200 BCE; decline of urban features of civilization.

Extent and geographical Distribution

The Indus civilization was very extensive geographically. In terms of moder territorial boundaries, it covered most of the areas of Pakistan including Sind, Baluchistan and Punjab provinces, a few sites in Afghanistan and Indian sites covering parts of Jammu, Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The civilization extended from Jammu (Manda on river Chenab) in the north to the Narmada estuary (Daimabad, Maharashtra) in south and from the Sutkagendor (near Makran enast in Balochistan) in the west to Alamgirpur (on river Hindon, Meerut) in the east. With regard to its geographical distribution, more than 500 Indus settlements are spread over a wide stretch of north-west India and Pakistan, In fact, their distri bution illuminates the various ways in which this varied geographical areas were exploited. In the lower Indus basin of Larkana, Mohenjo Daro dominated the flood plain, which was agriculturally the richest part of Sind. Larkana is also marked by lake depressions, such as the Manchhar, where fishing settlements existed. In the foothills of the Kirthar mountain range and the Kohistan, there were clusters of sites towards the west. There, agriculture must have depended on spring water and rains Routes linking up with Baluchistan also passed through this area. The Sukkur-Rohri hills in upper Sind saw settlements of workmen in and around flint quarries, the raw material from which Harappan blades were manufactured. The course of the Indus river in the third millennium nCE was more south-easterly and it flowed into the Arabian Sea in the vicinity of the Rann of Kutch. It is suggested that Indus River adopted its present course only between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries CL.Towards the west, Indus settlements are found in Baluchistan in a variety of terrain-across the northern mountain edge, on the flat Kachchi plain, in the district of Las Bela towards the south and along the coastal country known as the Makran. In the latter area, the fortified sites of Sutkagendor and Sotka-koh were important in terms of the Indus Civilization's maritime trade with the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia. Both were suitable landing places for maritime traffic and from these points, convenient routes linked up with the interior.In other parts of Baluchistan, Indus sites are found in areas that are still agri- culturally viable and lie on arterial routes. Pathani Damb, for instance, was near the Mula pass, from where a route went across the Kirthar range while Naushahro was in the general vicinity of the Bolan, through which a major route led to Afghanistan. These routes were important because through them, Baluchistan's min- eral ores (copper and lead) and semi-precious stone (lapis lazuli and turquoise) could be procured by the resource-poor Indus Valley. The northernmost site of the Indus Civilization, Shortugai, is in north-east Afghanistan. Shortugal provided access to Badakhshan's lapis lazuli and possibly to the tin and gold resources of Central Asia.

Another region to the north-east of Sind in Pakistan is comprised doabs or tracts lying between two rivers. Out of these, the Bari doab (or land between the Ravi and an old bed of the Beas) sites are noteworthy, especially the sprawling city of Harap- pa. No settlements are found in the region between the Jhelum and the Indus or that of the Jhelum and Chenab. South of the Sutlej River, is Bahawalpur. Part of it is made up of the desert trace of Cholistan, through which the Hakra River flowed. As per the excavation report of 1974, the largest cluster of Indus settlements is found here. Geographically, this tract connects the Indus plains with Rajasthan, which had vast copper deposits. Out of several exclusive, industrial sites, 79 of them were found in Cholistan, marked by kilns, devoted to large-scale craft production.The alluvial terrain of the Indo-Gangetic divide, to the east of Sutlej, is a transitional area between the Indus and the Ganga river systems. The region consists of the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Ghagghar river course in Rajasthan. A large part of the riverine and stream drainage from the Siwalik ridge between the Sutlej and Yamuna used to converge into the Ghaggar, the Indian name for the river known as the Hakra in Pakistan. There were several provincial urban centres in this region, such as Kalibangan and Banawali, al- though Rakhigarhi (in the Hisar district of Haryana) was the largest city and is said to be as large as Harappa. Classic Indus sites are also found in the Yamuna-Ganga doab around Saharanpur.Finally, the spread of the Indus Civilization included the quadrilateral of roughly 1,19,000 square km between the Rann of Kutch and the Gulf of Cam- bay. Dhola Vira was the city par excellence of the Rann, with its vast expanse of tidal mud flats and dead creeks. Further east, the great mass of Kathiawar, now known as Saurashtra, is formed of Deccan lava and on its eastern edge flourished the port town of Lothal. The mainland of Gujarat is alluvial, formed by the Sabarmati, Mahi and minor parallel streams, actively prograding into the Gulf of Cambay. Here, Bhagat ray, on the estuary of the Kim River, forms the south- endmost extension of the Indus Civilization.

 

Characteristics of Indus Settlement

The settlement pattern was a multi-tiered one with urban and rural sites that were markedly varied in terms of size and function. There were cities of monumental dimensions like Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, Dholavira and Rakhigarhi that stand out on account of their size (more than 100 hectares each) and the character of their excavated remains. While the older premise that such cities were based on a gridiron system of planning has been shown by recent research to be invalid, there is impressive evidence of centralized planning. City space was divided into public and residential sectors. At Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, the separation of the largely (though not ex- clusively) public administrative sector from the residential part of the city took the form of two separate mounds.

Dholavira's city plan was more intricate. At its fully developed stage, it had three parts made up of the citadel which was divided into a 'castle' and a 'bailey' area, the idle town and the lower town, all interlinked and within an elaborate system of fortification.

The character of some of the structure is also worth considering. Mohenjo-Daro's citadel, for instance, was constructed on a gigantic artificial platform (400 x 100 m) made of a mud brick retaining wall (over 6-m thick) enclosing a filling of sand and silt. This platform, after being enlarged twice, attained a final height of 7 m and pro- vided a foundation on which further platforms were built in order to elevate impor- tant structures such as the Great Bath and the granary, so that the highest buildings were about 20 m above the surrounding plains and could be seen on the horizons for miles around.

Another architectural marvel is Dholavira's system of water management, cru- cial in an area, which is prone to frequent droughts. Rain water in the catchment ar- eas of the two seasonal streams-Manhar and Mansar-was dammed and diverted to the large reservoirs within the city walls. Apparently, there were 16 water reser- voirs within the city walls, covering as much as 36 per cent of the walled area. Brick masonry walls protected them, although reservoirs were also made by cutting into the bedrock. Furthermore, drains in the 'castle-bailey' area carried rainwater to a receptacle for later use. The intermediate tier of the urban hierarchy was made up of sites that in several features recall the layout of the monumental cities of the civilization but are smaller in size. Kalibangan, Lothal, Kot Diji, Banawali and Amri are some of them and they can be considered as provincial centres. Kalibangan, like Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, comprised two fortified mounds-the smaller western one contained several mud brick platforms with fire altars on one of them. Most of the houses on the eastern mound had fire-altars of a similar type. Lothal was also a fortified town with its entire eastern sector being tak- en up by a dockyard (219 x 13m in size) which was connected with the river through an inlet channel. In its vicinity was the 'acropolis' where the remains of a storehouse, in which clay sealing, some with impressions of cords and other materials on them, were discovered. Lothal's urban morphology also suggests that there is no necessary relationship between the size of a city and its overall planning. Mohenjo-Daro was at least 25 times the size of Lothal but the latter shares with it the presence of two separate areas, burnt brick houses, and regularly aligned streets and drains. In fact, its paved streets and lanes are unrivalled in the Indus context.

The third tier of the Indus settlement hierarchy is made up of small, urban sites. These show some evidence of planning but no internal sub-divisions. Not- withstanding their size and structurally unprepossessing character, they had ur- ban functions. Allahadino in Sind is one such site, which had a diameter of only 100 m but was an important metalcrafting centre. Similarly, Kuntasi in Gujarat is a small Harappan fortified settlement where semi-precious stones and copper were processed.

Link between Urban and rural centers

Finally, urban centres were supported by and functionally connected with ru- ral hinterlands of sedentary villages and temporary/semi-nomadic settlements. While the latter are generally small with thin occupational deposits, in the case of villages, outlines of huts and relatively thick deposits have been encountered. Kanewal in Gujarat, for instance, is 300 square m and its cultural deposit (of 1.5-m thickness) is suggestive of a secure village settlement. Similarly, the archaeologi- cal deposits of the Harappan phase in the Yamuna-Ganga doab-1.8 m at Alam- girpur and 1.4 m at Hulas-indicates that the pioneer colonizers of that area lived there for a long period of time. What is worth remembering is that, on the basis of size, it is not wise to distinguish rural and urban sites of the Indus Civilization. In Cholistan, there are a few large sites, one of which covers 25 hectares (and, thus, is larger than Kalibangan), which have been described as nomadic settlements, not urban ones. On the other hand, Kuntasi was only 2 hectares in size but has been rightly classified as an urban settlement because of its functional role as a provider of craft objects.

Major cities and their special features

Mohenjo-Daro:

The largest of all the Indus cities.Great Bath-the most important public place, remarkable for beautiful brickwork

• Great Granary-the largest building

• Multi-pillared assembly hall and a big rectangular building Another building, identified as the temple.Mohenjo-Daro in Sindhi language means the 'Mound of the Dead'

 • It was excavated in 1922 by R. D. Banerji. From the ruins, the archaeologists have conclud- ed that it was once a well-planned city with straight, wide roads and a very highly devel-oped system of drainage and sanitation The famous the Dancing Girl' is found from this site only.

Harappa:

• The first Indus site to be discovered and excavated in 1921. The Indus Civilization was originally called Harappan Civilization after this site.

 • Granaries-two rows of six granaries; these were the nearest buildings to the river

• Working floors-rows of circular brick platforms meant for threshing grain • Barracks-rows of single-roomed barracks, housed labourers.

• 'Workmen quarter' has been found

Chanhudaro:

Only Indus city without a citadel

 • Like Mohenjo-Daro it was also flooded more than once

• Discovery of a small pot which was probably an ink-well

Kalibangan:

⚫ One of the two Indus cities which have both proto-Harappan and Harappan cultural phases In its proto-Harappan phase, the fields were ploughed

• Discovery of platforms with five alters

Lothal:

• The only Indus site with an artificial brick dockyard

• Evidence for the earliest use of rice

• Discovery of fire alters

Banawali:

• Evidence of having both proto-Harappan and Harappan cultural phases

Surkotada:

• The only Indus site where the remains of a horse have actually been found

• Must have been another port-city

Other characteristics

Drainage System:Most distinctive feature of civilization Each house had its own small drains which were directly connected which ran under the main streets and below many lanes Fach house had its own soak-pit and water flowed from the sink into the underground sewers in the streets with bricks and stones that the with the street drain

.The drains were made of mortar, lime and gypsum. They were covered There were manholes at regular intervals for inspection. These features showdrains were constructed on scientific lines! A number of burnt brick drain at Mohenjo-Daro and Lothal.

• Drains in all larger streets and smaller lanes

• Drains subjected to regular cleaning

.Existence of soak or sediment pits

• No system of street drainage in Kalibangan

.Evidence of covered drains

Provision of Wells

• Presence of brick-built wells

.Mohenjo-Daro is a representative site

• Usually round wells, made of especially designed bricks Mostly they lay within house but occasionally were placed between two houses.

Streets and Lanes

• Main streets had proper width (Mohenjo-Daro street—10 m)

• Lanes were relatively narrower

.Streets ran remarkably straight though their width were not constant

 • Inner lanes often twisted/ turned

Fortified Walls

• When bastions, corner-towers and gateways are envisaged together, such complexes elucidate 'defensive' character. There is also a moat

 • This is reminiscent of early historic cities where a fortification and a moat were common feature.

Uniformity in House Construction

• Indus houses impress us with their general uniformity

• Remains of staircases suggest an upper storey

Roofing was of mud-plastered reed matting supported by timber. Plastering was normally of clay, and mortar used was also clay

• Entrance doors usually opened into side- lanes and alleys. Windows are rare

• Bathrooms were an invariable feature, but privies were less common

• Woods must have been used extensively along with bricks

Civic Organization

An efficient civic organization was the monumental achievement of the Harappans. Besides well-planned towns and the adequate arrangement of water supply, the Harappans used lamp-posts erected at intervals that reveals the existence of street-lighting. Garbage was dumped into the dustbins. All these things indicate the existence of some civic organization in the Indus Valley.

Harappan seals

A wide range of other cultivated crops including peas, lentils, chickpeas, sesame, flax, legumes and cotton are found. The range suggests cotton. In Sind, cotton is usually a summer crop and such crops have generally been cultivated with the help of irrigation. This is because rainfall is extremely scanty, at about 8 inches.

The favourite animal food of the Indus people was the cattle meat and cattle bones have been found in large quantities at all sites that have yielded bones. In addition to their meat, cattle and buffaloes must have supported agricultural op- erations and served as draught animals. Among other things, this is suggested by their age of slaughter. At Shikarpur in Gujarat, a majority of the cattle and buffa- loes lived up to the age of maturity (approximately 3 years) and were then killed at various stages till they reached 8 years of age. Mutton was also popular and bones of sheep/goat have been found at almost all Indus sites. Hunting of animals was not a negligible activity; the ratio of the bones of wild animals in relation to domesticated varieties is 1:4. The animals include wild buffalo, various species of deer, wild pig, ass, jackal, rodents and hare.

The remains of fish and marine molluscs are frequently found as well. As for food gathering, wild rice was certainly consumed in the Yamuna-Ganga doab al-

Craft production and Trade

A wide range of artisanal production is encountered at Indus cities. Specialized crafts that had roots in the preceding period became more complex in terms of techno- logical processes during this period and the combinations of raw materials being used, also expanded. Along with the widespread urban demand for shell artefacts, semi-precious stone and steatite beads, faience objects, and implements as jewellery in base and precious metals were in vogue. In terms of metallurgy, it is now reasonably clear that the Indus Civilization was not, in the main, a bronze-using culture. Pure copper was the dominant tradi- tion. Additionally, there was a variety of alloys ranging from low- and high-grade bronzes to copper-lead and copper-nickel alloys.

 

Some of the crafted objects are quintessentially Indus, in the sense that they are neither found prior to the advent of the urban civilization nor after its collapse. Indus seals (inscribed, square or rectangular in shape, with representations of ani- mals, most notably the 'unicorn'), for example, are rarely found in the late Harap- pan and post-Harappan contexts since the commercial transactions for which they were used had dramatically shrunk.

This is also true for the series of Indus stone statues of animals and men, of which the most famous is that of the 'Priest-King'. These appear to have had a politico-religious significance.

 

Society Religion and beliefs

Since Indus writing has not been satisfactorily deciphered, it is difficult to determine past ways of thought and beliefs, especially in the case of the Indus Civilization where these must be inferred from material remains. The archaeological indicators here are mainly portable objects of various kinds, figural represents. tions and a few areas within settlements which seem to have been set apart for sacred purposes. There are no structures at Indus sites that can be described as temples nor are these any statues, which can be considered as images that were worshipped. A few structures reflect a connection between concepts of cleans. ing through water in relation to ritual functions. The sunken, rectangular basin known as the 'Great Bath' at Mohenjo-Daro is one such instance. The cult con- nection of this water-using structure is evident from its method of construction which had three concentric zones around it, including streets on all four sides (making it the only free standing structure of the city), for the purpose of a ritual procession leading into it.

The bathing pavements and well in the vicinity of the offering pits on Kaliban- gan's citable also underline this connection. As for beliefs connected with fertility, some terracotta figurines from Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa show some connec tions. At towns, such as Kalibangan and Surkotada, female figurines are practi- cally absent. Even at Mohenjo-Daro, the fact that only 475 of the total number of terracotta figurines and fragments represented the female form means that this was not as common a practice as it has been made out to be. Several of the female figurines were utilized as lamps or for the burning of incense. Fertility in relation to the male principle has also been evoked not merely in the context on the 'Si- va-Pasupati' seal but also with reference to the phallic stones that have been found at Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and Dholavira as also with regard to a miniature ter- racotta representation of a phallic emblem set in an ovular-shaped flat receptacle from Kalibangan.

 

Decline of the Civilization

 

The decline of Indus Civilization like its origin has long been a matter of debate. But amidst such debate, one thing is clear that by decline it does not mean an abrupt end of the entire civilization. It only means the decline of the urban char- acteristics.

The process of urban decline appears to have unfolded in various ways. At Mohenjo-Daro there was a steady deterioration, apparent in the fact that the walls of the terminal level structures are frequently thin walled, haphazardly laid out, made of unstandardized bricks. This is also true of Dholavira whose progressive impoverishment was hastened by two spells when the city was deserted. As ur- banism crumbled, rickety, jerry-built structures and the reused stones robbed from older structures came to be commonly encountered on the other hand, Kalibangan was abandoned relatively suddenly and the same is true for Banawali. In other words, it is not one event but different kinds of events that must have led to the disappearance of urban life.

There is, however, no unanimity about these events or about their relative importance. In fact, the collapse of the Indus Civilization continues to be a focus of large historical speculation and debate. The earliest formulations for urban collapse revolved around the hypothetical Aryans and the allusions in the Rigveda to the destruction wreaked on forts/ cities (Indra is referred to as Purandara, meaning 'breaker of forts') by them. This idea continued to remain a popular one till the 1940s when archaeological 'proof" of Aryan invasions was claimed to have been discovered at Mohenjo-Daro, on one hand, in the assortment of scattered skeletons (apparently sings of a 'massa- cre') and at Harappa, on the other hand, in the form of deliberate blocking of en- trances and a culture (Cemetery H culture) overlying the mature Harappan phase which was supposed to represent the conquerors. Since the 1950s, however serious doubts have been raised about the historicity of an Aryan invasion. Among other things, it has been demonstrated that the massacre evidence was based on very few skeletons that cannot be dated to the same stratum.

In conclusion, the Indus Valley Civilization stands as a remarkable example of an ancient urban society characterized by its advanced urban planning, architectural achievements, and mysterious script. While much remains unknown about its language, exact cultural practices, and reasons for decline, its legacy continues to captivate historians, archaeologists, and enthusiasts alike.