Indus Valley Civilization
The
Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1300 BCE, flowered 2600–1900 BCE) was an ancient
civilization thriving along the
Indus River and the
Ghaggar-Hakra River in what is now
Pakistan and north-western
India. Among other names for this civilization is the
Harappan Civilization, in reference to its first excavated city of
Harappa.
The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was discovered in the
1920s and is known only from archaeological excavations, except, possibly, for Sumerian references to
Meluhha, which has been proposed to correspond to the IVC.
An alternative term for the culture is
Saraswati-Sindhu Civilization, based on the fact that most of the Indus Valley sites have been found at the
Hakra-Ghaggar River.
[e.g. see Mcintosh 2002:24]The IVC is a candidate for the locus of
Proto-Dravidian.
The ruins of
Harappa were first described by
Charles Masson in his
1844 Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan and The Panjab, but its significance was not realized until much later.In
1857, the British authorities used Harappan bricks in the construction of the
East Indian Railway line connecting
Karachi and
Lahore. In
1912, Harappan seals with then unknown symbols were discovered by J. Fleet, which triggered an excavation campaign under
Sir John Marshall in 1921/22, resulting in the discovery of a hitherto unknown civilization. By
1931, much of
Mohenjo-Daro was excavated, but minor campaigns continued, such as that led by
Mortimer Wheeler in
1950. Following the partition of British India in
1947, the area of the IVC was divided between Pakistan and the Republic of India. Influential in the field were British archaeologist
Aurel Stein, Indian archaeologist
Nani Gopal Majumdar and German archaeologist
Michael Jansen.
The Harappan Civilization proper lasts from ca. 2600–1900 BCE. Including its predecessor and successor cultures, Early Harappan and Late Harappan, the Indus Valley Civilization may be taken to have lasted from roughly the 33rd to the 14th centuries BCE.There are two terminologies for the periodization of the IVC, periodization into
Eras or
Phases.
[Jim G. Shaffer. 1992. "The Indus Valley, Baluchistan and Helmand Traditions: Neolithic Through Bronze Age." In Chronologies in Old World Archaeology. Second Edition. R.W. Ehrich, (Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. I:441-464, II:425-446.] The Early Harappan, Harappan and Late Harappan periods are described as "Regionalization", "Integration" and "Localization" Eras, respectively, the Regionalization Era taken to reach down to the Neolithic Mehrgarh II period:
| Date range | Phase | Era |
| 5500-3300 | Mehrgarh II-VI | Regionalization Era |
|---|
| 3300-2600 | Early Harappan |
|---|
| 3300-2800 | Harappan 1 (Ravi Phase) |
| 2800-2600 | Harappan 2 (Kot Diji Phase, Nausharo I, Mehrgarh VII) |
| 2600-1900 | Mature Harappan | Integration Era |
|---|
| 2600-2450 | Harappan 3A (Nausharo II) |
| 2450-2200 | Harappan 3B |
| 2200-1900 | Harappan 3C |
| 1900-1300 | Late Harappan (Cemetery H) | Localization Era |
|---|
| 1900-1700 | Harappan 4 |
| 1700-1300 | Harappan 5 |
|
The Indus Civilization was predated by the first
farming cultures in
South Asia, which emerged in the hills of what is now called
Balochistan, to the west of the
Indus Valley. North Eastern Balochistan is connected to Afghanistan by passes over the Toba Kakar Range. Valleys on the Makran coast are open towards the Arabian Sea. Through these routes Balochistan was in contact with West Asia and took part in the so-called
Neolithic Revolution, which took place in the
Fertile Crescent around 9000 to 6000 BCE. The earliest evidence of sedentary lifestyle in South Asia was discovered at
Mehrgarh in the foothills of the Brahui Hills. This settlement is dated 7000 BCE and was located on the west bank of the Bolan River, about 30 kilometres from the town of Sibi. These early farmers
domesticated wheat and a variety of animals, including
cattle. In the "Era" terminology, the aceramic Neolithic is known as the "Early Food Producing Era".
Pottery was in use by around 5500 BCE, taken to initiate the "Regionalization Era". It has been surmised that the inhabitants of
Mehrgarh migrated to the fertile
Indus river valley as
Balochistan became arid due to climatic changes. The Indus Civilization grew out of this culture's technological base, as well as its geographic expansion into the alluvial plains of what are now the provinces of
Sindh and
Punjab in contemporary
Pakistan and Northern
India. By 4000 BCE farming communities spread further east to other parts of Balochistan and Lower Sind. Later this culture spread to Upper Sind, Punjab and the western states of India.
The development of these farming communities ultimately led to the accretion of larger settlements from the later 4th millennium.
The Early Harappan Ravi Phase, named after the nearby
Ravi River, lasted from circa 3300 BCE until 2800 BCE. It is related to the Hakra Phase, identified in the Ghaggar-Hakra River Valley to the west, and predates the
Kot Diji Phase (2800-2600 BCE, Harappan 2), named after a site in northern
Sindh near
Mohenjo Daro. Some of the most important discoveries in the Ravi Phase relate to writing. The earliest examples of the
Indus script date from this period, placing the origins of writing in South Asia at approximately the same time as those of
Ancient Egypt and
Mesopotamia. [
1]
The mature phase of earlier village cultures is represented by
Rehman Dheri and
Amri.
Kot Diji (Harappan 2) represents the phase leading up to Mature Harappan, with the citadel representing centralized authority and an increasingly urban quality of life. Another town of this stage was found at
Kalibangan in India on the Hakra River.
This distinctive, regional
culture which emerged is called Early or Pre-Harappan. Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of
raw materials, including
lapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making. Villagers had, by this time,
domesticated numerous crops, including
peas,
sesame seeds,
dates and
cotton, as well as a wide range of domestic animals, including the
water buffalo.
By 2500 BCE, the Early Harappan communities had been turned into urban centers. Thus far, six such urban centers have been discovered, including:
Harappa,
Mohenjo Daro and
Dicki in Pakistan, along with
Gonorreala,
Dokalingam and
Mangalore in India. In total, over 1052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the general region of the
Ghaggar-Florence River and its tributaries.
By
2500 BCE, irrigation had transformed the region.
Around
1800 BCE, signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around
1700 BCE, most of the cities were abandoned. However, the Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear suddenly, and many elements of the Indus Civilization can be found in later cultures. Current archaeological data suggests that material culture classified as Late Harappan may have persisted until at least c. 1000-900 BCE, and was partially contemporaneous with the
Painted Grey Ware and perhaps early NBP cultures.
[Shaffer, Jim. 1993:58, Reurbanization: The eastern Punjab and beyond. In Urban Form and Meaning in South Asia: The Shaping of Cities from Prehistoric to Precolonial Times, ed. H. Spodek and D.M. Srinivasan.] Archaeologists have emphasized that there was a continuous series of cultural developments that link "the so-called two major phases of urbanization in South Asia".
[Shaffer, Jim. 1993:58, Reurbanization: The eastern Punjab and beyond. In Urban Form and Meaning in South Asia: The Shaping of Cities from Prehistoric to Precolonial Times, ed. H. Spodek and D.M. Srinivasan.] |
Indus Valley Seals. The first one shows a Swastika, a prominent symbol in Hinduism. |
A possible natural reason for the IVC's decline is connected with
climate change: The Indus valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BCE. A crucial factor may have been the disappearance of substantial portions of the
Ghaggar Hakra river system. A
tectonic event may have diverted the system's sources toward the
Ganges Plain, though there is some uncertainty about the date of this event. Although this particular factor is speculative, and not generally accepted, the decline of the IVC, as with any other civilization, will have been due to a combination of various reasons.
The region lies on the ancient route used by successive waves of migrations from Aryans to Huns, and later by Turks and Mughals to South Asia over the passes in the
Hindu Kush. The
Swat culture of northern Pakistan is a likely candidate for the first settlements of
Indo-Aryans in the subcontinent. It is in this context of the aftermath of a civilization's collapse that the hypothesis of an
Indo-Aryan migration into northern India is discussed. In the early twentieth century, this migration was forwarded in the guise of an "
Aryan invasion", and when the civilization was discovered in the 1920s, its collapse at precisely the time of the conjectured invasion was seen as an independent confirmation. In the words of the archaeologist
Mortimer Wheeler, the Indo-Aryan war god
Indra "stands accused" of the destruction. It is however far from certain whether the collapse of the IVC is the result of an Indo-Aryan migration, if there was one. It seems rather likely that, on the contrary, the hypothesized Indo-Aryan migration was as a result of the collapse, comparable with the decline of the
Roman Empire and the incursions of relatively primitive peoples during the
Migrations Period. This makes it seem more likely that the adoption of
Indo-Aryan languages was the result of cultural mixing and integration of the Cemetery H people (likely
Dravidians) and Indo-Aryans rather than invasion.
|
Extent and major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization (modern state boundaries shown in red). See [2] for a more detailed map. |
The Indus Valley Civilization extended from Balochistan to Gujarat, with an upward reach to Punjab from east of the river
Jhelum to
Rupar on the upper
Sutlej. Coastal settlements extended from
Sutkagan Dor at the Iranian border to
Lothal in
Gujarat. Besides the western states of India, the Indus Valley Civilization encompassed most of modern-day Pakistan. An Indus Valley site has been found on the
Oxus river at Shortughai in northern Afghanistan (Kenoyer 1998:96), as well as Alamgirpur on the Hindon river, only 28 km from Delhi (S.P. Gupta 1995:183).
There is some disputed evidence of another large river, now dried up, running parallel to the Indus River to the east. Dry river beds overlap with the
Hakra channel in
Pakistan and the seasonal
Ghaggar River in
India. Over 500 ancient sites belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra River and its tributaries (S.P. Gupta 1995: 183). By contrast, only about 100 of the known Indus Valley sites have been discovered on the
Indus and its tributaries.
[e.g. V.N. Misra 1992, in Eastern Anthropologist vol 45, pp 1-19. ] Certain scholars propose that this was a major river during the third and fourth millennia BCE, and suggest that it may have been the
Sarasvati River of the
Rigveda. Some advocate designating the Indus Valley culture the "Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization," Sindhu being the ancient name of the
Indus River. Most
archeologists dispute this view, arguing that the old river disappeared during the
Mesolithic age at the latest, and was only a seasonal stream during the
Vedic period when the text was collected.
|
Conception of ancient Harappa's Mound E Gateway [3] |
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 perfect
grid patterns. The houses were protected from noise, odors, and thieves.
|
A computer-generated reconstruction has brought a small area of Mohenjo-daro back to life. (Lost Civilizations by Austen Atkinson, p. 179 - 188) |
As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently discovered
Rakhigarhi, this urban plan included the world's first urban
sanitation systems. Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from
wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing,
waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner
courtyards and smaller lanes.
The ancient Indus systems of
sewage and
drainage that were developed and used in cities throughout the Indus Empire, were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the
Middle East and even more efficient than those in some areas of modern
Pakistan and
India today. The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive
dockyards,
granaries,
warehouses, brick platforms and protective walls. The massive
citadels of Indus cities that protected the Harappans from floods and attackers were larger than most
Mesopotamian ziggurats.
The purpose of the citadel remains debated. In sharp contrast to this civilization's contemporaries,
Mesopotamia and
Ancient Egypt, no large monumental structures were built. There is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples - or of kings, armies, or priests. Some structures are thought to have been granaries. Found at one city is an enormous well-built bath, which may have been a public bath. Although the citadels were walled, it is far from clear that these structures were defensive. They may have been built to divert flood waters.
Most city dwellers appear to have been
traders or
artisans, who lived with others pursuing the same occupation in well-defined neighborhoods. Materials from distant regions were used in the cities for constructing seals,
beads and other objects. Among the
artifacts discovered were beautiful beads of glazed stone called
faïence. The seals have images of animals, gods and other types of inscriptions. Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods and most probably had other uses.
Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civilization cities were remarkable for their apparent
egalitarianism. All the houses had access to
water and
drainage facilities. This gives the impression of a vast
middle-class society.
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. Their measurements were extremely precise. 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. Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measurement for all practical purposes, including the measurement of mass as revealed by their
hexahedron weights.
Brick sizes were in a perfect ratio of 4:2:1 and the decimal system was used. Weights were based on units of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500, with each unit weighing approximately 28 grams, similar to the English
Imperial ounce or Greek uncia, and smaller objects were weighed in similar ratios with the units of 0.871.
The weights and measures of
Kautilya's
Arthashastra are the same as those used in Lothal.
[Sergent, Bernard. Genèse de l'Inde, 1997, p.113.]Unique Harappan inventions include an instrument which was used to measure whole sections of the horizon and the tidal
dock. In addition, Harappans evolved new techniques in
metallurgy and produced
copper,
bronze,
lead and
tin. The engineering skill of the Harappans was remarkable, especially in building docks after a careful study of tides, waves and currents.
In
2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from
Mehrgarh,
Pakistan made the startling discovery that the people of the Indus Valley Civilization, even from the early Harappan periods, had knowledge of
dentistry. The physical anthropologist who carried out the examinations, Professor Andrea Cucina from the
University of Missouri-Columbia, made the discovery while he was cleaning the teeth from one set of remains.
|
A statuette of a female figure. |
Various sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry and anatomically detailed figurines in
terracotta, bronze and 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.
Sir John Marshall is known to have reacted with surprise when he saw the famous Indus bronze statuette of a slender-limbed "dancing girl" in Mohenjo-daro:
"… When I first saw them I found it difficult to believe that they were prehistoric; they seemed to completely upset all established ideas about early art. Modeling such as this was unknown in the ancient world up to the Hellenistic age of Greece, and I thought, therefore, that some mistake must surely have been made; that these figures had found their way into levels some 3000 years older than those to which they properly belonged. … Now, in these statuettes, it is just this anatomical truth which is so startling; that makes us wonder whether, in this all-important matter, Greek artistry could possibly have been anticipated by the sculptors of a far-off age on the banks of the Indus."
A harp-like instrument depicted on an Indus seal and two shell objects found at Lothal indicate the use of stringed musical instruments.
Seals have been found at
Mohenjo-daro depicting a figure standing on its head, and one sitting cross-legged; perhaps the earliest indication, at least illustration, of the practice of
yoga. A horned figure in an advanced yogic pose (see image,
Pashupati, below right) has been interpreted as one of the earliest depictions of the Lord
Shiva.
The Indus civilization's economy appears to have depended significantly on
trade, which was facilitated by major advances in transport technology. These advances included
bullock-driven carts that are identical to those seen throughout South Asia today, as well as boats. Most of these boats were probably small, flat-bottomed craft, perhaps driven by sail, similar to those one can see on the Indus River today; however, there is secondary evidence of sea-going craft. Archaeologists have discovered a massive, dredged canal and docking facility at the coastal city of
Lothal.
Judging from the dispersal of Indus civilization artifacts, the trade networks, economically, integrated a huge area, including portions of
Afghanistan, the coastal regions of
Persia, northern and central India, and
Mesopotamia.
There was an extensive maritime trade network operating between the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations as early as the middle Harappan Phase, with much commerce being handled by "middlemen merchants from Dilmun" (modern
Bahrain and
Failaka located in the
Persian Gulf).
[Neyland, R.S. (1992) "The seagoing vessels on Dilmun seals", in D.H. Keith & T.L. Carrell (ed.), Underwater archaeology proceedings of the Society for Historical Archaeology Conference at Kingston, Jamaica 1992 pp. 68-74. Tucson (AZ): Society for Historical Archaeology.] Such long-distance sea-trade became feasible with the innovative development of plank-built watercraft, equipped with a single central mast supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth.
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.
Earlier studies (prior to 1980) often assumed that food production was imported to the Indus Valley by a single linguistic group ("Aryans") and/or from a single area. But recent studies indicate that food production was largely indigenous to the Indus Valley. Already the
Mehrgarh people used domesticated
wheats and
barley and the major cultivated cereal crop was naked six-row barley, a crop derived from two-row barley (see Shaffer and Liechtenstein 1995, 1999). Archaeologist
Jim G. Shaffer (1999: 245) writes that the Mehrgarh site "demonstrates that food production was an indigenous South Asian phenomenon" and that the data support interpretation of "the prehistoric urbanization and complex social organization in South Asia as based on indigenous, but not isolated, cultural developments."
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.
The Indus civilization appears to contradict the
hydraulic despotism hypothesis of the origin of urban civilization and the
state. According to this hypothesis, all early, large-scale civilizations arose as a by-product of irrigation systems capable of generating massive
agricultural surpluses. To build, maintain and coordinate the operation of these systems, one or several despotic, centralized states emerged that were able to suppress the social status of thousands of people and harness their labor as slaves. It is very difficult to square this hypothesis with what is known about the Indus civilization. There is no evidence of kings, slaves, or forced mobilization of labor.
It is often assumed that intensive agricultural production requires
dams and
canals. This assumption is easily refuted. Throughout Asia, rice farmers produce significant agricultural surpluses from terraced, hillside
rice paddies, which result not from slavery but rather the accumulated labor of many generations of people. Instead of building canals, Indus civilization people may have built water diversion schemes, which—like
terrace agriculture—can be elaborated by generations of small-scale labor investments. It should be noted that Indus Civilization people built their lives around the
monsoon, a weather pattern in which the bulk of a year's rainfall occurs in a four-month period.
|
Early fragments of Indus Valley symbols found on pottery in Harappa are about 5,500 years old. [5] | An Indus Valley seal with the seated figure termed pashupati. |
Well over 400 Indus symbols have been found on seals or ceramic pots and over a dozen other materials, including a 'signboard' that apparently once hung over the gate of the inner citadel of the Indus city of Dholavira. Typical Indus inscriptions are no more than four or five characters in length, most of which (aside from the Dholavira 'signboard') are exquisitely tiny; the longest on a single surface, which is less than 1 inch (2.54 cm) square, is 17 signs long; the longest on any object (found on three different faces of a mass-produced object) carries only 26 symbols.
While most scholars believe that the Indus Valley was the home of a literate civilization, this view has recently been challenged by a few scholars, on linguistic and archaeological grounds. It has been recently pointed out that the brevity of the inscriptions is unparalleled in any known premodern literate society, including those that wrote extensively on leaves, bark, wood, cloth, wax, animal skins, and other perishable materials. Based partly on this evidence, a controversial recent paper by Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel (2004), [6] argues that the Indus system did not encode language, but was related instead to a variety of non-linguistic sign systems used extensively in the Near East. It has also been claimed on occasion that the symbols were exclusively used for economic transactions, but this claim leaves unexplained the appearance of Indus symbols on many ritual objects, many of which were mass produced in molds. No parallels to these mass-produced inscriptions are known in any other early ancient civilizations. In a recent talk/paper, Asko Parpola addresses these and other issues. [7]
Photos of many of the thousands of extant inscriptions are published in the Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions (1987, 1991), edited by A. Parpola and his colleagues. Publication of a final third volume, which will reportedly republish photos taken in the 20s and 30s of hundreds of lost or stolen inscriptions, along with many discovered in the last few decades, has been announced for several years, but has not yet found its way into print. For now, researchers must supplement the materials in the Corpus by study of the tiny photos in the excavation reports of Marshall (1931), Mackay (1938, 1943), Wheeler (1947), or reproductions in more recent scattered sources.In the course of the 2nd millennium BCE, remnants of the IVC's culture would (the so-called Cemetery H culture) amalgamated with that of other peoples, likely contributing to what eventually resulted in the rise of Vedic culture and eventually historical Hinduism. Judging from the abundant figurines depicting female fertility that they left behind, IVC people worshipped a Mother goddess (compare Shakti and Kali). IVC seals depict animals, perhaps as the objects of veneration, comparable to the zoomorphic aspects of some Hindu gods. Seals resembling Pashupati in a yogic posture have also been discovered.
In the aftermath of the Indus Civilization's collapse, regional cultures emerged, to varying degrees showing the influence of the Indus Civilization. In the formerly great city of Harappa, burials have been found that correspond to a regional culture called the Cemetery H culture. At the same time, the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture expanded from Rajasthan into the Gangetic Plain. The Cemetery H culture has the earliest evidence for cremation, a practice dominant in Hinduism until today.
The late IVC is a likely candidate for a Proto-Dravidian culture, and the Brahui people of Pakistan and Balochistan are possibly a linguistic remnant that remained in the area.*Dholavira - an Ancient Metropolitan City
*Dilmun - contemporary civilization based in present day Bahrain with extensive trade links with the Indus Valley Civilization
*Gandhara culture - a later Buddhist culture also situated on the Indus
*Indo-Gangetic Tradition
*Indus Valley Tradition
*Meluhha - the name used in Mesopotamia to refer to the Indus Civilization*Basham, A.L., The Wonder That Was India, Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1967, p 11-14.
*Dani, Ahmad Hassan, Short History of Pakistan, Book 1, 1984, University of Karachi.
*Gupta, S.P. (ed.). 1995. The lost Sarasvati and the Indus Civilization. Kusumanjali Prakashan, Jodhpur.
* Kathiroli et al. 2004. "Recent Marine Archaeological Finds in Khambhat, Gujarat". Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology No 1, p. 141-149.
*Kenoyer, J. Mark. 1998. Ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195779401.
*Mcintosh, Jane. 2002. A Peaceful realm. Boulder: Westview Press.
* Parpola, Asko (2005) "Study of the Indus Script", 50th ICES Tokyo Session, Tokyo, May 19, 2005
*Possehl, Gregory. 2002. The Indus Civilization. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press.
*Jim G. Shaffer. 1992. "The Indus Valley, Baluchistan and Helmand Traditions: Neolithic Through Bronze Age." In Chronologies in Old World Archaeology. Second Edition. R.W. Ehrich, (Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. I:441-464, II:425-446.* An invitation to the Indus Civilization (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum)
* Ancient Civilizations Timeline
* Ancient Indian History
* Cache of Seal Impressions Discovered in Western India
* Harrapa and Indus Valley Civilization at harrapa.com
* Image Collection
* Indus Artifacts
* Indus-Sarasvati Resources Index
* Prehistoric Dentistry Evidence Found in Indus (BBC News)
* Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization
* The Harappan Civilization
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