The earliest known S Asian civilization, flourishing c.23001750 BC across 1·1 million km²/½ million sq mi around the R Indus in Pakistan. Over 100 sites have been identified with important urban centres at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa (Pakistan), and Kalibangan and Lothal (W India). There were uniform principles of urban planning, with streets set out in a grid pattern and public drainage systems. Weights and measures were standardized, and there was widespread trade with W Asia. A common writing system was used, which remains undeciphered. Great granaries on citadel mounts suggest the existence of priest-kings or a priestly oligarchy. There is no firm explanation for the decline of the civilization.
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History of South Asia History of India |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stone Age | 70,000–7000 BC | ||||
| Mehrgarh Culture | 7000–3300 BCE | ||||
| Indus Valley Civilization | 3300–1700 BCE | ||||
| Late Harappan Culture | 1700–1300 BCE | ||||
| Vedic Civilization | 1500–500 BCE | ||||
| · Iron Age Kingdoms | · 1200–700 BCE | ||||
| Maha Janapadas | 700–300 BCE | ||||
| Magadha Empire | 684–26 BCE | ||||
| · Maurya Dynasty | · 321–184 BCE | ||||
| Middle Kingdoms | 230 BCE–1279 CE | ||||
| · Satavahana Empire | · 230 BCE–199 CE | ||||
| · Kushan Empire | · 60–240 CE | ||||
| · Gupta Empire | · 240–550 | ||||
| · Chola Empire | · 848–1279 | ||||
| Islamic Sultanates | 1210–1596 | ||||
| · Delhi Sultanate | · 1206–1526 | ||||
| · Deccan Sultanates | · 1490–1596 | ||||
| Hoysala Empire | 1040–1346 | ||||
| Vijayanagara Empire | 1336–1565 | ||||
| Mughal Era | 1526–1707 | ||||
| Maratha Empire | 1674–1818 | ||||
| Colonial Era | 1757–1947 | ||||
| Modern States | 1947 onwards | ||||
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The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1300 BC, flowered 2600–1900 BC) was an ancient civilization thriving along the Indus River and the Ghaggar-Hakra River in what is now Pakistan and north-western India.
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 popular identification of the Ghaggar-Hakra River with the Sarasvati River.
The IVC is a candidate for the locus of Proto-Dravidian.
Discovery and excavation
The ruins of Harappa were first described by Charles Masson in his Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan and Punjab, 1826-1838, but its significance was not realized until much later.
Periodisation
The Harappan Civilization proper lasts from ca. 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. The Early Harappan, Harappan and Late Harappan periods are described as "Regionalisation", "Integration" and "Localisation" Eras, respectively, the Regionalization Era taken to reach down to the Neolithic Mehrgarh II period:
| Date range | Phase | Era |
| 5500-3300 | Mehrgarh II-VI | Regionalisation 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) | Localisation Era |
| 1900-1700 | Harappan 4 | |
| 1700-1300 | Harappan 5 |
Predecessors
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.
Pottery was in use by around 5500 BCE, taken to initiate the "Regionalisation 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 Civilisation 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.
Early Harappan
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. The earliest examples of the Indus script date from around 3000 BC, placing the origins of writing in South Asia at approximately the same time as those of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
The mature phase of earlier village cultures is represented by Rehman Dheri and Amri.
This distinctive, regional culture which emerged is called Early or Pre-Harappan.
Mature Harappan
By 2500 BCE, the Early Harappan communities had been turned into urban centers.
By 2500 BCE, irrigation had transformed the region.
Late Harappan
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 Civilisation did not disappear suddenly, and many elements of the Indus Civilization can be found in later cultures.
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.
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.
Geography
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. Besides the western states of India, the Indus Valley Civilization encompassed most of Pakistan. An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus river at Shortughai in northern Afghanistan , at Sutkagen dor (Western Baluchistan, Pakistan), at Mandu on the Beas River near Jammu, and at Alamgirpur on the Hindon River, only 28 km from Delhi . Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on lakes, the ancient sea-coast and on islands.
There is some disputed evidence of another large river, now dried up, running parallel to the Indus River to the east. Over 500 ancient sites belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra River and its tributaries (S.P. By contrast, only about 100 of the known Indus Valley sites have been discovered on the Indus and its tributaries. Some advocate designating the Indus Valley culture the "Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization," Sindhu being the ancient name of the Indus River.
Cities
A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley Civilization.
As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently discovered Rakhigarhi, this urban plan included the world's first urban sanitation systems.
The ancient Indus systems of sewerage 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 Pakistan and India today.
The purpose of the citadel remains debated.
Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans, who lived with others pursuing the same occupation in well-defined neighborhoods.
Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civilization cities were remarkable for their apparent egalitarianism.
Science
The people of the Indus Civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass and time.
Brick sizes were in a perfect ratio of 4:2:1 and the decimal system was used.
The weights and measures of Kautilya's Arthashastra are the same as those used in Lothal.
Unique Harappan inventions include an instrument which was used to measure whole sections of the horizon and the tidal dock.
In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh, Pakistan made the startling discovery that the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, even from the early Harappan periods, had knowledge of dentistry.
Arts and culture
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;
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;
Trade and transportation
The Indus civilisation's economy appears to have depended significantly on trade, which was facilitated by major advances in transport technology. 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;
Judging from the dispersal of Indus civilisation 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 civilisations 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).
Several coastal settlements like Sotkagen-dor (Dasht River, north of Jiwani), Sokhta Koh (Shadi River, north of Pasni) and Balakot (near Sonmiani) in Pakistan alongwith Lothal in India testify to their role as Harappan trading outposts.
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.
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.
Indus civilization agriculture must have been highly productive;
The Indus civilisation appears to contradict the hydraulic despotism hypothesis of the origin of urban civilization and the state. 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 labour investments. It should be noted that Indus Civilisation people built their lives around the monsoon, a weather pattern in which the bulk of a year's rainfall occurs in a four-month.
Writing or symbol system
Well over 400 distinct 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.
While the Indus Valley Civilization is often characterized as a "literate society" on the evidence of these inscriptions, this description has been challenged on linguistic and archaeological grounds: it has been pointed out that the brevity of the inscriptions is unparalleled in any known premodern literate society. Based partly on this evidence, a controversial paper by Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel (2004), 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.
Photos of many of the thousands of extant inscriptions are published in the Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions (1987, 1991), edited by A.
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.
In the aftermath of the Indus Civilization's collapse, regional cultures emerged, to varying degrees showing the influence of the Indus Civilisation.
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. Ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation. "The Indus Valley tradition of Pakistan and Western India". "The Indus Valley, Baluchistan and Helmand Traditions: Neolithic Through Bronze Age."
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