Indus valley civilisation

 Indus valley Civilization

Indus valley Civilization

(2500-15000 BC)
From the beginning of the 4^th millennium BC the individuality of the early village cultures began to be replaced by a more homogenous style of existence. By the middle of the 3^rd millennium, a uniform culture had developed at settlements spread across nearly b500,000 square miles, including parts of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Baluchistan, Sindh and the Makran coast. It was a highly developed civilization and derived its name from the main river of that region – Indus. The cities were far more advanced than their counterparts in pre historic Egypt, Mesopotamia or anywhere else in Western Asia.

Important Discoveries

Year            Site                           Discovered by
1921            Harappa                  Dayaram Sahni
1922           Mohenjodaro         R.D. Banerjee
1927            Sutkagendor          R.L Staine
1931            Chanhudaro           N.G.Majumdar
1953            Rangpur                  M. Vats
1953            Kalibangan             A. Ghosh
1955-56     Ropar                       Y.D. Sharma
1957            Lothal                      S.R. Rao
1972-75      Surkotada               I. Joshi
1973-74      Banwali                   R. S. Bisht
      
       After the partition of India most of the well known Harappa sites – Mohenjodaro, Harappa, went to Pakistan, leaving only two outposts, Kotla Nihang Khan near Ropar on the Sutlej in Punjab, and Rangpur on the Bhadar in Kathiawar Gujarat, within the territory of India. However, the excavations prior to 1947 had not achieved a satisfactory picture of the development of the cities, and in the absence of radiocarbon dating no absolute chronology was obtained. It was only after partition that planned surveys were undertaken in India to locate more sites. A. Ghosh undertook the exploration of the valleys of the dried up Saraswati (Ghaggar) and its tributary, the Drishadvati (Chautang) in Ganganagar, North Rajasthan and discovered about 25 Harappan sites. A number of sites have been reported indicating contacts with the Harappan culture in Afghanistan and the contiguous regions of Soviet Central Asia. Nausharo was excavated by Jarrige in 1993 and reached at some important conclusions regarding transition from early period to mature phase. Thus many of the earlier views have been altered because of recent studies based on sophisticated research tools and methods of investigation.
 

Harappan-seal

Extent

The explorations, excavations and researches have shown that the Harappan civilization was not confined to the Indus valley along as postulated by Marshall. Although the Central zone of these civilization lie in Sind and Punjab, mainly in the Indus valley, it spread southward and eastward from here covering Punjab, Haryana, Sind, Baluchistan, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh and Northern Maharashtra. In Precise terms the civilization extended from Suktagendor, on the seaboard of South Baluchistan (Makran Coast) in west to Alamgirpur, in the upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab in western U.P., in the east, and from Manda in Jammu in North to Bhagatrav in Narmada estuary (Kim estuary, Gujarat) in the south. The entire area of the Harappan civilization is triangular in form and accounts for about 1,299,600 sq km and as such was the largest amongst the ancient civilizations. The actual distance from northern site to the southern is over 1,100 km and form west to east over 15,50 km.

Nomenclature

There are two names that have been applied to ancient India’s first phase of conurbation Harappan civilization or Indus civilisation. The first of these is drived from and academic tradition which uses a type specimen, or site, as the basis for nomenclature in archaeology. Since the mounds adjacent to the modern village of Harappa were the first locality where the remains of this civilization were first identified, the name Harappan fits such a system perfectly. The second name Indus civilization is used interchangeably. Firstly because it refers to precisely the same cultural, chronological and geographic entity and secondly because it started from the river valley of the Indus river and the largest concentration of settlement sites are located along the course of this river. Sir John Marshall was the first scholar to use this term. The term Harappan civilization, conjures up a notion that the civilization began at a site which best represents the  ancient urban system of South Asia.
          The Indus civilization belongs to the protohistoric period since it represents a phase in which people had developed a scrip has not been deciphered as yet despite repeated attempts. So it in agreed that the Indus civilization belonged to Bronze Age, generally associated with city formation.

Origin and Evolution:

Harappa

The discovery of India’s first and earliest civilisation posed a historical puzzle as it seemed to have suddenly appeared on the stage of history, full grown and fully equipped. The Harappan civilisation till recently showed no definite signs of birth and growth. The puzzle could largely be solved after the extensive excavation work conducted at Mehrgarh near the Bolan Pass between 1973 and 1980 by two French archaeologists Richard H. Meadow and Jean Francoise Jarrige.

According to them, Mehrgarh gives us an archaeological record with a sequence of occupations. Archaeological research over the past decades has established a continuous sequence of strata, showing the gradual development to the high standard of the full-fledged Indus civilisation.

These strata have been named pre-Harappan, early Harappan, mature Harappan and late Harappan phases or stages. By reviewing the main ele­ments of the rural cultures of the Indian sub-continent the origin of the Indus civilisation can be traced. Any Pre-Harappan culture claiming ancestry to the Indus civilisation must satisfy two conditions. The first condition is that it must not only precede but also overlap the Indus culture.

The second is that the essential elements of the Indus culture must have been anticipated by the Proto-Harappan (Indus) culture in its material aspects, viz, the rudiments of town planning, provision of minimum sanitary facilities, knowledge of pictographic writing, the introduction of trade mechanisms, the knowledge of metallurgy and the prevalence of ceramic traditions.

The different stages of the indigenous evolution of the Indus can be documented by an analysis of four sites which reflect the sequence of the four important stages or phases in the pre-history and proto-history of the Indus valley region.

The sequence begins with the transition of nomadic herdsmen to settled agricultural communities as per the evidence found at the first site i.e. Mehrgarh near the Bolan Pass. It continues with the growth of large villages and the rise of towns in the second stage exemplified at Amri. The Amri people did not possess any knowledge of town-planning or of writing. The third stage in the sequence leads to the emergence of the great cities as in Kalibangan and finally ends with their decline, which is the fourth stage and exemplified by Lothal. Amri, Kot-Dijian and Kalibangan cultures are stratigraphically found to be pre-Harappan.

The pre-Harappan culture of Kalibangan in Rajasthan is termed as Sothi culture by Amalananda Ghosh, its excavator. The Harappan were owed certain elements such as the fish scale and pipal leaf to the Sothi ware.

The four Baluchi cultures, viz, Zhob, Quetta, Nal and Kulli, undoubtedly pre-Harappan, also have some minor common features with the Indus civilisation, and cannot be considered as full-fledged proto-Harappan cultures.

The culture of Northern Baluchistan is termed as ‘Zhob’ culture after the sites in the Zhob valley, the chief among them being Rana Ghundai. This culture is characterised by black and red ware and terracotta female figurines. Nal culture is characterised by the use of white-clipped ware with attractive polychrome paintings and the observance of fractional burial.

The characteristic pottery of the Quetta culture is the buff-ware, painted in black pigment and decorated with geometrical designs. Apart from the painted motifs such as the pipal leaf and sacred brazier, some pottery shapes are common to the Harappan and Kulli cultures. All these pre-Harappan habitations preceding the phase of the Harappan civilization shows evidences of people living in houses of stone and mud-brick.

Similarities were found in the cultural traditions of the diverse agricultural communities living in the Indus region in the ‘early Indus period’. During the urban phase these little traditions were fused into one great tradition.

How­ever, even in the ‘early Indus period’, use of similar kinds of pottery terracotta mother goddess, repre­sentation of the horned deity in many sites show the way to the emergence of a homogenous tradition in the entire area.

The people of Baluchistan had already established trading relations with the towns of the Persian Gulf and Central Asia. Kulli, situated on the southern foothills of the Baluchi mountains near the Makran coast, occupies an important position on the trade route between the Persian Gulf and the Indus Valley.

Thus, the available evidence suggests that the Harappan culture had its origin in the Indus valley. And even within the Indus valley, several cultures seem to have contributed to evolve the urban civilisation. There is no evidence to suggest that the Indus people borrowed anything substantial from the Sumerians. It is thus difficult to accept Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s assumption that “the idea of civilization came to the Indus valley from Mesopotamia”.

Sources of Materials

Materials                                Source
Gold                                        Afghanistan, Persia Karnataka
Silver                                                Afghanistan, Iran
Copper                                    Baluchistan & Khetri (Rajasthan)
Tin                                          Afghanistan, Central Asia
Agates                                     Western India
Chalcedony                             Saurashtra
Lead                                        Rajasthan South India, Afghanistan
Lapis – Lazuli                         Badakashan (N. Afghanistan)
Turquoise                               Central Asia, Iran
Amethyst                                Maharashtra
Jade                                        Central Asia
Carnelian                                Saurashtra

Script and Language 

pictograph

Harappan script is regarded as Pictographic since its signs represent birds, fish and a variety of human forms. The script was boustrophedon. Written from right to left in one line and then from left to right in the next line. The number of signs of the Harappan script is known to be between 400 and 600. The language of the Harappans is still unknown and must remain so until the Harappan script is deciphered.

Pottery

pottery

Harappan Pottery is bright or dark red and is uniformly sturdy and well baked. It is chiefly well made, and consists of both plain and painted ware, the plain variety being more common.
Harappan people used different types of pottery such as glaze, polychrome, incised, perforated and knobbed. The glazed Harappan pottery is the earliest example of its kind in the ancient world. On the whole, Harappan pottery was highly utilitarian and character, though the painted remarkable artistic touch.
Seals
They are the greatest artistic creations of the Indus people. Most commonly made of steatite (soft stone).

Ø The technique of cutting and polishing these seals with white luster was a unique invention of the Harappans.

Ø The majority of the seals have an animal engraved on them with a short inscription. Unicorn is the animal most frequently represented on the seals.

Burial Practices

Three forms of burials are found at Mohenjodaro, viz. complete burials. Tractional Burials (burial of some bones after the exposure of the body to wild beasts birds) and Post – cremation burials. But the general practice was extended inhumation, the body lying on us bak, with the head generally to the north.

Religion

pasupati shiva

The chief male deity was the Pashupati Mahadeva (Proto-Siva), represented in seals as sitting in a yogic posture on a low throne and having three faces and two horns. He is surrounded by four animals (elephant, tiger, rhino and buffalo), each facing a different direction, and two deer appear at his feet. The chief female deity was the Mother Goddess, who has been depicted in various forms. There is sufficient evidence for the prevalence of Phallic Worship. Numerous stone symbols of female sex organs (yoni worship), besides those of the phallus, have been discovered.
The worship of fire is proved by the discovery of fire altars at Lothal, Kalibangan and Harappa.
Indus people also worshipped Gods in the form of trees (papal, etc)and animals (unicorn etc), Further they believed in ghosts and evil forces and used amulets as protection against them

Decline

After 2000 BC, the Indus cultures slowly declined and gradually fade out. Some ascribe this to the decreasing fertility of the soil till account of the increasing salinity, caused by the expansion of the neighboring desert. Other attribute it to some kind of depression in the land, which caused Hoods. Still other point out that the Aryans destroyed it. According to some scholars, decline to trade, particularly oceanic trade with the Sumerians, must have contributed partly in the decline. Even though there are various theories for the downfall of this civilization, the most accepted version is that of ecological destruction.

Major Sites

Harappa                                 The great Granary
Mohenjodaro                          The Great Bath
Kalibangan                             Ploughed, Fire alter
Chanhudrao                            Ink pot, Shell- ornament
Banwali                                   Clay Bangles, Statue of mother Goddess
Surkotada                               Fortified town, remains of Horse.
KotDiji                                    Wheel, Streets, Toys
Ropar                                      Rectangular mud brick
Dholavira                                Hemmed in the Citadel
Lothal                                     Dockyard, rice husk.