History of India

Ancient India
Indus valley civilisation

The Indus valley civilisation represents the earliest extant urban culture of the Indian Subcontinent.
It was first identified in the year 1921 at Harappa in Punjab and then in 1922 at Mohenjo-Daro, near
the Indus river in the sindh, both now in Pakistan. Subsequently, relics of the civilization were found
as far as in sutkagen dor, near the shore of the Arabian sea west of Karachi, and in rupnagar of at the
foot of the shimla hills about 160km to the northeast .Exploration carried out later established is
existence southward down the west coast of India as far as till the gulf of khambhat, and as far east
as till the Yamuna basin. It is now considered the most extensive of the world’s three earliest
civilisations: the other two were those of Mesopotamia and Egypt, both of which were almost
contemporaneous with it.

Some of the key features of the Indus Valley Civilisations were

The Indus culture or the harappan culture precedes the chalcolithic culture and is the best
developed one among all other cultures in ancient India. The existence of the Indus valley civilisation
(IVC) was first discovered by Charles Mason in 1823.

IVC evolved in three stages, viz, Pre-Harappan stage(4500-3500 B.C), Proto-Harappan stage(3500-
2500 B.C) Harappan stage(2500-1750 B.C).

In the first stage, village culture was found in Baluchistan viz, Kuli, Quetta, hob, Nul, Ranaghundei,
zalilpur, Rehamn Dehri and Sarai Kotla.

In the second stage stage the baluchi cultures entered into sindh which resulted in the practice of
extensive cultivation. This economic prosperity led to urbanisation. Some representative cities of this
stage of development were Kot diji ,Amri , Kalibangan and Banwali.

It was in the third stage that IVC reached its pinnacle. It extended from sutkagendor in west to
alamgirpur(U.P) in east, Manda(kashmir) in north to daimabad in the south.

IVC is also called the Harappan civilisation because of it being discovered first in the namesake site
situated in the province of west Punjab in Pakistan.

The Harappan culture spread southwards and eastwards from its central zone, which lay in sind and
Punjab, Haryana, Sindh, Baluchistan, Gujarat, Rajasthan and fringes of western Uttar Pradesh.
Harappa
Harappa was locatedon the banks of river Ravi in the Montgomery district of west Punjab. It was
excavated by Dayaram Sahani in 1921.

It is called the ‘city of granaries’, (12 granaries in a row were found there.)

‘H’ type of cemetery was found outside the citadel, suggesting the presence of a foreign race.

It was called the city of thousand sacrifices(Hariyupia) in Rig veda. The same veda says that it was
destroyed by Lord Indra.

Mohenjo-Daro
Mohenjodaro was situated on the banks of the Indus in Larkana district of Sindh Province.

It was excavated by R.D.Banerjee.

It is the largest Indus Valley site, most populated and a model site for all other sites.

The civil constructions in the site were a swimming pool like structure, the great bath the great
granary, a temple like structure and an assembly hall.

A piece of cloth, a scale for measuring distance, a seal of pashupati, a bronze image of a dancing girl,
an image of priest made of steatite are some of the other relics were found.

Pashupati in this image is in deep meditative postures in three faces, two horns, surrounded by four
animals, a buffalo, a tiger, elephant and rhino in four different directions with two deer at his feet. It
is the first representation of Lord Shiva.

The city was flooded as many as seven times.

The ruins of Mohenjodaro were designated were a UNESCO world heritage site in the year 1980.

Chanhudaro
Chanhudaro was located on the banks of river Indus in sindh province excavated by M.J.Majumdar.

This was the only site without a citadel.

An Inkpot for storing the writing ink was found here.

It was a major center for making bread.

It was flooded thrice.

Experienced both the stages of development, viz, proto and harappan phase .

Remains of bathrooms and toilets are it unique aspects.

The biggest unit of land in prehistoric world meant forextensive cultivation was found here.

Fire altars suggesting the worship of Agni were found here in a large number.

Banwali
Banawali was located on the banks of river saraswati in Haryana.

It is notable for extensive cultivation of barley.

Lothal
Lothal was located on the banks of cambay(gujarat).

An artificial naval dockyard, houses with side entrances and eastern entrance for the city are unique
aspects of Lothal.

The people of Lothal were the first to cultivate rice around the year 1800 B.C.

Surkotada
Definite evidence of the knowledge and use of the horse by the IVC people was found in the form of
a horse’s skeleton.

Rangpur
Rangpur was another site where rice was cultivated.

Dholavira
Dholavira was the most recent site to be discovered, in the year 1992.

It is biggest IVC site within the boundaries of present dayIndia.

The first and earliest stadium of prehistoric times was found here.

The largest inscription with 10 pictographs in a single sentence was found here.
Indus Valley Society
The Indus valley society was a matriarchal society. The classes comprised
traders,peasantry,craftsmen and the royalty.

The remarkable feature of this earliest urbanisation was its town planning ,in which towns were well
laid out in grid pattern uniformity in the size of bricks used and the underground drainage system
were unique aspects.

Another notable feature of the society was the burial practices. Dead bodies were buries in sitting
postures with head facing north. Other practices were coffin burial, pot burial or urn burial ,partial
burial and cist burial(brick chambered burial as found in kalibangan)

One of the numerous terracotta of women found depicts a plant growing out of the embryo of a
woman. It is, most probably, to be considered an image of mother goddess earth. Like the Egyptians
worshipped the Nile goddess ISIS, Harappans worshipped the earth as fertility goddess. There was
prevalence of phallus worship and numerous symbols of phallus and female sex organs made of
stone were found in Harappa. The the people of Indus also worshipped trees. Animals were also
worshipped in the harappan times, and many of them are represented on the seals. The most
notable are the one horned unicorn and humped bull. But nothing can be said about the religious
belief of harappan people. Discovery amulets suggest their belief in existence of ghosts and evil
forces.

The Harappan scripts were pictographic. It is written in boustrophedon style.

Nothing can be said about their ideas and beliefs as the harappan script has not yet been
deciphered. Around 4000 specimens of harappan writing on stone seals and other objects have been
discovered.

The urban people used weights and measures for trade and other transactions, as the discovery of
numerous articles used for weighing suggests. Weights of mostly 16 or its multiples were used.The
Harappans also knew the art of measurement.

Harappans held expertise in the use of porter’s wheel . Seals were another form of their artistic
expression. The harappan artists made beautiful images of metal, e.g., bronze dancing women,
steatite statue. Terracotta art represents crude artistic forms in contrast to metals and seals. The
difference in the two sets indicates the gap between the classes which used them, anything notable
in stone work is absent.

The harappan people domesticated oxen, buffaloes, goats, sheep and pigs and regarded dogs as
pets. Asses and camels were used as beasts of burden.

TheHarappan culture belongs to the bronze age and a considerable number of bronze items have
been discovered from harappan sites, suggesting the important position that bronze smiths held in
harappan society.
Indus valley economy

Extensive cultivation was practiced ,people had knowledge of all crops except sugarcane. They knew
of irrigation systems and widely practiced tank irrigation. The Indus valley civilization used the model
of irrigated agriculture which involved sufficient skill to reap the advantages of the spacious and
fertile Indus river valley while controlling the intimidating annual flood that simultaneously fertilised
byt also caused extensive destruction. Having obtained a secured foothold on the plain and solvedits
more immediate problems, the new civilization subsisted primarily by farming, supplemented by
considerable commercial activities.

Foodgrains were stored in huge granararies in both Harappa and Mohenjodaro and possible
kalibangan.Cereals were used as taxes from peasants and ewre used as payment of wages and
during the times of emergencies. The harappan people were earliest to produce cotton and this was
the reason Greeks called them sindhon . derived from the word ‘sindh’.

The Harappans carried on considerable trade in stone, metal, seals,etc,within the Indis region.The
majority of exchange were based on barter economy. The practised navigation on the coast of the
Arabian sea. Ekka was used for transportation of goods. A trading colony was set up in Afghanistan
which facilitated trade with central asia. There were commercial contacts with regions around the
rivers Tigris and Euphrates, as the discovery of Harappan seals from Mesopotamia suggests.They
carried on long distances trade in Lapis Lazuli.

Gold was imported from southern India or Afhganistan, Silver and copper from Afghanistan or north-
western India.In particular,the khetri mines from rajasthan provided copper for the entireIVC.

Lothal, Balakot and sutkagendorwere the important portsin external trade.