Ancient History- Culture And Heritage -Know about The Country

  INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

INTRODUCTION

Excavation of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro sites in Punjab and Sind, now in Pakistan,

aware the world about an ancient most advanced civilization contemporary to Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Shang civilization of China.

DISCOVERY

Indus Valley Civilization  is considered as an indelible landmark  in Ancient Indian History for presenting to the world the most advanced and well defined-culture

It has various synonyms such as :

ü Indus Civilization

ü Indus Valley Civilization

ü Harappan Civilization

The earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent is Indus Valley Civilization .

In 1921 it was first identified at Harappa in the Punjab region and then at Mohenjo-Daro, in 1922 near the Indus River in the Sindh (Sind) region, now both in Pakistan.

It is more appropriate to call it as Harappan Civilization as Harappa is the first site, the excavation of which brought this civilization to light.

Harappan Civilization is considered to be a Bronze Age Civilization.

In 1826 Charles Merson  found old bricks in Harappa in large numbers.

After that in 1831, Colonel Burns noticed Harappan sites when he went to meet Maharaja Ranjeet Singh.

Alexender Cunningham inspected Harappan Site in 1853 and 1857.

It was in 1921 Daya Ram Sahni got the site excavated at Harappa in the Montogomery district of Punjab ( now in Pakistan )on the left bank of River Ravi.

In 1922, Rakhal  Das  Banerjee discovered the remains of civilization at Mohenjodaro in the Larkana district of Sindh (now in Pakistan).

Geographical extent

The sites belonging to the Indus Valley civilization are spread over 1,299,600 sq.km  which makes it the largest early civilization. These are the sites of Indus Valley Civilization that were located on the extreme ends of the Civilization.

Westernmost Site	Suktagendor (Markan coast Pakistan)
Easternmost Site	Alamgirpur (Meerut District)
Northernmost Site	Gumla (Jammu and Kashmir)
Southernmost Site	Malavana (Surat District)

   CONCEPT BUILDER

The Indus  Valley Civilization was a highly complex and advanced civilization, achieving feats of architecture and engineering that was unmatched for thousands of years.

MAP OF INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION       

HARAPPA	PUNJAB (PAKISTAN)
MOHENJODARO	SINDH (PAKISTAN)
CHANHUDARO	SINDH  (PAKISTAN)
LOTHAL	GUJRAT
KALIBANGAN	RAJASTHAN
BANWALI	HARYANA
RANGURA, ROJDI	GUJRAT
DHOLAVIRA	KUTCH (GUJRAT)

SOCIETY AND POLITY    

·       Though the Indus Valley Civilization represents the first urbanization of India, the majority of the people lived in rural areas.

CONCEPT BUILDER

Slaves were present in Harappa

·        Temples have not been found at any Harappan site. We have no religious structures of any kind except the Great Bath, which may have been used for ablution. There are some indications of the practice of fire cult at Lothal in Gujrat in the later phase but no temples were used for the purpose.

·       The class of merchants was probably ruled in the Indus valley civilization.Since no temple or religious structures are found (except the fire altars of kalibangan and the Great Bath of Mohenjodaro ) it seems improbable that priests ruled.

·       The Indus valley society was patriarchal in nature. The Indus Valley Civilization compromised people who were found to be a mix of Mediterranean, Proto Australoid, Alpine, and Mongoloids. The society was highly stratified as evident by the sizes of houses found.

·       It was divided into two parts. One consists of the citadel, in which probably the ruling class lived (upper town ). The other part of the sites was inhabited by the commoners ( lower town).

TOWN PLANNING AND HOUSES

·       The most striking characteristic of Harappan Civilization is its town planning and sanitation.

·       Harappan sites such as Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Kalibangan, Dholavira, and Surkotda , was divided into two parts: a fortified settlement on the high mounds called ‘citadels’ and the main residential area called ‘lower town’.

·       ‘Citadel’ was smaller in area than the ‘lower town’ and located to the west of cities

·       Houses were built of Kiln-burnt bricks. At Lothal and Kalibangan residential houses were made of sun-dried bricks

·       The drains, wells, bathing platforms were made of kiln-burnt bricks.

·       Mostly houses had wells within them and a drainage system carried the wastewater to the main underground drain of the street. The covered drains had soak-pits and manholes for clearing.

·       The arrangements for street lighting where available for the people.

·       The main streets ran from North to South, varied from 9ft to 34ft in width.

·       Municipal authority controlled the development of the city.

·       In Indus Valley, civilization streets ran in straight lines crossing one another at right angles. Houses stood on both sides of the streets.

·       The street and lanes were not paved but a famous street called ‘ The first street’ of  Mohenjdaro was surfaced with broken bricks and potsherds.

·       Harappa and Mohenjodaro were built entirely of burnt bricks. All the bricks were well proportioned measuring 26x 12.5x 5.5 cm.

·       Large bricks (51cm) were used to cover drains.

·       The bricks were made of Alluvial soil.

·       Wedge-shaped bricks were used in the lining of wells. Small bricks were used for making the bathroom pavements watertight. L- shaped bricks were preferred for corners.

·       The buildings (dwelling house, larger buildings, and public baths, granaries, etc.) were mostly plain without plasters.

·       At Kalibanga, ornamental bricks were used in the floor of a house. The ground floor of a small house measured 8x9 meters and the large one was double of its size.

·       Some of the houses were double storeyed. Wooden beams were used in the making of roofs. The roofs were made of reed matting covered with thick coating mud.

·       A few staircases have been discovered. Wooden staircase with narrow steps (38 cm high, 13cm wide ) were used in general.

·       The roofs were flat and enclosed by a parapet.

       

ECONOMIC LIFE

Harappan people were comfort living and prosperous. Their richness was due to surplus agriculture, cattle rearing, proficiency in various crafts and trade.

AGRICULTURE

·       Agriculture  was the backbone of the Harappan people. Sindh was a fertile part of the country. The people of Indus sowed seeds in the flood plains at the month of November when the floodwater receded and reaped their harvests of wheat and barley in April, before the advent of the next flood.

·       They produced wheat, jowar, ragi, barley, peas, kodon, Sanwa, etc.

·       Two types of wheat- the club wheat campactum and the Indian dwarf wheat (Triticum sphaerococcum) were grown.

·       Other crops include dates, sesame and mustard was also grown.

·       It seems that as early as 180 B.C. Lothal people used rice whose remains have been found.

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY    
                                  

 The first who were domesticate the water buffalo and the fowl were Indus valley people. They also domesticated humpless bull,  humped and, goat, pigs, and sheep.

Asses and Camels were used as beasts of burden. Camel's bones are reported at Kalibangan.

The only plausible evidence of the horse comes from Surkotda belonging to around 2000 B.C.

Elephants were well known to the Harappans.

TRADE AND COMMERCE

TRADE

·       The cities like Mohenjodaro, Harappa, and Lothal were the important centers for metallurgy, producing tools and weapons as well as kitchenware.

·       Rice seems to have been imported to Punjab from Gujrat.

·       Lothal and Surkotda filled a large gap in the growing demands for cotton.

·       Sea shells were exported from Balakot and Lothal to Baluchistan as well as the Indus.

·       Dates, Shilajeet was found in Mohenjodaro.

·       The Harappan imported metals and semi-precious stones, ornaments of gold and silver from the subcontinental areas like Lapis Lazuli from Kashmir and Afghanistan.

THE HARAPPAN SCRIPT

The Harappan invented the art of the writing lie the people of ancient Mesopotamia.The earliest specimen of Harappan script although was noticed in 1853 and the complete script discovered by 1923, it has not been deciphered so far.

Not like the Egyptians and Mesopotamians, the Harappans did not write long inscriptions. Most inscriptions were recorded on seals and contain only a few words.
The Harappan script is mainly pictographic but not alphabetical.

IMPORTANT SITES AND IMPORTANT ASPECTS ASSOCIATED WITH THEM

HARAPPA

·  This place was situated on the bank of river Ravi. The first among different Harappan sites to be discovered in1921 A.D by D.R Sahni.

·    The lower town is unfortified in a Citadel.

·   12 granary buildings have been discovered. 891 seals have been found. Red stone torso of a naked male figure (the prototype of jiva or Yaksha figure

Mohenjo-Daro

Mohenjodaro

  Mohenjo-Daro 

was situated on the bank of the river Indus. The third-largest (in area coverage) among Harappan sites.

·       The city has been stratified into two parts. The western low mound had a citadel and the eastern mound had the unfortified lower city

·       The Western mound is crowned by a Buddhist stupa built in the second century B.C.

Buddhist Stupa Mohenjodaro

·       The Great Bath ( the most famous building of Mhenjodaro) was excavated by a John Marshall. It was  made entirely of burnt bricks and attached with staircases.

Great Bath Mohenjodaro

    

·       The Great Granary Hall: The largest building of Harappan times so far discovered. Its size was 45.71mx15.23m. Along Collegiate Building (which contains the Great Bath)

• 1398seals have been unearthed. The depiction of the seals throw light on animal sacrifice, mother goddess cult, animal and tree worship and a belief in the protoform of Shiva Pashupati.

Bronze images - The famous Dancing girl and Few vessels of copper-bronze

                      

DHOLAVIRA

• It is situated in the Kutch district of Gujrat.

 At present, it is the largest Indus Valley site to be discovered. It is the largest among the sites within the present any political territory of India.

• Its unique feature is that here there are 3peipheral divisions (instead of 2 in other cities ) of the site. here are the citadel and fortified lower city with the middle town.

SUKTAGENDOR              

Situated at a distance of 500kms to the West of Karachi was originally a port of Harappan days but later on cut off from the sea due to coastal uplift.

LOTHAL

• Situated 80kms s south of Ahmedabad, Lothal is the world’s first tidal seaport constructed by the Harappan. In its structure, it can be called as a mini Harappa or a mini Mohenjodaro.

• The trapezoid citadel also possesses the residence of the ruler. Evidence of aDockyard.

CHANHUDARO

Situated at 130kms south of Mohenjodaro. It was on the bank of the river Indus.

A major center of production of beautiful seals, The evidence of bead makers shops are found

KOTDIJI

Situated AT ADISTANCEOF 50KMSTOTHE East of Mohenjodaro. It won the bank of the river Indus. EvidenceofpreHrappan and Harappan culture has been discovered.

SURKOTDA

                                                    

Situated at a distance of 160kms to the N-Eof Bhuj. Bone of horses has been discovered.

Kalibangan

Situated in the Ganganagar district of Rajasthan. It was on the southern bank of the river Ghaggar.

Evidences of pre- Harappan and Harappan culture. The discovery of fire altars.’ The evidence of the plowed field. The discovery of cattle bones, deer bones, and camel bones.

Citadel and fortified lower town. The discovery of cylindrical seals (a Mesopotamian counterpart).

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