Indus Valley Civilization(part-1)

Indus Valley Civilization (3250–1750 BC)

Introduction-

• The time span of the Indus valley civilization extends in general  from 2500-1500 B.C.

• It was first called the ‘The Indus Valley Civilization’.But this civilization was later named as the ‘Indus Civilization’ due to the discovery of more and more sites far away from the Indus valley.

• Also, it has come to be called the ‘Harappan Civilization’ after the name of its first discovered site.

• The Harappan civilization occupied a varied landscape. It included alluvial plains , mountains, plateau, and sea coasts.

• The first person to come across Harappa was Charles Masson who identified it as an ancient city called Sangala, belonging to the time of Alexander.

• In 1853-1854, Alexander Cunningham visited the ruins and mistakenly concluded that the site was a Buddhist monastery

• Harappa was excavated in 1920 by Daya Ram Sahni.

• Mohenjo-daro was excavated by Rakhaldas Banerjee in 1921

• It was in 1924 that John Marshall announced to the world, the existence of an ancient civilization in the Indus valley

Geographical distribution of Indus valley civilization-

• The area covered by the Indus Culture much greater than that occupied jointly by the contemporary civilization of Egypt and Mesopotamia.

• The remains of the expansion of this Civilization have been found in North India from Ropar of Ambala district to Rangpur district in Kathiawad; from Ahmednagar district in Maharasthra to Ghazipur, Varanasi, Buxar and Patna in the east.

• This proves that the Harappan Civilization was spread across Punjab and Sindh, in the valleys of north-western frontiers mainly Kathiawad, Rajasthan and Doab.

• The northern most site of the Indus civilization is Shortughai in northeast Afghanistan.

Important Harrapan sites-

• Kot diji in Sind.

• Kalibangan in Rajasthan.

• Rupar in Punjab.

• Banwali in Haryana.

• Lothal ,Surkotada and Dholavira in Gujrat.

• Mohenjo daro -The ancient city sits on elevated ground in the modern-day Larkana district of Sindh province in Pakistan and situated near Indus river.

Different views about origin of IVC-

John Marshall(1931)-

• In his report on Mohenjo-daro, he speculated the civilization to be indigenous in origin, but he couldn’t put forward any data to support.

• It also supported by Stuart Piggot.

E.H. Mackay -

• Argued that the civilization was a result of interaction between invaders from Uruk culture of Mesopotamia and the indigenous people.

D.H. Gordon-

• Argued that there was an actual migration of people from Mesopotamia

F.R. Allchin and Bridget Allchin -

• Argued forthe possibility of Harappan civilization being derived from Pre-Harappan culture of the Indus valley itself.

• It is also supported by M. R. Mughal.

• There is no unanimous view amongst scholars about it.

• Even with archaeological articles found from this place, it is difficult to tell about inhabitants and makers Many scholars say that they were not Non aryans.

• Scholars don’t agree on Indus people being Sumerian also.

• They are of the view that Sumerians were older than Indus people.

Division of Harrapan civilization-

It is divided into 4 phases-

Phase -1 -

Early Harappan (3300- 2600 BCE)

It is further subdivided as follows-

A.The Kot Dijian culture occupying the largest area embracing NWFP, Pakistan’s Punjab and northern Sindh.

B. Sothi-Siswal culture with settlements in northern Rajasthan, Indian Punjab and Haryana.

C.The Amri-Nal culture found in Baluchistan and Central and Southern Sindh with extensions in Gujarat.

D.The Damb Sadaat phase of Central Baluchistan.

Features-

• Fortification and proper planing of houses.

• Artefacts like terracotta cakes and painted motifs like fishscale, pipal leaf, which continued in the Mature Harappan phase.

• Presence of button seals with geometric motifs at some sites.

• Transportation with exchange of raw material.

• Ritual beliefs embodied in a wide range of terracotta cattle and Female Figurines.

• In some area the settlement was divided into two sectors, with streets oriented north-south, east-west.

Phase 2-

This is called as Transitional Phase between Early and Mature Harrapan

Important sites-

• Kunal.

• Dholavira.

• Harappa.

Features-

Its features are of mix nature and includes-

• Well planned drainage system based on soakage pits in the streets.

• Increasing level of craft specialization.

• Use of stamp seals, script, weights and many typical pottery forms etc.

Phase 3- Mature Harappan-

Date-2600- 1800BCE

Important sites-

• Mohenjodaro in Sindh (largest- over 200 ha).

• Harappa in Punjab (Pakistan).

• Lothal in Gujarat.

• Kalibangan in Rajasthan.

• Banawali in Haryana.

• Dholavira in Gujarat etc.

A.Mohenjo-Daro-

• It was situated in the Larkana province of Sindh.

• It was divided in to two parts; East and West.

• Western part is relatively smaller than Eastern one.

Western part-

• Entire town of western part was based on a platform and area is fortified.

• A big pond has been found in this western part of Mohenjo-Daro

Great Bath-

• It is 39 feet long and 23 feet wide.

• Use of bricks has been done to make this pond.

• Bitumen plaster has been done after layering of bricks, so that water cannot go out.

• The floor had a small inlet located on the south-west that was connected to a drain.

• This large pond has been described as formal bathing place

Granary and Assembly hall-

• Some of the structures adjacent to the Great Bath, have been identified as ‘Priest’s College’ and ‘Granary’.

• One of the square structures on the southern side of the mound has been interpreted as an ‘Assembly Hall’ where the inhabitants gathered to discuss important matters

Eastern part-

• Relatively larger than western part.

• This part also is surrounded by walls.

• Here houses were made on separate platforms and had low height as comparison to western part.

• Here 3 feet wide roads were found and due to these roads, many houses of eastern part were divided in many group and house of each house opens toward road and houses also had windows.

• Proper drainage system was there for each house.

• We get to know by the remains found that there were holes in the drainage which were close to big roads.

• After they were filled with dirty water, it was flushed out.

• There were many wells for the use of common men, which were made of bricks

B.Harappa-

• This place was situated at the left of Ravi river in modern Pakistan.

• Similar to Mohenjodaro,Harappa too was divided in to two parts on planning point of view.

• First part was at the eastern side and second at the western side.

• Due to lack of available artifacts , The data about eastern part was not properly found but we have detail about western part

Western part-

• It was surrounded by walls and had high platform

• There were many doors for entry and exit. There was one main gate, which opened towards north.

• Just in front to its north gate, Ravi used to flow.

• Excavation in between Ravi river and north gate tells us that there was a grain storage house and houses for labourers.

• Round platforms made of brick also were there.

• Burnt wheat and husked barley have been found in the crevices.

• Graveyard was also found in this area.

C.Lothal

• It was situated in modern Gujarat.

• This was a port town of the Harappans.

• It is located in a low deltaic area in the Saurashtra peninsula.

• Both the citadel and the lower town are located within the same complex.

• There were no two hillock like Kalibanga and other areas, means it was not divided in two parts.

• This too was surrounded by a huge Wall.

• From one of the buildings, in the citadel, around 65 terracotta sealings having impressions of reed, woven fiber, cords, and matting have been recovered.

• This implies that it was a warehouse or place where the goods were packed.

• There are many lanes of smaller platforms over it containing many narrow paths.

• There were factory for bead for necklace, jewelers and tinkers

D.Kalibangan-

• The site is located to the west of now dried up river Ghaggar in Rajasthan.

• The site also consists of a higher citadel mound on the west, and a lower residential mound on east.

Western part-

• It is divided into a northern and southern sector by a wall.

• In the northern sector, we have recovered few houses and a road.

• The southern sector has no residential structure. 

• There is a series of mudbrick platforms.

• One of the platforms has a few altars containing ash, charcoal, and clay stele.

• Fire altars were also discovered in the residences of the eastern lower mound.

• Graveyard was also found in this area.

Eastern part was also similar to western.

• There was no proper drainage system developed in it as comparison to Mohenjodaro and also houses used raw bricks but in Mohenjodaro there was use of Burnt or modern bricks.

• A plough field has been discovered at Kalibangan.

• There is evidence of use plough in cultivation

E.Banawali

• The site is located to the right of the dried river Rangoi in Haryana.

• This are was completely fortefied.

• The citadel and the lower town here are located within the same complex.

• A multi roomed house which gave evidence for seals, and weights has been identified as a ‘merchant’s house’.

• Here also there were two boundaries connected with each other.

• In one part, rich used to live and other was used for worship.

• There were wells and have some drainage system.

F.Dholavira

It is located on an island in the Rann of Kutch in Gujrat

Use of Sand stone-

• Here instead of bricks, the buildings here are mainly built using the locally available sandstone

Water reserviors-

• Stepwell Steps to Reach the Water Level in Artificially Constructed.

• Reservoir can be seen in this area.

• In the Lower town in order to meet its water requirement, the inhabitants here have cut water reservoirs into the bedrock

Divided into 3 part(instead of 2)

The town plan is unique. Instead of two, it has three areas-

• citadel-bailey complex,middle town and a lower town located within the same fortified complex

Other sites -

A.Chanhudaro-

• It is located 130 kilometres south of Mohenjo-daro in the Pakistani province of Sindh.

• It was discovered by N G Majumdar in 1931 and was later excavated on a large scale by Mackay in 1935-36.

• It is thought that the Sarasvati River formerly flowed nearby.

• The Sarasvati river is said to have dried up during the 2nd millennium BC, making life extremely difficult at Chanhudaro and hundreds of other settlements along the Sarasvati's banks.

Features-

• Several constructions were identified as workshops or industrial quarters and some of the buildings of Chanhudaro might have been warehouses.

• Evidence of shell working was found at Chanhudaro and bangles and ladles were made at this site

Sheffield of India-

• Copper knives, spears, razors, tools, axes, vessels and dishes were found, causing this site to be nicknamed the "Sheffield of India" by Earnest Mackay

Bead making factory

• An Impressive workshop, recognised as Bead Making Factory, was found at Chanhudaro

B.Surkotada -

• It is  located in Rapar Taluka of Kutch district, Gujarat.

• The total built up area of Surkotada of the period IC is in the form of a rectangle aligned along the cardinal directions.

• During 1974, the Archaeological Survey of India undertook excavations in this site.

• J.P.Joshi and A.K.Sharma reported findings of bones at all levels, which they described as horse bones.

• Presence of Mongooses were found in Surkotada as well as in Mohenjadaro, Harappa, and Rangpur, indicating that these animals were kept as a protection against snakes