History - The Indus Valley Civilization
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The Indus Valley Civilisation
Settlements
From the beginning of the 4th 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 3rd millennium, a uniform culture had
developed at settlements spread across nearly 500,000 square miles, including
parts of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Baluchistan, Sind and the Makran
coast.
This earliest known civilisation in India, the starting point in its
history, dates back to about 3000 BC. Discovered in the 1920s, it was thought
to have been confined to the valley of the river Indus, hence the name
given to it was Indus Valley civilisation. This civilisation was a highly
developed urban one and two of its towns, Mohenjodaro and Harappa, represent
the high watermark of the settlements. Subsequent archaeological excavations
established that the contours of this civilisation were not restricted
to the Indus valley but spread to a wide area in northwestern and western
India. Thus this civilisation is now better known as the Harappan civilisation.
Mohenjodaro and Harappa are now in Pakistan and the principal sites in
India include Ropar in Punjab, Lothal in Gujarat and Kalibangan in Rajasthan.
Urban Development
The emergence of this civilisation is as remarkable as its stability
for nearly a thousand years. All the cities were well planned and were
built with baked bricks of the same size; the streets were laid at right
angles with an elaborate system of covered drains. There was a fairly clear
division of localities and houses were earmarked for the upper and lower
strata of society. There were also public buildings, the most famous being
the Great Bath at Mohenjodaro and the vast granaries. Production of several
metals such as copper, bronze, lead and tin was also undertaken and some
remnants of furnaces provide evidence of this fact. The discovery of kilns
to make bricks support the fact that burnt bricks were used extensively
in domestic and public buildings.
Occupations
Evidence
also points to the use of domesticated animals, including camels, goats,
water buffaloes and fowls. The Harappans cultivated wheat, barley, peas
and sesamum and were probably the first to grow and make clothes from cotton.Trade
seemed to be a major activity at the Indus Valley and the sheer quantity
of seals discovered suggest that each merchant or mercantile family own
edits own seal. These seals are in various quadrangular shapes and sizes,
each with a human or an animal figure carved on it. Discoveries suggest
that the Harappan civilisation had extensive trade relations with the neighbouring
regions in India and with distant lands in the Persian Gulf and Sumer (Iraq).
Society and Religion
The Harappan society was probably divided according to occupations and
this also suggests the existence of an organized government.
The
figures of deities on seals indicate that the Harappans worshipped gods
and goddesses in male and female forms and has also evolved some rituals
and ceremonies. No monumental
sculpture
survives, but a large number of human figurines have been discovered,
including a steatite bust of a man thought to be a priest, and a striking
bronze dancing girl. Countless terra-cotta statues of Mother Goddess have
been discovered suggesting that she was worshipped in nearly every home.
By about 1700 BC, the Harappan culture was on the decline, due to repeated
flooding of towns located on the river banks and due to ecological changes
which forced agriculture to yield to the spreading desert. Some historians
do not rule out invasions by barbarian tribes of the northwest as the cause
of the decline of the Harappan civilisation. When the initial migrationsof
the
Aryan people
into India began about 1500
BC, the developed Harappan culture had already been practically wiped out.