Indus Valley Civilization

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The extent of Indus Valley Civilization.

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The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature
period 2600–1900 BCE) which was centred mostly in the western part[1] of the Indian
Subcontinent[2][3] and which flourished around the Indus River basin.[n 1] Primarily centered along
the Indus and the Punjab region, the civilization extended into the Ghaggar-Hakra River valley[7]
and the Ganges-Yamuna Doab,[8][9] encompassing most of what is now Pakistan, as well as
extending into the westernmost states of modern-day India, southeastern Afghanistan, and the
easternmost part of Balochistan, Iran.

The mature phase of this civilization is known as the Harappan Civilization, as the first of its
cities to be unearthed was the one at Harappa, excavated in the 1920s in what was at the time the
Punjab province of British India (now in Pakistan).[10] Excavation of IVC sites have been
ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999.[11] Mohenjo-
Daro, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is another well-known IVC archeological site.

The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is unknown, though Proto-
Dravidian, Elamo-Dravidian, or (Para-)Munda relations have been posited by scholars such as
Iravatham Mahadevan, Asko Parpola, F.B.J. Kuiper, and Michael Witzel.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Discovery and excavation

• 2 Chronology
• 3 Geography
• 4 Early Harappan
• 5 Mature Harappan
o 5.1 Cities
o 5.2 Science
o 5.3 Arts and culture
o 5.4 Trade and transportation
o 5.5 Subsistance
o 5.6 Writing or symbol system
o 5.7 Religion
• 6 Late Harappan

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 • 7 Legacy
• 8 Historical context and linguistic affiliation
• 9 Developments in July 2010
• 10 See also
• 11 Notes and references
• 12 Bibliography

• 13 External links

Discovery and excavation

The ruins of Harrappa were first described in 1842 by Charles Masson in his Narrative of
Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab, where locals talked of an ancient
city extending "thirteen cosses" (about 25 miles), but no archaeological interest would attach to
this for nearly a century.[12]

In 1856, British engineers John and William Brunton were laying the East Indian Railway
Company line connecting the cities of Karachi and Lahore. John wrote: "I was much exercised in
my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway." They were told of an ancient
ruined city near the lines, called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-
burnt bricks, and "convinced that there was a grand quarry for the ballast I wanted," the city of
Brahminabad was reduced to ballast.[13] A few months later, further north, John's brother William
Brunton's "section of the line ran near another ruined city, bricks from which had already been
used by villagers in the nearby village of Harappa at the same site. These bricks now provided
ballast along 93 miles (150 km) of the railroad track running from Karachi to Lahore."[13]

Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro, with the Great Bath in the front.

In 1872–75 Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal (with an erroneous
identification as Brahmi letters).[14] It was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals
were discovered by J. Fleet, prompting an excavation campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall
in 1921–22 and resulting in the discovery of the civilization at Harappa by Sir John Marshall,
Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats, and at Mohenjo-daro by Rakhal Das
Banerjee, E. J. H. MacKay, and Sir John Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been

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excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the
Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites
before the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani
Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein.

Following the Partition of India, the bulk of the archaeological finds were inherited by Pakistan
where most of the IVC was based, and excavations from this time include those led by Sir
Mortimer Wheeler in 1949, archaeological adviser to the Government of Pakistan. Outposts of
the Indus Valley civilization were excavated as far west as Sutkagan Dor in Baluchistan, as far
north as at Shortugai on the Amudarya or Oxus River in current Afghanistan.

Chronology
Main article: Periodization of the Indus Valley Civilization

The mature phase of the Harappan civilization lasted from c. 2600 to 1900 BCE. With the
inclusion of the predecessor and successor cultures—Early Harappan and Late Harappan,
respectively—the entire Indus Valley Civilization may be taken to have lasted from the 33rd to
the 14th centuries BCE. Two terms are employed for the periodization of the IVC: Phases and
Eras.[15][16] The Early Harappan, Mature Harappan, and Late Harappan phases are also called the
Regionalisation, Integration, and Localisation eras, respectively, with the Regionalization era
reaching back to the Neolithic Mehrgarh II period. "Discoveries at Mehrgarh changed the entire
concept of the Indus civilization," according to Ahmad Hasan Dani, professor emeritus at Quaid-
e-Azam University, Islamabad. "There we have the whole sequence, right from the beginning of
settled village life."[17]

Date range Phase Era

7000 - 5500 Early Food Producing
Mehrgarh I (aceramic Neolithic)
BC Era
5500-3300 Mehrgarh II-VI (ceramic Neolithic)
3300-2600 Early Harappan
Regionalisation Era
3300-2800 Harappan 1 (Ravi Phase)
5500-2600
Harappan 2 (Kot Diji Phase, Nausharo I, Mehrgarh
2800-2600
VII)
2600-1900 Mature Harappan (Indus Valley Civilization)
2600-2450 Harappan 3A (Nausharo II)
Integration Era
2450-2200 Harappan 3B
2200-1900 Harappan 3C
Late Harappan (Cemetery H); Ochre Coloured
1900-1300
Pottery
Localisation Era
1900-1700 Harappan 4
1700-1300 Harappan 5
Painted Gray Ware, Northern Black Polished Ware
1300-300 Indo-Gangetic Tradition
(Iron Age)
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Geography

Extent and major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization. The shaded area does not include recent
excavations such as Rupar, Balakot, Shortughai in Afghanistan, Manda in Jammu, etc. See [2]
for a more detailed map.

The Indus Valley Civilization encompassed most of Pakistan, extending from Balochistan to
Sindh, and extending into modern day Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab,
with an upward reach to Rupar on the upper Sutlej. The geography of the Indus Valley put the
civilizations that arose there in a highly similar situation to those in Egypt and Peru, with rich
agricultural lands being surrounded by highlands, desert, and ocean. Recently, Indus sites have
been discovered in Pakistan's northwestern Frontier Province as well. Other IVC colonies can be
found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be found as far away as Turkmenistan
and in Gujarat. Coastal settlements extended from Sutkagan Dor[18] in Western Baluchistan to
Lothal[19] in Gujarat. An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortughai in
northern Afghanistan,[20] in the Gomal River valley in northwestern Pakistan,[21] at Manda on the
Beas River near Jammu,[22] India, and at Alamgirpur on the Hindon River, only 28 km from
Delhi.[23] Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient
seacoast,[24] for example, Balakot,[25] and on islands, for example, Dholavira.[26]

There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in Pakistan and the
seasonal Ghaggar River in India. Many Indus Valley (or Harappan) sites have been discovered
along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds.[7] Among them are: Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, and
Ganwariwala.[27] According to J. G. Shaffer and D. A. Lichtenstein,[28] the Harappan Civilization
"is a fusion of the Bagor, Hakra, and Koti Dij traditions or 'ethnic groups' in the Ghaggar-Hakra
valley on the borders of India and Pakistan."[7]

According to some archaeologists, over 500 Harappan sites have been discovered along the dried
up river beds of the Ghaggar-Hakra River and its tributaries,[29] in contrast to only about 100
along the Indus and its tributaries;[30] consequently, in their opinion, the appellation Indus
Ghaggar-Hakra civilisation or Indus-Saraswati civilisation is justified. However, these
politically inspired arguments are disputed by other archaeologists who state that the Ghaggar-
Hakra desert area has been left untouched by settlements and agriculture since the end of the

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Indus period and hence shows more sites than found in the alluvium of the Indus valley; second,
that the number of Harappan sites along the Ghaggar-Hakra river beds have been exaggerated
and that the Ghaggar-Hakra, when it existed, was a tributary of the Indus, so the new
nomenclature is redundant.[31] "Harappan Civilization" remains the correct one, according to the
common archaeological usage of naming a civilization after its first findspot.

Early Harappan
The Early Harappan Ravi Phase, named after the nearby Ravi River, lasted from circa 3300 BCE
until 2800 BCE. It is related to the Hakra Phase, identified in the Ghaggar-Hakra River Valley to
the west, and predates the Kot Diji Phase (2800-2600 BCE, Harappan 2), named after a site in
northern Sindh, Pakistan, near Mohenjo Daro. The earliest examples of the Indus script date
from around 3000 BCE.[32]

The mature phase of earlier village cultures is represented by Rehman Dheri and Amri in
Pakistan.[33] Kot Diji (Harappan 2) represents the phase leading up to Mature Harappan, with the
citadel representing centralised authority and an increasingly urban quality of life. Another town
of this stage was found at Kalibangan in India on the Hakra River.[34]

Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw
materials, including lapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making. Villagers had, by this time,
domesticated numerous crops, including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as various
animals, including the water buffalo. Early Harappan communities turned to large urban centres
by 2600 BCE, from where the mature Harappan phase started.

Mature Harappan
By 2600 BCE, the Early Harappan communities had been turned into large urban centers. Such
urban centers include Harappa, Ganeriwala, Mohenjo-daro in modern day Pakistan, and
Dholavira, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Rupar, and Lothal in modern day India. In total, over 1,052
cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the general region of the Indus Rivers and their
tributaries.

Cities

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So-called "Priest King" statue, Mohenjo-daro, late Mature Harappan period, National Museum,
Karachi, Pakistan

A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley
Civilization making them the first urban centers in the region. The quality of municipal town
planning suggests the knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments which
placed a high priority on hygiene, or, alternately, accessibility to the means of religious ritual.

As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently partially excavated Rakhigarhi, this urban
plan included the world's first known urban sanitation systems. Within the city, individual homes
or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside
for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses
opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes. The house-building in some villages in the
region still resembles in some respects the house-building of the Harappans.[35]

The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage that were developed and used in cities
throughout the Indus region were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites
in the Middle East and even more efficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and India today.
The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their impressive dockyards, granaries,
warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. The massive walls of Indus cities most likely
protected the Harappans from floods and may have dissuaded military conflicts.[citation needed]

The purpose of the citadel remains debated. In sharp contrast to this civilization's
contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, no large monumental structures were built.
There is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples—or of kings, armies, or priests. Some
structures are thought to have been granaries. Found at one city is an enormous well-built bath
(the "Great Bath"), which may have been a public bath. Although the citadels were walled, it is
far from clear that these structures were defensive. They may have been built to divert flood
waters.

Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans, who lived with others pursuing the
same occupation in well-defined neighborhoods. Materials from distant regions were used in the
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cities for constructing seals, beads and other objects. Among the artifacts discovered were
beautiful glazed faïence beads. Steatite seals have images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and
other types of inscriptions, including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley
Civilization. Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods and most probably had
other uses as well.

Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civilization cities were remarkable for
their apparent, if relative, egalitarianism. All the houses had access to water and drainage
facilities. This gives the impression of a society with relatively low wealth concentration, though
clear social leveling is seen in personal adornments.

Science

Further information: Indian mathematics - Prehistory

Indus Valley seals, British Museum.

The people of the Indus Civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and
time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. Their
measurements are said to be extremely precise; however, a comparison of available objects
indicates large scale variation across the Indus territories. Their smallest division, which is
marked on an ivory scale found in Lothal, was approximately 1.704 mm, the smallest division
ever recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age. Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of
measurement for all practical purposes, including the measurement of mass as revealed by their
hexahedron weights.[citation needed]

These chert weights were in a perfect ratio of 4:2:1 with weights of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10,
20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 units, with each unit weighing approximately 28 grams, similar to the
English Imperial ounce or Greek uncia, and smaller objects were weighed in similar ratios with
the units of 0.871. However, as in other cultures, actual weights were not uniform throughout the
area. The weights and measures later used in Kautilya's Arthashastra (4th century BCE) are the
same as those used in Lothal.[36]

Unique Harappan inventions include an instrument which was used to measure whole sections of
the horizon and the tidal lock. In addition, Harappans evolved some new techniques in
metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin. The engineering skill of the Harappans
was remarkable, especially in building docks after a careful study of tides, waves, and currents.
The function of the so-called "dock" at Lothal, however, is disputed.
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In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh, Pakistan, made the
discovery that the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, from the early Harappan periods, had
knowledge of proto-dentistry. Later, in April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal
Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo
(i.e., in a living person) was found in Mehrgarh. Eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults
were discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Mehrgarh that dates, from 7,500-9,000 years ago.
According to the authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in the early
farming cultures of that region.[37]

A touchstone bearing gold streaks was found in Banawali, which was probably used for testing
the purity of gold (such a technique is still used in some parts of India).[38]

Arts and culture

The "dancing girl of Mohenjo Daro."

Various sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry, and anatomically detailed figurines in terracotta,
bronze, and steatite have been found at excavation sites.

A number of gold, terra-cotta and stone figurines of girls in dancing poses reveal the presence of
some dance form. Also, these terra-cotta figurines included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. Sir
John Marshall is known to have reacted with surprise when he saw the famous Indus bronze
statuette of a slender-limbed dancing girl in Mohenjo-daro:

… When I first saw them I found it difficult to believe that they were prehistoric; they seemed to
completely upset all established ideas about early art, and culture. Modeling such as this was
unknown in the ancient world up to the Hellenistic age of Greece, and I thought, therefore, that
some mistake must surely have been made; that these figures had found their way into levels
some 3000 years older than those to which they properly belonged. … Now, in these statuettes, it
is just this anatomical truth which is so startling; that makes us wonder whether, in this all-
important matter, Greek artistry could possibly have been anticipated by the sculptors of a far-off
age on the banks of the Indus.
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Many crafts "such as shell working, ceramics, and agate and glazed steatite bead making" were
used in the making of necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments from all phases of Harappan sites
and some of these crafts are still practiced in the subcontinent today.[39] Some make-up and
toiletry items (a special kind of combs (kakai), the use of collyrium and a special three-in-one
toiletry gadget) that were found in Harappan contexts still have similar counterparts in modern
India.[40] Terracotta female figurines were found (ca. 2800-2600 BCE) which had red color
applied to the "manga" (line of partition of the hair).[40]

Seals have been found at Mohenjo-daro depicting a figure standing on its head, and another
sitting cross-legged in what some call a yoga-like pose (see image, the so-called Pashupati,
below).

A harp-like instrument depicted on an Indus seal and two shell objects found at Lothal indicate
the use of stringed musical instruments. The Harappans also made various toys and games,
among them cubical dice (with one to six holes on the faces), which were found in sites like
Mohenjo-Daro.[41]

Trade and transportation

Computer-aided reconstruction of Harappan coastal settlement at Sokhta Koh near Pasni on the
westernmost outreaches of the civilization
Further information: Lothal and Meluhha

The Indus civilization's economy appears to have depended significantly on trade, which was
facilitated by major advances in transport technology. These advances included bullock carts that
are identical to those seen throughout South Asia today, as well as boats. Most of these boats
were probably small, flat-bottomed craft, perhaps driven by sail, similar to those one can see on
the Indus River today; however, there is secondary evidence of sea-going craft. Archaeologists
have discovered a massive, dredged canal and what they regard as a docking facility at the
coastal city of Lothal in western India (Gujarat state). An extensive canal network, used for
irrigation, has however also been discovered by H.-P. Francfort.

During 4300–3200 BCE of the chalcolithic period (copper age), the Indus Valley Civilization
area shows ceramic similarities with southern Turkmenistan and northern Iran which suggest
considerable mobility and trade. During the Early Harappan period (about 3200–2600 BCE),

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similarities in pottery, seals, figurines, ornaments, etc., document intensive caravan trade with
Central Asia and the Iranian plateau.[42]

Judging from the dispersal of Indus civilisation artifacts, the trade networks, economically,
integrated a huge area, including portions of Afghanistan, the coastal regions of Persia, northern
and western India, and Mesopotamia.

There was an extensive maritime trade network operating between the Harappan and
Mesopotamian civilizations as early as the middle Harappan Phase, with much commerce being
handled by "middlemen merchants from Dilmun" (modern Bahrain and Failaka located in the
Persian Gulf).[43] Such long-distance sea trade became feasible with the innovative development
of plank-built watercraft, equipped with a single central mast supporting a sail of woven rushes
or cloth.

Several coastal settlements like Sotkagen-dor (astride Dasht River, north of Jiwani), Sokhta Koh
(astride Shadi River, north of Pasni), and Balakot (near Sonmiani) in Pakistan along with Lothal
in India testify to their role as Harappan trading outposts. Shallow harbors located at the estuary
of rivers opening into the sea allowed brisk maritime trade with Mesopotamian cities.

Subsistance

Some post-1980 studies indicate that food production was largely indigenous to the Indus Valley.
It is known that the people of Mehrgarh used domesticated wheats and barley,[44] and the major
cultivated cereal crop was naked six-row barley, a crop derived from two-row barley (see Shaffer
and Liechtenstein 1995, 1999). Archaeologist Jim G. Shaffer (1999: 245) writes that the
Mehrgarh site "demonstrates that food production was an indigenous South Asian phenomenon"
and that the data support interpretation of "the prehistoric urbanization and complex social
organization in South Asia as based on indigenous, but not isolated, cultural developments."
Others, such as Dorian Fuller, however, indicate that it took some 2000 years before Middle
Eastern wheat was acclimatised to South Asian conditions.

Writing or symbol system

Main article: Indus script

Ten Indus characters discovered near the northern gate of Dholavira, c. 2000 BCE

Well over 400 distinct Indus symbols (some say 600)[45] have been found on seals, small tablets,
or ceramic pots and over a dozen other materials, including a "signboard" that apparently once
hung over the gate of the inner citadel of the Indus city of Dholavira. Typical Indus inscriptions
are no more than four or five characters in length, most of which (aside from the Dholavira
"signboard") are exquisitely tiny; the longest on a single surface, which is less than 1 inch
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(2.54 cm) square, is 17 signs long; the longest on any object (found on three different faces of a
mass-produced object) has a length of 26 symbols.

While the Indus Valley Civilization is generally characterized as a literate society on the
evidence of these inscriptions, this description has been challenged on linguistic and
archaeological grounds: it has been pointed out that the brevity of the inscriptions is unparalleled
in any known premodern literate society. Based partly on this evidence, a controversial paper by
Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel (2004)[46] argues that the Indus system did not encode language, but
was instead similar to a variety of non-linguistic sign systems used extensively in the Near East
and other societies. Others have claimed on occasion that the symbols were exclusively used for
economic transactions, but this claim leaves unexplained the appearance of Indus symbols on
many ritual objects, many of which were mass-produced in molds. No parallels to these mass-
produced inscriptions are known in any other early ancient civilizations.[47]

In a 2009 study by P. N. Rao et al. published in Science, computer scientists, comparing the
pattern of symbols to various linguistic scripts and non-linguistic systems, including DNA and a
computer programming language, found that the Indus script's pattern is closer to that of spoken
words, supporting the hypothesis that it codes for an as-yet-unknown language.[48][49] Farmer,
Sproat, and Witzel have disputed this finding, pointing out that Rao et al. did not actually
compare the Indus signs with "real-world non-linguistic systems" but rather with "two wholly
artificial systems invented by the authors, one consisting of 200,000 randomly ordered signs and
another of 200,000 fully ordered signs, that they spuriously claim represent the structures of all
real-world non-linguistic sign systems".[50] Farmer et al. have also demonstrated that a
comparison of a non-linguistic system like medieval heraldic signs with natural languages yields
results similar to those that Rao et al. obtained with Indus signs. They conclude that the method
used by Rao et al. cannot distinguish linguistic systems from non-linguistic ones.[51]

Photos of many of the thousands of extant inscriptions are published in the Corpus of Indus
Seals and Inscriptions (1987, 1991), edited by A. Parpola and his colleagues. Publication of a
final third volume, which will reportedly republish photos taken in the 1920s and 1930s of
hundreds of lost or stolen inscriptions, along with many discovered in the last few decades, has
been announced for several years. For now, researchers must supplement the materials in the
Corpus by study of the tiny photos in the excavation reports of Marshall (1931), Mackay (1938,
1943), Wheeler (1947), or reproductions in more recent scattered sources.

Religion

Further information: Prehistoric religion and History of Hinduism

In view of the large number of figurines[52] found in the Indus valley, it has been widely
suggested that the Harappan people worshipped a Mother goddess symbolizing fertility.
However, this view has been disputed by S. Clark.[53] Some Indus valley seals show swastikas
which are found in later religions and mythologies, especially in Indian religions such as
Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The earliest evidence for elements of Hinduism are present
before and during the early Harappan period[54][55]. Phallic symbols resembling the Hindu Siva
lingam have been found in the Harappan remains.[56][57]
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Many Indus valley seals show animals. One famous seal shows a figure seated in a posture
reminiscent of the Lotus position and surrounded by animals was named after Pashupati (lord of
cattle), an epithet of Shiva and Rudra.[58][59].[60]

In the earlier phases of their culture, the Harappans buried their dead; however, later, especially
in the Cemetery H culture of the late Harrapan period, they also cremated their dead and buried
the ashes in burial urns, a transition notably also alluded to in the Rigveda, where the forefathers
"both cremated (agnidagdhá-) and uncremated (ánagnidagdha-)" are invoked (RV 10.15.14).

Late Harappan
Main article: Late Harappan

Indus tablets. The first one shows a Swastika

Around 1800 BCE, signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around 1700 BCE, most
of the cities were abandoned. However, the Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear suddenly,
and many elements of the Indus Civilization can be found in later cultures. Current
archaeological data suggest that material culture classified as Late Harappan may have persisted
until at least c. 1000-900 BCE and was partially contemporaneous with the Painted Grey Ware
culture.[61] Archaeologists have emphasised that, just as in most areas of the world, there was a
continuous series of cultural developments. These link "the so-called two major phases of
urbanisation in South Asia".[61]

A possible natural reason for the IVC's decline is connected with climate change that is also
signaled for the neighboring areas of the Middle East: The Indus valley climate grew
significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BCE, linked to a general weakening of the
monsoon at that time. Alternatively, a crucial factor may have been the disappearance of
substantial portions of the Ghaggar Hakra river system. A tectonic event may have diverted the
system's sources toward the Ganges Plain, though there is complete uncertainty about the date of
this event, as most settlements inside Ghaggar-Hakra river beds have not yet been dated.
Although this particular factor is speculative, and not generally accepted, the decline of the IVC,
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as with any other civilization, will have been due to a combination of various reasons.[citation needed]
New geological research is now being conducted by a group led by Peter Clift, from the
University of Aberdeen, to investigate how the courses of rivers have changed in this region
since 8000 years ago, to test whether climate or river reorganizations are responsible for the
decline of the Harappan. A 2004 paper indicated that the isotopes of the Ghaggar-Hakra system
do not come from the Himalayan glaciers, and were rain-fed instead, contradicting a Harappan
time mighty "Sarasvati' river.[62]

Legacy
Main article: Iron Age India

In the aftermath of the Indus Civilization's collapse, regional cultures emerged, to varying
degrees showing the influence of the Indus Civilization. In the formerly great city of Harappa,
burials have been found that correspond to a regional culture called the Cemetery H culture. At
the same time, the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture expanded from Rajasthan into the Gangetic
Plain. The Cemetery H culture has the earliest evidence for cremation, a practice dominant in
Hinduism until today.

Historical context and linguistic affiliation

See also: Substratum in Vedic Sanskrit

The IVC has been tentatively identified with the toponym Meluhha known from Sumerian
records. It has been compared in particular with the civilizations of Elam (also in the context of
the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis) and with Minoan Crete (because of isolated cultural parallels
such as the ubiquitous goddess worship and depictions of bull-leaping).[63] The mature
(Harappan) phase of the IVC is contemporary to the Early to Middle Bronze Age in the Ancient
Near East, in particular the Old Elamite period, Early Dynastic to Ur III Mesopotamia,
Prepalatial Minoan Crete and Old Kingdom to First Intermediate Period Egypt.

After the discovery of the IVC in the 1920s, it was immediately associated with the indigenous
Dasyu inimical to the Rigvedic tribes in numerous hymns of the Rigveda. Mortimer Wheeler
interpreted the presence of many unburied corpses found in the top levels of Mohenjo-daro as the
victims of a warlike conquest, and famously stated that "Indra stands accused" of the destruction
of the IVC. The association of the IVC with the city-dwelling Dasyus remains alluring because
the assumed timeframe of the first Indo-Aryan migration into India corresponds neatly with the
period of decline of the IVC seen in the archaeological record. The discovery of the advanced,
urban IVC however changed the 19th century view of early Indo-Aryan migration as an
"invasion" of an advanced culture at the expense of a "primitive" aboriginal population to a
gradual acculturation of nomadic "barbarians" on an advanced urban civilization, comparable to
the Germanic migrations after the Fall of Rome, or the Kassite invasion of Babylonia. This move
away from simplistic "invasionist" scenarios parallels similar developments in thinking about
language transfer and population movement in general, such as in the case of the migration of the

14 | P a g e
Greeks into Greece (between 2100 and 1600 BC), or the Indo-Europeanization of Western
Europe (between 2200 and 1300 BC).

It was often suggested that the bearers of the IVC corresponded to proto-Dravidians
linguistically, the breakup of proto-Dravidian corresponding to the breakup of the Late Harappan
culture.[64] Today, the Dravidian language family is concentrated mostly in southern India and
northern Sri Lanka, but pockets of it still remain throughout the rest of India and Pakistan (the
Brahui language), which lends credence to the theory. Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola
concludes that the uniformity of the Indus inscriptions precludes any possibility of widely
different languages being used, and that an early form of Dravidian language must have been the
language of the Indus people. However, the proto-Dravidian origin theory is far from established,
and the Harappan language remains an unknown quantity, and there are a number of hypotheses:
Proto-Dravidian,[32][65] Proto-Munda (or Para-Munda) and a "lost phylum" (perhaps related or
ancestral to the Nihali language)[66] have been proposed as candidates.

The civilization is sometimes referred to as the Indus Ghaggar-Hakra civilization[4] or the Indus-
Sarasvati civilization by Hindutva groups, which is based on theories of Indigenous Aryans and
the Out of India migration of Indo-European speakers.

Developments in July 2010

Main article: Severe weather of the Indian subcontinent during 2010

On July 11, heavy floods hit Haryana in India and damage the archaeological site of Jognakhera,
from where ancient copper smelting were found dating back almost 5,000 years. The Indian
Indus Valley Civilization site was hit by almost 10 feet of water as the Sutlej Yamuna link canal
overflowed.[67]

See also
• Bronze Age
• Iron Age India
• Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures

Notes and references

Notes

1. ^ The civilization is sometimes referred to as the Indus Ghaggar-Hakra civilization or the

Indus-Sarasvati civilization. The appellation Indus-Sarasvati is based on the possible
identification of the Ghaggar-Hakra River with the Sarasvati River of the Nadistuti sukta in the
Rig Veda, but this usage is disputed on linguistic and geographical grounds.[4][5][6]

References

15 | P a g e
1. ^ http://www.harappa.com/har/indus-saraswati.html
2. ^ http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556839/indus_valley_civilization.html
3. ^ http://www.mohenjodaro.net/mohenjodaroessay.html
4. ^ a b Ching, Francis D. K.; Jarzombek, Mark;Prakash, Vikramaditya (2006). A Global History of
Architecture. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley & Sons. pp. 28–32. ISBN 0471268925.
5. ^ McIntosh 2001, p. 24.
6. ^ Ratnagar, Shereen (2006). Trading Encounters: From the Euphrates to the Indus in the Bronze
Age. Oxford University Press, India. ISBN 019568088X.
7. ^ a b c Possehl, G. L. (October 1990). "Revolution in the Urban Revolution: The Emergence of
Indus Urbanization". Annual Review of Anthropology 19: 261–282.
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cookieSet=1. Retrieved 2007-05-06.See map on page 263
8. ^ Indian Archaeology, A Review. 1958-1959. Excavations at Alamgirpur. Delhi: Archaeol. Surv.
India, pp. 51–52.
9. ^ Leshnik, Lawrence S. (October 1968). "The Harappan "Port" at Lothal: Another View".
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Afghanistan and the Panjab; including a residence in those countries from 1826 to 1838.
London: Richard Bentley. pp. 472. http://www.harappa.com/har/masson310.html. "A long march
preceded our arrival at Haripah, through jangal of the closest description.... When I joined the
camp I found it in front of the village and ruinous brick castle. Behind us was a large circular
mound, or eminence, and to the west was an irregular rocky height, crowned with the remains of
buildings, in fragments of walls, with niches, after the eastern manner.... Tradition affirms the
existence here of a city, so considerable that it extended to Chicha Watni, thirteen cosses distant,
and that it was destroyed by a particular visitation of Providence, brought down by the lust and
crimes of the sovereign." Note that the coss, a measure of distance used from Vedic period to
Mughal times, is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km).
13.^ a b Davreau, Robert (1976). "Indus Valley". in Reader's Digest. World's Last Mysteries.
14.^ Cunningham, A., 1875. Archaeological Survey of India, Report for the Year 1872-73, 5: 105-8
and pl. 32-3. Calcutta: Archaeological Survey of India.
15.^ Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1991). "The Indus Valley tradition of Pakistan and Western India".
Journal of World Prehistory 5: 1–64. doi:10.1007/BF00978474.
16.^ Shaffer 1992, I:441-464, II:425-446.
17.^ Chandler, Graham (September/October 1999). "Traders of the Plain". Saudi Aramco World:
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18.^ Dales, George F. (1962). "Harappan Outposts on the Makran Coast". Antiquity 36 (142): 86.
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20.^ Kenoyer 1998, p. 96
21.^ Dani, Ahmad Hassan (1970-1971). "Excavations in the Gomal Valley". Ancient Pakistan (5):
1–177.
22.^ Joshi, J. P.; Bala, M. (1982). "Manda: A Harappan site in Jammu and Kashmir". in Possehl,
Gregory L. (ed.). Harappan Civilization: A recent perspective. New Delhi: Oxford University
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Asiatici Series Minor 6. Instituto Universitario Orientate. pp. 241–274.
26.^ Bisht, R. S. (1989). "A new model of the Harappan town planning as revealed at Dholavira in
Kutch: a surface study of its plan and architecture". in Chatterjee, Bhaskar (ed.). History and
Archaeology. New Delhi: Ramanand Vidya Bhawan. pp. 379–408. ISBN 8185205469.
27.^ Mughal, M. R. 1982. "Recent archaeological research in the Cholistan desert". in Possehl,
Gregory L. (ed.). Harappan Civilization. Delhi: Oxford & IBH & A.I.1.S.. pp. 85–95.
28.^ Shaffer, Jim G.; Lichtenstein, Diane A. (1989). "Ethnicity and Change in the Indus Valley
Cultural Tradition". Old Problems and New Perspectives in the Archaeology of South Asia.
Wisconsin Archaeological Reports 2. pp. 117–126.
29.^ Gupta 1995, p. 183
30.^ e.g. Misra, Virendra Nath (1992). Indus Civilization, a special Number of the Eastern
Anthropologist. pp. 1–19.
31.^ Ratnagar, Shereen (2006). Understanding Harappa: Civilization in the Greater Indus Valley.
New Delhi: Tulika Books. ISBN 8189487027.
32.^ a b Parpola, Asko (1994). Deciphering the Indus Script. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0521430798.
33.^ Durrani, F. A. (1984). "Some Early Harappan sites in Gomal and Bannu Valleys". in Lal, B. B.
and Gupta, S. P.. Frontiers of Indus Civilisation. Delhi: Books & Books. pp. 505–510.
34.^ Thapar, B. K. (1975). "Kalibangan: A Harappan Metropolis Beyond the Indus Valley".
Expedition 17 (2): 19–32.
35.^ It has been noted that the courtyard pattern and techniques of flooring of Harappan houses has
similarities to the way house-building is still done in some villages of the region. Lal 2002,
pp. 93–95
36.^ Sergent, Bernard (1997) (in French). Genèse de l'Inde. Paris: Payot. pp. 113.
ISBN 2228891169.
37.^ Coppa, A.; et al. (2006-04-06). "Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry: Flint tips were
surprisingly effective for drilling tooth enamel in a prehistoric population". Nature 440 (7085):
755. doi:10.1038/440755a. PMID 16598247.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7085/pdf/440755a.pdf.
38.^ Bisht, R. S. (1982). "Excavations at Banawali: 1974-77". in Possehl, Gregory L. (ed.).
Harappan Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing
Co.. pp. 113–124.
39.^ Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1997). "Trade and Technology of the Indus Valley: New Insights
from Harappa, Pakistan". World Archaeology 29 (2: "High-Definition Archaeology: Threads
Through the Past"): 262–280. doi:10.1080/00438243.1997.9980377.
40.^ a b Lal 2002, p. 82
41.^ Lal 2002, p. 89
42.^ Parpola 2005, pp. 2–3
43.^ Neyland, R. S. (1992). "The seagoing vessels on Dilmun seals". in Keith, D.H.; Carrell, T.L.
(eds.). Underwater archaeology proceedings of the Society for Historical Archaeology
Conference at Kingston, Jamaica 1992. Tucson, AZ: Society for Historical Archaeology. pp. 68–
74.
44.^ Jarrige, J.-F. (1986). "Excavations at Mehrgarh-Nausharo". Pakistan Archaeology 10 (22): 63–
131.

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 45.^ Wells, B. An Introduction to Indus Writing. Early Sites Research Society (West) Monograph
Series, 2, Independence MO 1999
46.^ Farmer, Steve; Sproat, Richard; Witzel, Michael. The Collapse of the Indus-Script Thesis: The
Myth of a Literate Harappan Civilization. http://www.safarmer.com/fsw2.pdf.
47.^ These and other issues are addressed in Parpola (2005)
48.^ Rao, Rajesh P. N.; Yadav, Nisha; Vahia, Mayank N.; Joglekar, Hrishikesh; Adhikari, R.;
Mahadevan, Iravatham (May 2009). "Entropic Evidence for Linguistic Structure in the Indus
Script.". Science 324 (5931): 1165. doi:10.1126/science.1170391. PMID 19389998.
49.^ Indus Script Encodes Language, Reveals New Study of Ancient Symbols Newswise, Retrieved
on June 5, 2009.
50.^ A Refutation of the Claimed Refutation of the Non-linguistic Nature of Indus Symbols:
Invented Data Sets in the Statistical Paper of Rao et al. (Science, 2009) Retrieved on September
19, 2009.
51.^ 'Conditional Entropy' Cannot Distinguish Linguistic from Non-linguistic Systems Retrieved on
September 19, 2009.
52.^ Photos: http://www.harappa.com/figurines/index.html
53.^ Clark, Sharri R. (2007). The social lives of figurines: recontextualizing the third millennium BC
terracotta figurines from Harappa, Pakistan.. Harvard PhD.
54.^ "Rigveda". The Hindu Universe. HinduNet Inc. http://www.hindunet.org/vedas/rigveda/.
Retrieved 2007-06-25.
55.^ "Hindu History". http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/history/history_1.shtml.
The BBC names a bath and phallic symbols of the Harappan civilization as features of the
"Prehistoric religion (3000-1000BCE)".
56.^ Basham 1967
57.^ Frederick J. Simoons (1998). Plants of life, plants of death. pp. 363.
58.^ Ranbir Vohra (2000). The Making of India: A Historical Survey. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 15.
59.^ Grigoriĭ Maksimovich Bongard-Levin (1985). Ancient Indian Civilization. Arnold-Heinemann.
pp. 45.
60.^ Steven Rosen, Graham M. Schweig (2006). Essential Hinduism. Greenwood Publishing Group.
pp. 45.
61.^ a b Shaffer, Jim (1993). "Reurbanization: The eastern Punjab and beyond". in Spodek, Howard;
Srinivasan, Doris M.. Urban Form and Meaning in South Asia: The Shaping of Cities from
Prehistoric to Precolonial Times.
62.^ Tripathi, Jayant K.; Tripathi, K.; Bock, Barbara; Rajamani, V. & Eisenhauer, A. (2004-10-25).
"Is River Ghaggar, Saraswati? Geochemical Constraints". Current Science 87 (8).
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/oct252004/1141.pdf.
63.^ Mode, H. (1944). Indische Frühkulturen und ihre Beziehungen zum Westen. Basel.
64.^ Indus Writing Analysis by Asko Parpola
65.^ "Indus civilization". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-
9042359. Retrieved 2007-02-16.
66.^ Witzel, Michael (1999). "Substrate Languages in Old Indo-Aryan (Ṛgvedic, Middle and Late
Vedic)". Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 5 (1).
http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/ejvs0501/ejvs0501article.pdf.
67.^ [1]

Bibliography
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of South Asia. New York: Viking.

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• Allchin, Raymond (ed.) (1995). The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The
Emergence of Cities and States. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Aronovsky, Ilona; Gopinath, Sujata (2005). The Indus Valley. Chicago: Heinemann.
• Basham, A. L. (1967). The Wonder That Was India. London: Sidgwick & Jackson.
pp. 11–14.
• Chakrabarti, D. K. (2004). Indus Civilization Sites in India: New Discoveries. Mumbai:
Marg Publications. ISBN 81-85026-63-7.
• Dani, Ahmad Hassan (1984). Short History of Pakistan (Book 1). University of Karachi.
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the Third Millennium to the Seventh Century BC. New York/Paris: Routledge/UNESCO.
ISBN 0415093066.
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Delhi: Pratibha Prakashan. ISBN 81-85268-46-0.
• Gupta, S. P. (ed.) (1995). The lost Sarasvati and the Indus Civilisation. Jodhpur:
Kusumanjali Prakashan.
• Kathiroli; et al. (2004). "Recent Marine Archaeological Finds in Khambhat, Gujarat".
Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology (1): 141–149.
• Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1998). Ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0-19-577940-1.
• Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1991). "The Indus Valley tradition of Pakistan and Western
India". Journal of World Prehistory 5: 1–64. doi:10.1007/BF00978474.
• Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark; Heuston, Kimberly (2005). The Ancient South Asian World.
Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195174224.
• Kirkpatrick, Naida (2002). The Indus Valley. Chicago: Heinemann.
• Lahiri, Nayanjot (ed.) (2000). The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilisation. Delhi:
Permanent Black. ISBN 81-7530-034-5.
• Lal, B. B. (1998). India 1947-1997: New Light on the Indus Civilization. New Delhi:
Aryan Books International. ISBN 81-7305-129-1.
• Lal, B. B. (1997). The Earliest Civilisation of South Asia (Rise, Maturity and Decline).
• Lal, B. B. (2002). The Sarasvati flows on.
• McIntosh, Jane (2001). A Peaceful Realm: The Rise And Fall of the Indus Civilization.
Boulder: Westview Press. ISBN 0813335329.
• Mughal, Mohammad Rafique (1997). Ancient Cholistan, Archaeology and Architecture.
Ferozesons. ISBN 9690013505.
• Parpola, Asko (2005-05-19). "Study of the Indus Script".
http://www.harappa.com/script/indusscript.pdf. (50th ICES Tokyo Session)
• Possehl, Gregory (2002). The Indus Civilisation. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press.
• Rao, Shikaripura Ranganatha (1991). Dawn and Devolution of the Indus Civilisation.
New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. ISBN 81-85179-74-3.
• Shaffer, Jim G. (1995). "Cultural tradition and Palaeoethnicity in South Asian
Archaeology". in George Erdosy (ed.). Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia. Berlin u.a.: de
Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-014447-6.
• Shaffer, Jim G. (1999). "Migration, Philology and South Asian Archaeology". in
Bronkhorst and Deshpande (eds.). Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia.. Cambridge: Harvard
University, Dept. of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. ISBN 1-888789-04-2.
• Shaffer, Jim G. (1992). "The Indus Valley, Baluchistan and Helmand Traditions:
Neolithic Through Bronze Age". in R. W. Ehrich (ed.). Chronologies in Old World
Archaeology (Second ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Witzel, Michael (February 2000). "The Languages of Harappa". Electronic Journal of
Vedic Studies. http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/IndusLang.pdf.

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 • Rita P. Wright, The Ancient Indus: Urbanism Economy and Society, Case Studies in
Early Societies, Cambridge University Press, 2010, ISBN 9780521576529

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Indus Valley Civilization

• Indus Valley Civilization at www.indohistory.com

• Harappa and Indus Valley Civilization at harappa.com
• An invitation to the Indus Civilization (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum)
• The Harappan Civilization
• Cache of Seal Impressions Discovered in Western India
• Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization

The Art of Gandhara in The Metropolitan Museum

of Art
• Kurt A. Behrendt

20 | P a g e
 REVIEWS PREVIEW CONTENTS EXCERPTS

Gandhara was an ancient region of Pakistan that controlled a series of key passes for Silk Road trade among
India, China, and Mediterranean lands. This steady commerce provided the financial foundation for the
sustained patronage of luxury goods as well as Buddhist monastic sites and devotional sculpture. Drawing on
the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this book traces the complex and changing artistic tradition
of Gandhara, from Northwest Pakistan and Eastern Afghanistan in the 2nd century BC until the 8th century.

http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300120271

Figure 2. Indus Valley Culture Sites, ca. 2500-1600 B.C.

Source: Based on information from Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler, Early India
and Pakistan: To Ashoka, New York, 1968, 95; and Joseph E. Schwartzberg,
ed., A Historical Atlas of South Asia, New York, 1992, 9.

Dhyani Buddha, second-century Buddha statue from the historic site of Taxila
Courtesy Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

From the earliest times, the Indus River valley region has been both a transmitter
of cultures and a receptacle of different ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups.
Indus Valley civilization (known also as Harappan culture) appeared around 2500
B.C. along the Indus River valley in Punjab and Sindh. This civilization, which
had a writing system, urban centers, and a diversified social and economic
system, was discovered in the 1920s at its two most important sites: Mohenjo-
daro, in Sindh near Sukkur, and Harappa, in Punjab south of Lahore (see fig. 2).
A number of other lesser sites stretching from the Himalayan foothills in Indian
Punjab to Gujarat east of the Indus River and to Balochistan to the west have
also been discovered and studied. How closely these places were connected to
Mohenjo-daro and Harappa is not clearly known, but evidence indicates that

21 | P a g e
there was some link and that the people inhabiting these places were probably
related.

An abundance of artifacts have been found at Harappa--so much so, that the
name of that city has been equated with the Indus Valley civilization (Harappan
culture) it represents. Yet the site was damaged in the latter part of the
nineteenth century when engineers constructing the Lahore-Multan railroad used
brick from the ancient city for ballast. Fortunately, the site at Mohenjo-daro has
been less disturbed in modern times and shows a well-planned and well-
constructed city of brick.

Indus Valley civilization was essentially a city culture sustained by surplus

agricultural produce and extensive commerce, which included trade with Sumer
in southern Mesopotamia in what is today modern Iraq. Copper and bronze were
in use, but not iron. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were cities built on similar plans
of well-laid-out streets, elaborate drainage systems, public baths, differentiated
residential areas, flat-roofed brick houses and fortified administrative and
religious centers enclosing meeting halls and granaries. Weights and measures
were standardized. Distinctive engraved stamp seals were used, perhaps to
identify property. Cotton was spun, woven, and dyed for clothing. Wheat, rice,
and other food crops were cultivated, and a variety of animals were
domesticated. Wheel-made pottery--some of it adorned with animal and
geometric motifs--has been found in profusion at all the major Indus sites. A
centralized administration has been inferred from the cultural uniformity revealed,
but it remains uncertain whether authority lay with a priestly or a commercial
oligarchy.

By far the most exquisite but most obscure artifacts unearthed to date are the
small, square steatite seals engraved with human or animal motifs. Large
numbers of the seals have been found at Mohenjo-daro, many bearing
pictographic inscriptions generally thought to be a kind of script. Despite the
efforts of philologists from all parts of the world, however, and despite the use of
computers, the script remains undeciphered, and it is unknown if it is proto-
Dravidian or proto-Sanskrit. Nevertheless, extensive research on the Indus
Valley sites, which has led to speculations on both the archaeological and the
linguistic contributions of the pre--Aryan population to Hinduism's subsequent
development, has offered new insights into the cultural heritage of the Dravidian
population still dominant in southern India. Artifacts with motifs relating to
asceticism and fertility rites suggest that these concepts entered Hinduism from
the earlier civilization. Although historians agree that the civilization ceased
abruptly, at least in Mohenjo-daro and Harappa there is disagreement on the
possible causes for its end. Invaders from central and western Asia are
considered by some historians to have been "destroyers" of Indus Valley
civilization, but this view is open to reinterpretation. More plausible explanations
are recurrent floods caused by tectonic earth movement, soil salinity, and
desertification.
22 | P a g e
Until the entry of the Europeans by sea in the late fifteenth century, and with the
exception of the Arab conquests of Muhammad bin Qasim in the early eighth
century, the route taken by peoples who migrated to India has been through the
mountain passes, most notably the Khyber Pass, in northwestern Pakistan.
Although unrecorded migrations may have taken place earlier, it is certain that
migrations increased in the second millennium B.C. The records of these
people--who spoke an Indo-European language--are literary, not archaeological,
and were preserved in the Vedas, collections of orally transmitted hymns. In the
greatest of these, the "Rig Veda," the Aryan speakers appear as a tribally
organized, pastoral, and pantheistic people. The later Vedas and other Sanskritic
sources, such as the Puranas (literally, "old writings"--an encyclopedic collection
of Hindu legends, myths, and genealogy), indicate an eastward movement from
the Indus Valley into the Ganges Valley (called Ganga in Asia) and southward at
least as far as the Vindhya Range, in central India. A social and political system
evolved in which the Aryans dominated, but various indigenous peoples and
ideas were accommodated and absorbed. The caste system that remained
characteristic of Hinduism also evolved. One theory is that the three highest
castes--Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas--were composed of Aryans, while a
lower caste--the Sudras--came from the indigenous peoples.

By the sixth century B.C., knowledge of Indian history becomes more focused
because of the available Buddhist and Jain sources of a later period. Northern
India was populated by a number of small princely states that rose and fell in the
sixth century B.C. In this milieu, a phenomenon arose that affected the history of
the region for several centuries--Buddhism. Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha,
the "Enlightened One" (ca. 563-483 B.C.), was born in the Ganges Valley. His
teachings were spread in all directions by monks, missionaries, and merchants.
The Buddha's teachings proved enormously popular when considered against
the more obscure and highly complicated rituals and philosophy of Vedic
Hinduism. The original doctrines of the Buddha also constituted a protest against
the inequities of the caste system, attracting large numbers of followers.

At about the same time, the semi-independent kingdom of Gandhara, roughly

located in northern Pakistan and centered in the region of Peshawar, stood
between the expanding kingdoms of the Ganges Valley to the east and the
Achaemenid Empire of Persia to the west. Gandhara probably came under the
influence of Persia during the reign of Cyrus the Great (559-530 B.C.). The
Persian Empire fell to Alexander the Great in 330 B.C., and he continued his
march eastward through Afghanistan and into India. Alexander defeated Porus,
the Gandharan ruler of Taxila, in 326 B.C. and marched on to the Ravi River
before turning back. The return march through Sindh and Balochistan ended with
Alexander's death at Babylon in 323 B.C.

Greek rule did not survive in northwestern India, although a school of art known
as Indo-Greek developed and influenced art as far as Central Asia. The region of
Gandhara was conquered by Chandragupta (r. ca. 321-ca. 297 B.C.), the
23 | P a g e
 founder of the Mauryan Empire, the first universal state of northern India, with its
capital at present-day Patna in Bihar. His grandson, Ashoka (r. ca. 274-ca. 236
B.C.), became a Buddhist. Taxila became a leading center of Buddhist learning.
Successors to Alexander at times controlled the northwestern of region present-
day Pakistan and even Punjab after Maurya power waned in the region.

The northern regions of Pakistan came under the rule of the Sakas, who
originated in Central Asia in the second century B.C. They were soon driven
eastward by Pahlavas (Parthians related to the Scythians), who in turn were
displaced by the Kushans (also known as the Yueh-Chih in Chinese chronicles).

The Kushans had earlier moved into territory in the northern part of present-day
Afghanistan and had taken control of Bactria. Kanishka, the greatest of the
Kushan rulers (r. ca. A.D. 120-60), extended his empire from Patna in the east to
Bukhara in the west and from the Pamirs in the north to central India, with the
capital at Peshawar (then Purushapura) (see fig. 3). Kushan territories were
eventually overrun by the Huns in the north and taken over by the Guptas in the
east and the Sassanians of Persia in the west.

The age of the imperial Guptas in northern India (fourth to seventh centuries
A.D.) is regarded as the classical age of Hindu civilization. Sanskrit literature was
of a high standard; extensive knowledge in astronomy, mathematics, and
medicine was gained; and artistic expression flowered. Society became more
settled and more hierarchical, and rigid social codes emerged that separated
castes and occupations. The Guptas maintained loose control over the upper
Indus Valley.

Northern India suffered a sharp decline after the seventh century. As a result,
Islam came to a disunited India through the same passes that Indo-Aryans,
Alexander, Kushans, and others had entered.

Data as of April 1994

NOTE: The information regarding Pakistan on this page is re-published from The Library of Congress Country Studies. No claims are
made regarding the accuracy of Pakistan EARLY CIVILIZATIONS information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any
errors about Pakistan EARLY CIVILIZATIONS should be addressed to the Library of Congress.

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