INDUS CIVILISATION


Indus Civilisation (2900 BC-1700 BC) Indus civilisation is one of the four earliest civilisations of the world alongwith the Mesopotamian civilisation along the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Egyptian civilisation along the Nile and the Chinese civilisation along the Hwang Ho. Indus civilisation is the most extensive of all the riverine civilisations encompassing more than 1500 sites over an area of 1.5 million km . The Ghaggar - Hakra river system has the most concentration of settlements. Haryana has the largest number of sites, Daya Ram Sahni excavated the ruins of Harappa in Montgomery district of Punjab. Harappa has been identified with hariuppa mentioned in the Rig Veda. John Marshal promptly called it Harappa civilisation after the first excavated site. In 1922, R.D. Banaerjee excavated Mohenjodaro (mound of the dead) in Larkana district of Sind. The northern-most site of the Indus civilisation is Manda in Jammu and Kashmir. The southem most point is Daimabad on the banks of Pravara river in Maharashtra. Alamgirpur in Uttar Pradesh is the eastern-most site while the western-most site is Sutkagendor on the banks of Dasht river in Baluchistan. The Indus civilisation belongs to the Bronze Age; it is older but surprisingly more developed than the Chalcolithic cultures in the subcontinent. All settlements are found in different phases: 1. Early Harappa phase

2900-2500 BC 2. Middle Harappa phase

2500 - 2000 BC (Mature Harappa Phase) 3. Late Harappa Phase

2000-1700 BC (Most of the sites are in later harappa

phase) City Province River bank NO. Harappa

Pakistani Punajb River Ravi Mohenjodaro Sind

River Indus Ropar

Indian Punajb River Sutlej Lothal Gujarat

River Bhogava Kalibangan Rajasthan

River Ghaggar 6 Chanhudaro Sind

River Indus Alamgirpur Uttar Pradesh River Hindon Sutkangedor Baluchistan River Dasht



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VAJIRAM & RAVI The Harappan seals are the greatest artistic creations of the Harappans. Three cylindrical seals from Mesopotamia have been found from Mohenjodaro, one cylindrical seal from Kalibangan, one circular button shaped seal called the persian gulf seal has been found from Lothal. 33 Harappan seals are found in various foreign places such as Susa, Nr. Kish. lagaas and tell Asmar.

Script and Language : (1) Harappan script is regarded as pictographic since its signs represent birds, fish,

varieties of human form etc. The number of signs of the harappan script is known to be between 400 and 600 of which about 40 or 60 are basic and the rest are their variants. The language of the Harappans is at present unknown and must remain so until the Harappan script is read.

Fish symbol is most represented in the pictographs, (5) Most of the pictographs appear on seals. (6) A signboard inscription bearing 10 pictographs has been found from Dholavira in

Gujarat. Polity (1). There is no clear-cut evidence about the name of the polity (2) According to D.D. Kosambi, the priests constituted the ruling class. (3) According to R.S. Sharma, the merchants were the ruling class. (4) Harappans had very efficient and well organised administrative machinery. Religion (1) The chief female diety was Mother Goddess (Goddess of Earth), represented in

terracotta figurines. (2) The chief male diety was the Pasupati Mahadeva (proto-Siva), represented in

seals as sitting in a yogic posture on a low throne, and having three faces and two homs. He is surrounded by four animals (elephant, tiger, rhino and buffalo, each facing a different direction), and two deer appear at his feet. There is sufficient evidence for the prevalence of Phallic (lingam) worship which came to be closely associated with Siva in later times. Numerous stone symbols of female sex organs (yoni worship), have been discovered. . Indus people also worshipped gods in the form of trees like Pipal and animals like Pigeon and humpless bull.