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The first great civilization of South Asia was the Indus Valley Civilization
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Overview
The Indus Valley civilization was an ancient civilization located in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent. The Indus Valley is contemporary with the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. The civilization is famous for its large and well-planned cities. Over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found. Most of these are small, but amongst them are some of the largest cities of their time, especially Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. -
Geography
The Indus Valley civilization covered most of what is today Pakistan and the Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab. Settlements which were closely related to the core civilization - and may have been colonies of it - have been found in Afghanistan and central Asia. The huge Indus river system waters a rich agricultural landscape. The Indus plain is surrounded by high mountains, desert and ocean, and at that time dense forest to the east. -
Well-planned Cities
The early phase of the civilization lasted from circa 3300 BC until 2800 BC. This saw farming settlements grow into large and sophisticated urban centres. The quality of municipal town planning indicates that these communities were controlled by efficient governments. These clearly placed a high priority on accessibility to water. Modern scholars tend to see in this the influence of a religion which places a string emphasis on ritual washing - much like modern Hinduism. Hygiene was also impor -
Writing
For an archaeological point of view, the most frustrating thing about this civilization is that the script has not been deciphered. Over 400 distinct Indus symbols (some say 600) have been found on seals, small tablets, or ceramic pots, and on over a dozen other materials. Typical inscriptions are no more than four or five characters in length, most of which are tiny. Some modern scholars have wondered whether these symbols actually constitute a proper writing system. Whatever the case, the lac -
Trade and Transportation
Like all pre-modern societies, agriculture would have played the most important part in the Indus Valley economy. An extensive canal network, used for irrigation, has been discovered in the vicinity of the city of Lothal, near the coast of western India; and it is almost certain, given the vast floods that the Indus river can inflict, that other cities would have had extensive water control systems. Trade was clearly important too. Materials from distant regions were used in the cities for co -
Religion
Reconstructing Indus valley religion is impossible, however some Indus Valley seals show swastikas, which are also found in Hinduism and its offshoots, Buddhism and Jainism. Many Indus valley seals show animals presented in a format reminiscent of later Hindu gods Shiva and Rudra. The large number of figurines found in the Indus valley have led some scholars to argue that the Indus people worshipped a Mother Goddess symbolizing fertility, a common practice among rural Hindus even today. All thes -
Arts and Crafts
All kinds of artefacts have been found in the Indus Valley cities: seals, glazed beads, pottery, gold jewellery, and anatomically detailed figurines in terra-cotta, bronze, and soapstone. Various gold, terra-cotta and stone figurines have also been discovered, of dancing girls, men (perhaps gods?), animals (cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs) and a mythical beast (part bull, part zebra, with a huge horn). Shell, ceramic, agate and soapstone beads were used in making necklaces, bangles, and other orn -
Science
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, although, as in other civilizations of the time, actual weights were not uniform from city to city. 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. The weights were in a perfect ratio of 5:2:1, on a sc -
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The Decline of the Indus Valley civilization
It was once widely accepted that Indus Valley cities were the victims of assaults by Aryan (Indo-European) nomadic invaders from central Asia. However, archaeological evidence seems to suggest a gradual decline, in the middle centuries of the 2nd millennium B.C. The later layers of building at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, as well as at other sites, show a marked deterioration in the quality of construction. The causes of that decline are disputed. It is probable that a combination of factors were -
Period: to
The first great civilization of South Asia
The early phase of the civilization lasted from circa 3300 BC until 2800 BC
