1. The Harappan Civilisation

1. Introduction to the Bronze Age

The Harappan Civilisation is considered the first civilisation that arose in the north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent. It emerged around 2500 BCE. It is also known as the Indus Valley Civilisation because many of its early excavated sites were located in the valley of the river Indus.

2. Sources of the Harappan Civilisation

Because the Harappan written records (script) have not yet been deciphered, our knowledge is based entirely on archaeological remains. The following are the most important sources:

The Great Bath

• Location: Found at Mohenjo-daro in the Citadel area.
• Structure: It is a large rectangular tank resembling a modern-day swimming pool, made of standard baked bricks. It has flights of steps on the northern and southern sides.
• Significance: It highlights their brilliant urban planning, especially regarding water supply and sewage disposal (burnt bricks and mortar). It was most likely used for ritual bathing or religious purposes, showing the importance of water purification in their society.

The Citadel

• Location & Structure: The raised, western part of each city was called the Citadel. It was built on high mud-brick platforms to protect it from floods.
• Significance: It housed the ruling class and contained important public buildings like the Great Bath, granaries, and assembly halls. The presence of the Citadel points to elaborate urban planning and justifies that society had social classification (rulers lived higher up, commoners in the lower town).

The Seals

• Characteristics: Over 2000 seals have been discovered. They are mostly square or rectangular and made of steatite (a soft stone), terracotta, and copper.
• Depictions: They often bear short inscriptions with pictures of the one-horned bull (unicorn), buffalo, tiger, elephant, and rhinoceros.
• The Pashupati Seal: The most important seal shows a three-faced deity wearing a horned headdress, seated cross-legged, surrounded by an elephant, tiger, rhino, and a buffalo, with two deer at his feet. This deity is identified as Pashupati (Lord Shiva).
• Significance: Seals provide valuable information about the script, trade (used for stamping goods), religion, and the artistic skills of the Harappans.

The Bearded Man

• Location: A stone sculpture found in Mohenjo-daro.
• Characteristics: It depicts a man with a beard wearing a shawl with a trefoil (three-leaved) pattern on his left shoulder. The eyes are half-closed, suggesting a posture of meditation.
• Significance: It shows the high degree of artistic excellence and suggests the presence of a priestly class or a yogic tradition.

The Dancing Girl

• Location & Material: A bronze statue found at Mohenjo-daro.
• Characteristics: The figure is shown wearing heavy ornaments (bangles) and resting her right hand on her hip in a dancing posture.
• Significance: It is a masterpiece of art and proves that Harappans possessed a high degree of skill in metallurgy, specifically the 'lost wax' (cire perdue) technique of bronze casting.

The Dockyard

• Location: Found at Lothal (Gujarat).
• Structure: A massive rectangular basin made of baked bricks, connected by channels to the Gulf of Cambay.
• Significance: It proves that the Harappans engaged in maritime (sea) trade. It was used for berthing ships and handling cargo for external trade (likely with Mesopotamia).

The Granaries

• Location: Found at Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and Lothal. The largest building discovered at Mohenjo-daro is the Granary.
• Structure: Built on raised platforms to protect them from floods. They had proper ventilation.
• Significance: Used for storing surplus food grains (wheat and barley). They were built near rivers so that grains brought by boats could be easily transported and stored. It points to a well-organised agricultural tax system or emergency food reserves.

The Script

• Characteristics: The Harappans used a pictographic script (using signs/pictures instead of letters). It contains about 400 signs.
• Writing Style: It was written from right to left. In some cases, it shows a boustrophedon style (right to left in the first line, left to right in the second).

3. Extent of the Civilisation

The Harappan Civilisation was vast and triangular in shape. It covered parts of Punjab, Haryana, Sindh, Baluchistan, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Western UP.

4. Urban Planning

The Indus Valley Civilisation is famous for its spectacular city planning, which was highly advanced for its time.

Streets and Layout

• Cities were based on a grid pattern. Main streets intersected at right angles, dividing the city into square or rectangular blocks.
• The main streets were very wide and straight. Corners were rounded to allow heavy carts to turn easily.

Houses (Residential Buildings)

• Houses were built on high mounds to protect against floods. They were primarily constructed using standard-sized baked bricks.
• A typical house had a central courtyard surrounded by rooms, a private well, and a bathroom.
• Privacy: Entrances were from narrow side lanes, not the main street. There were no windows facing the main streets.

Drainage System

• Every house had its own drainage which was connected to the street drains.
• The main street drains were covered with bricks or stone slabs and had manholes at regular intervals for cleaning.
• This elaborate system proves that Harappans paid immense attention to public health and sanitation.

5. Trade & Commerce

The elaborate social structure and standard of living were supported by a highly developed trade network.

• Internal Trade: Carried out within the subcontinent (Rajasthan, Saurashtra, Maharashtra). They traded stone, metal, shell, and agricultural produce. The barter system was used (no metallic money was found).
• External Trade: Harappans traded extensively with Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and Central Asia. Mesopotamian records mention trade with Meluhha (the ancient name given to the Indus region).
• Exports: Cotton goods, pottery, ivory products, spices, and beads.
• Transport: Bullock carts were used for land transport, and ships/boats were used for riverine and maritime trade (via the Lothal dockyard).

6. Art and Craft

• Pottery: They made highly glazed pottery on the potter's wheel, usually red with beautiful black geometrical or animal designs.
• Jewellery: Men and women both wore ornaments. These were made of gold, silver, precious stones, and beads. Chanhudaro and Lothal were important centres for bead-making.
• Toys & Amusements: People played dice. A large number of terracotta toys have been found, including animal figures, carts, whistles shaped like birds, and marbles.
• Dress: The discovery of spindle whorls shows they knew how to spin and weave. They wore clothes made of cotton and wool.

7. Decline of the Civilisation

The Harappan Civilisation began to decline around 1800 BCE. Historians suggest multiple causes rather than a single event for its collapse:

• Floods and Earthquakes: Evidence shows Mohenjo-daro was flooded multiple times. Earthquakes may have raised the level of the flood plains, blocking the passage of the Indus river and inundating the cities.
• Increased Aridity & Drying of Rivers: Climate change caused increasing aridity. The river Ghaggar (Saraswati) dried up due to tectonic shifts that caused its tributaries to change course, leaving the region waterless.
• Deforestation: The Harappans needed massive amounts of wood to bake millions of bricks and smelt metals. This over-exploitation of forests led to soil erosion and drastic climate change in the region.
• Aryan Attack (Theory): Historian Mortimer Wheeler believed that invading Aryans destroyed the Indus settlements. He cited the discovery of unburied human skeletons found in the streets of Mohenjo-daro as evidence of a massacre (though modern historians largely dispute this theory).

8. Heritage and Legacy

Though the physical cities declined, many Harappan features survived in later Indian culture:

• The Harappan achievement of cultivating cotton was adopted globally.
• Religious practices like the worship of Pashupati (Shiva), the Mother Goddess, and the reverence for sacred trees (Peepal) and animals passed into modern Hinduism.
• Techniques in bead-making, pottery, and jewelry continued in subsequent Indian cultures.