The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation

Class 06 Social Science

Civilisation began at different times in different parts of the world. In the region known as Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria), that happened about 6,000 years ago, and the civilisation in ancient Egypt followed a few centuries later.

From Village to City

The vast plains of the Punjab (today divided between India and Pakistan) and Sindh (now in Pakistan) are watered by the Indus River and its tributaries. This made those plains fertile and, therefore, favourable to agriculture. A little further east, a few millenniums ago, another river, the Sarasvatī, used to flow from the foothills of the Himalayas through Haryana, Punjab, parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

In this whole region, from about 3500 BCE, villages grew into towns, and with increasing trade and other exchanges, those towns further grew into cities. This transition happened around 2600 BCE. Archaeologists gave this civilisation several names - ‘Indus’, ‘Harappan’, ‘Indus-Sarasvatī’ or ‘Sindhu-Sarasvatī’ civilisation. Its inhabitants are called ‘Harappans’. It is one of the oldest civilisations in the world.

Town-Planning

Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, now in Pakistan, were the first two cities of this civilisation to be discovered. Their identification goes back to 1924, a century ago. Several sites followed in the Indus plains, which is why the civilisation was initially called ‘Indus Valley civilisation’. Later on, other major cities, such as Dholavira (in Gujarat), Rakhigarhi (in Haryana), Ganweriwala (in the Cholistan desert of Pakistan), and hundreds of smaller sites (such as Lothal in Gujarat), were discovered, some of them excavated.

The larger Harappan cities were built according to precise plans. They had wide streets, which were often oriented to the cardinal directions. Most cities seem to have been surrounded by fortifications and had two distinct parts - the ‘upper town’, where the local elite probably lived, and the ‘lower town’, where common people lived.

Some large buildings seem to have been used for collective purposes. For example, warehouses where goods to be transported were stored. Individual houses of various sizes lined the streets and smaller lanes. The quality of construction was the same for small and big houses. All those buildings were generally made of bricks.

The purpose of some of the structures remains a matter of debate. This is the case of the famous ‘Great Bath’ in Mohenjo-daro, a small but elaborate tank which measured about 12 × 7 metres and had waterproofing materials (such as natural bitumen, a form of tar) applied on top of carefully laid-out bricks. The tank was surrounded by small rooms, one of which contained a well. There was a drain in one corner of the tank to empty it from time to time and refill it with freshwater.

Water Management

The Harappans gave much importance to water management and cleanliness. They often had separate areas for bathing in their homes. These were connected to a larger network of drains, which generally ran below the streets and took the waste water away.

In Mohenjo-daro, people drew water from hundreds of wells made of bricks. But in other regions, it may have been from ponds, nearby streams or human-made reservoirs. In the case of Dholavira (in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat), the largest reservoir measured 73 metres in length. At Dholavira, at least six large reservoirs were built with stones or even cut into the rock. Most of them were connected through underground drains for efficient water harvesting and distribution.

What Did the Harappans Eat?

The Harappans created many of their settlements along the banks of large or small rivers. This is a logical choice, not just for easy access to water, but also for agriculture, since rivers enrich the soil around them. Archaeological findings have shown that the Harappans grew cereals like barley, wheat, some millets, and sometimes rice, in addition to pulses and a variety of vegetables.

They were also the first in Eurasia to grow cotton, which they used to weave into clothes. They made farming tools, including the plough, some of which continue to be used by modern-day farmers.

This intense agricultural activity was managed by hundreds of small rural sites or villages. The cities could survive only if enough agricultural produce from rural areas reached them on a daily basis.

The Harappans also domesticated a number of animals for meat consumption and fished both in rivers and in the sea. This is known from the large numbers of animal and fish bones found during excavations.

Trade

The Harappans were engaged in active trade, not only within their own civilisation, but with other civilisations and cultures within and outside India. They exported ornaments, timber, some objects of daily use, probably also gold and cotton, and possibly some food items. The most favoured ornaments were beads of carnelian, a reddish semiprecious stone found mostly in Gujarat. Harappan craftspeople developed special techniques to drill them, so a string could pass through them, and to decorate them in various ways. They also worked conch shells into beautiful shell bangles, which requires sophisticated techniques as shell is a hard material.

What the Harappans imported in exchange of the exported goods is not so clear. It probably included copper, since this metal was not so common back home.

To conduct such a trade, they used land routes and rivers, and the sea for more distant destinations - this is the first intensive maritime activity in India. Such elaborate trade requires traders to be able to identify their goods and also each other. This seems to have been the chief purpose of thousands of small seals, which have been excavated from many settlements. These seals were generally made of steatite, a soft stone that would be hardened through heating. They measure only a few centimetres and generally depict animal figures with, above them, a few signs that are part of a writing system.

The End or a New Beginning?

Around 1900 BCE, this Sindhu-Sarasvatī civilisation, despite all its achievements, began to fall apart. The cities were abandoned one by one. If any inhabitants remained, they adopted a rural lifestyle in the changed environment - it appears that the earlier government or administration no longer existed. Gradually the Harappans scattered over hundreds of small rural settlements.

Cause of Decline

Archaeologists have proposed many factors. Long back, it was thought that warfare or invasions may have destroyed the cities, but there is no trace of warfare or invasion. Indeed, the Harappans do not seem to have kept any army or weapons of war. As far as the evidence goes, it seems to have been a relatively peaceful civilisation.

Two factors are currently agreed upon. First, a climatic change which affected much of the world from 2200 BCE onward, causing reduced rainfall and a drier phase. This would have made agriculture more difficult and could have reduced food supply to the cities. Second, the Sarasvatī River dried up in its central basin. Suddenly, cities such as Kalibangan or Banawali were abandoned.