TNSCERT 6 HISTORY UNIT 3

3. INDUS CIVILISATION

• The word ‘civilisation’ comes from the ancient Latin word civis, meaning ‘city’.

   ANCIENT WORLD CIVILISATIONS

• Mesopotamia - 3500 to 2000 BCE
• Indus valley - 3300 to 1900 BCE
• Egyptian - 3100 to 1100 BCE
• Chinese - 1700 to 1122 BCE 

• All these civilisations established only near rivers (fertile soil, fresh water availability, easy movement of goods and people)
• People -groups - communities- societies-civilisations

     HARAPPA

• Earliest record of Harappa existence - ruins of Harappa were first described by Charles Masson in his book (ruined brick castle with very high walls and towers built on a hill)
• 1856 - Engineers discovered more burnt bricks and used it for laying railway line connecting Lahore to Karachi
• 1920 - Archeologist began to excavate the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
• 1924 - John Marshall (Director general of ASI) found many common features 
• But slight differences in the earthenwares made the researchers to conclude that Harappa was older than Mohenjo-Daro

    ASI (NEW DELHI)

• Archeological Survey of India was started in 1861 with Alexander Cunnigham as Surveyor

    INDUS CIVILISATION

• Geographical range: South Asia
• Period: Bronze Age [historical period characterised by the use of articles made of bronze]
• Time: 3300 to1900 BCE (determined using the radiocarbon dating method)
• Area: 13 lakh sq.km
• Cities: 6 big cities
• Villages: More than 200

  HARAPPA - URBAN CIVILISATION

• Well-conceived town planning 
• Astonishing masonry and architecture 
• Priority for hygiene and public health 
• Standardised weights and measures 
• Solid agricultural and artisanal base

   UNIQUE FEATURE 

• Town planning is a unique feature of the Indus Civilisation

    STREETS AND HOUSES

• in grid pattern, wide roads
• Houses (one/ two storeys) had many rooms, a courtyard, toilets, bathrooms and well
• No evidence of palace or place of worship

    DRAINAGE SYSTEM

• Had covered drains
• Each drain had a gentle slope(so that water can flow)
• Holes were there to clear the drains
• Every house had its own soak pit (allows only water to flow into the street drain)

     THE GREAT BATH

• Large, rectangular tank 
• Bath was lined with bricks, coated with plaster and made watertight with bitumen
• Steps also there

    THE GREAT GRANERY

• massive building used to store food grain 
• remains of wheat, barley, millets, sesame and pulses found
• Rakhigarhi (a village in Haryana) -  A granary with walls made of mud bricks, which are still in a good condition

    THE ASSEMBLY HALL

• Another huge building at Mohenjo-Daro (multi pillared hall)

    LEADER IN MOHENJO-DARO

• A sculpture of a seated male found with a head band on the forehead with combed hair and trimmed beard, smaller ornament on the right arm

• little statue "dancing girl" was also found at Mohenjo-Daro

                      

    TRADE AND TRANSPORT

• Harappans were great traders, used carts with spokeless solid wheels
• maritime trade with Mesopotamia (Indus seals found)
• King Naram-sin of Akkadian empire (Sumerian) - wrote about buying jewellery from Meluka (a Indus valley region)
• Cylindrical seals similar to those found in Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia have also found in the Indus area 
• Naval dockyard - discovered in Lothal (on the banks of a tributary of Sabarmati river in Gujarat) which maritime activities

    TECHNOLOGY

• Had developed a system of standardised weights and measures
• Ivory scale found in Lothal - 1704mm(the smallest division ever recorded on a scale of other contemporary civilisations)

    APPAREL

• Cotton fabrics were in common use
• Clay spindles unearthed suggest that yarn was spun
• Wool was also used

    OTHER FACTS

• The Indus Civilisation seems to have been a peaceful one
• Few weapons were found and there is no evidence of an army 
• They displayed their status with garments and precious jewellery, used the red quartz stone called Carnelian to design jewellery
• They had an advanced civic sense
• The ornaments were made of gold, silver, ivory, shell, copper, terracotta and precious stones
• Iron was unknown to people of Indus

   OCCUPATION

• The main occupation of the Indus Civilisation people is not known
• However, agriculture, handicrafts, pottery making (red in colour with beautiful designs in black), jewellery making, weaving, carpentry and trading were practiced
• There were merchants, traders and artisans
• Rearing of cattle was another occupation

   TOY CULTURE

• They made various types of toys using terracotta

   RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

• We don’t have any evidence pointing to specific deities or their religious practices
• There might have been worship of Mother Goddess (which symbolized fertility), which is concluded based upon the excavation of several female figurines

  OTHER FACTS OF INDUS CIVILISATION

• It is among the oldest in the world
• It is also the largest among four ancient civilisations
• The world’s first planned cities are found in this civilisation
• The Indus also had advanced sanitation and drainage system
• There was a high sense of awareness on public health

    WHAT HAPPENED TO HARAPPANS? 

• By 1900 BCE, the Harappan culture had started declining. It is assumed that the civilisation met with

1. repeated floods
2. ecological changes
3. invasions
4. natural calamity
5. climatic changes
6. deforestation
7. an epidemic

    MEHERGARH – THE PRECURSOR TO INDUS CIVILISATION

• Mehergarh is a Neolithic site
• It is located near the Bolan Basin of Balochistan in Pakistan
• It is one of the earliest sites known. It shows evidence of farming and herding done by man in very early times
• Archaeological evidence suggests that Neolithic culture existed in Mehergarh as early as 7000 BCE