A last-minute revision squeeze of this chapter: three phases, town planning, craft and trade, script and weights, the rulers debate, and the history of discovery. The full explained notes are available separately.
1 The whole chapter in one frame
The script remains undeciphered to date, so everything we know about the Harappan civilisation comes from material remains: this is the single most important line in the whole chapter. It is called the “Harappan Civilisation” because Harappa was the site where it was first identified; “Indus Valley Civilisation” is its other name. 2000+ sites have been found, of which two-thirds lie in the Saraswati basin. Five major cities: Rakhigarhi, Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Dholavira, Ganweriwala.
2 Definitions worth memorising
3 Town planning at a glance
Citadel (west) = smaller, higher, on platforms, walled, public buildings (warehouse, Great Bath). Lower Town (east) = larger, lower, grid layout, residential. Exceptions: Dholavira and Lothal break this pattern. Drainage sequence: house drain → sump (cesspit) → street drain.
4 Craft, trade and the Mesopotamian names
| Mesopotamian name | Probably | Main evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Magan | Oman | Nickel traces match in copper from both regions |
| Dilmun | Bahrain | Round “Persian Gulf” seals with Harappan motifs; local weights on the Harappan standard |
| Meluhha | The Harappan region | Land of seafarers; source of carnelian, lapis, copper, gold |
Two ways to source raw material: settle at the source (Nageshwar-Balakot: shell; Shortughai: lapis lazuli) or send an expedition (Khetri: copper; south India: gold). Best indicator for identifying a craft centre: waste material, not finished objects.
5 Seals, script and weights: five facts each
- Still undeciphered
- Longest inscription has ~26 signs
- 375-400 signs: too many to be alphabetical
- Written right to left
- Found on seals, copper tools, jar rims, jewellery, bone rods, and the Dholavira signboard
Weights: made of chert, cubical, unmarked. Lower denominations binary (1,2,4,8,16,32); higher denominations decimal (160,200,320,640). Seals and sealings: pressed onto wet clay; an intact sealing = proof the goods were not tampered with.
6 Three views on the rulers
No rulers
Everyone held equal social status.
Several rulers
Mohenjodaro, Harappa and others each had their own.
A single state
Supported by artefact similarity, planned settlements, the 4:2:1 brick ratio.
The name “priest-king” comes from a Mesopotamian parallel, not proof. NCERT also notes the Harappans may have followed some kind of democratic system.
7 End of the civilisation: what left, what arrived
What disappeared
- Weights, seals, special beads
- Script, long-distance trade, craft specialisation
- Large public structures
What took their place
- Local weights, fewer things made from fewer materials
- A rural way of life (“Late Harappan”)
- New cities only after a gap of 1000+ years, in a different region
By about 1800 BCE most sites in regions such as Cholistan were abandoned. Causes: climatic change, deforestation, floods, rivers shifting or drying up, overuse of land: no single one explains the whole civilisation’s collapse. Conclusion: a strong unifying element, possibly the Harappan state, came to an end.
8 History of discovery: timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1875 | Cunningham’s report on a Harappan seal (but could not place it: “Cunningham’s confusion”, believed history began in the Ganga valley) |
| 1921 | Daya Ram Sahni begins excavating at Harappa |
| 1922 | Excavations begin at Mohenjodaro (R.D. Banerji) |
| 1924 | John Marshall announces the discovery of the civilisation (horizontal-unit digging lost context) |
| 1944 | Wheeler becomes Director-General of the ASI and follows the stratigraphy of the mound (excavates at Harappa in 1946; in 1947 links the skeletons to the Rigveda) |
| 1964 | George Dales disproves the invasion theory |
| 1955-97 | Excavations at Lothal, Kalibangan, Dholavira, Rakhigarhi (post-Partition Indian survey) |
| 2013 | Vasant Shinde begins archaeogenetic research at Rakhigarhi |
The Harappans were indigenous, with roots going back to 10,000 BCE: this rules out the theory of a large-scale Aryan migration. Research by the Deccan College Pune + CCMB Hyderabad + the Harvard Medical College.
9 Reconstructing religion: one case study
The proto-Shiva seal: a figure seated in a yogic posture, surrounded by animals: taken as an early form of Shiva. But the Rigveda’s Rudra is neither Pashupati nor a yogi: the description does not match. Alternative reading: this could be a shaman. Lesson: the known-to-unknown method (reasoning back from the present) works well for things like querns, but often breaks down for religious interpretation.
- Three phases: 6000-2600 (Early), 2600-1900 (Mature), 1900-1300 BCE (Late Harappan)
- Brick ratio 4:2:1, identical everywhere: one piece of evidence for the single-state view
- Citadel (west, small, high) + Lower Town (east, large, low): Dholavira-Lothal are exceptions
- Script undeciphered, 375-400 signs, right to left; weights binary + decimal
- Magan=Oman, Dilmun=Bahrain, Meluhha=the Harappan region
- Three views on rulers: none / several / a single state
- No single cause for the decline: the hypothesis is the end of a unifying element
- Cunningham (text-focused) → Marshall (lost context) → Wheeler (stratigraphy) → Rakhigarhi (archaeogenetics)