PRE -HISTORIC TIME ERA
1. The Stone Age
The division of Prehistory
➢ The division of history was made into three groups based on the
material of manufacture of these weapons and implements (Stone,
Bronze and Iron)
➢ Stone age.
- Palaeolithic Period (chipped stone tools).
- Lower Palaeolithic
- Middle Palaeolithic
- Upper Palaeolithic
2. Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone Age)- transitional period from huntinggathering to food-producing cultures
3. Neolithic Period (New Stone Age with polished stone tools)
➢Bronze Age- Chalcolithic Period
➢ Iron Age
Oldowan tool
Lower Palaeolithic
➢ The first phase is called Early or Lower Palaeolithic, broadly
between 600,000 and 150,000 BC (while digging, it is the earliest,
therefore found at the lower strata of earth thus named “lower”).
➢ Early men preferred to live near the water supply, as the stone
tools are found mainly in or adjacent to the river valleys. The rock
shelters may have served as seasonal camps for human beings.
➢ Bori in Maharashtra, and this site is considered to be the earliest
Lower Palaeolithic site (600,000 BC).
➢ Early Old Stone Age sites have been found in the valley of river Son
or Sohan in Punjab, now in Pakistan. Several sites have been found
in Kashmir and the Thar Desert. Lower Palaeolithic tools have also
been found in the Belan valley in UP and in the desert area of
Didwana in Rajasthan.
Technolog.
Technology
➢ The people of the Lower Stone Age seem to have principally been
food gatherers. They took to small game hunting and lived also on
fish and birds.
➢ Presumably, early humans used wooden spears as early as five lakh
years ago to hunt small animals, much as their relatives,
chimpanzees.
➢ Palaeolithic humans made tools of stone, bone, and wood. Evidence
shows these early hominids intentionally selected raw materials with
good flaking qualities and chose appropriately sized stones for their
needs to produce sharp-edged tools for cutting.
➢ People use hand axes, cleavers, and choppers. The axes found in India
are more or less similar to those of western Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Stone tools were used largely for chopping, digging, and skinning.
➢ Although they appear to have used hand axes often for various
purposes of attack and defence. Choppers and scrapers were likely
used for skinning and butchering scavenged animals and sharp ended
sticks were often obtained for digging up edible roots.
➢ The earliest Palaeolithic stone tool industry began around 2.6 lakh
years ago. It contained tools such as choppers, burins and awls.
➢ A stone factory of the time has been discovered near Madras where
traces of the various stages of the making of the tools and implements
can be still seen, called Madras Factory.
➢ The Lower Palaeolithic hominid Homo erectus possibly invented rafts
to travel over large bodies of water, which may have allowed a group
of Homo erectus to reach the distant islands.
➢ Fire was used by the Lower Palaeolithic hominid as early as 300,000
to 1.5 lakh years ago and possibly even earlier.
Society
➢ The social organization of the Lower Palaeolithic societies remains
largely unknown to scientists, though Lower Palaeolithic hominids
are likely to have had more complex social structures than
chimpanzee societies.
➢ Later Homo erectus may have been the first people to invent home
bases and incorporate them into their foraging and hunting strategies
like contemporary hunter-gatherers, possibly as early as 1.7 lakh
years ago. However, the earliest solid evidence for the existence of
home bases among humans only dates back to 500,000 years ago.
Middle Palaeolithic
➢< The Middle Palaeolithic, between 150,000 and 35,000 BC
➢ The geographical horizon of the Middle Palaeolithic sites coincides
roughly with that of the Lower Palaeolithic sites.
Technology
➢ Middle Palaeolithic Stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool making
technique. This technique increased efficiency by allowing the
creation of more controlled and consistent flakes. It allowed Middle
Palaeolithic humans to create stone tipped spears, which were the
earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto
wooden shafts.
➢ The Middle Palaeolithic industries were largely based upon flakes or
small pieces of stone which have been found in different parts of
India with regional variations.
➢The principal tools comprise blades, points, borers, and scrapers, all
made of flakes.
➢ The use of fire only became common in Middle Palaeolithic Period.
Use of fire reduced mortality rates and provided protection against
predators. Early hominids may have begun to cook their food at the
latest in the early Middle Palaeolithic (or as early as the Lower
Palaeolithic). Some scientists have hypothesized that Hominids began
cooking food to defrost frozen meat, which would help ensure their
survival in cold regions.
➢ We did not get any evidence of paintings from lower or middle
Palaeolithic age yet
Society
➢ Much evidence exists that humans took part in long-distance trade
between bands for rare commodities such as ochre, which was often
used for religious purposes such as ritual and raw materials, as early
as 120,000 years ago.
➢ Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Palaeolithic societies
were possibly fundamentally egalitarian and may have rarely or
never engaged in organized violence between groups (war).
➢ Perhaps there no formal division of labour, where each member of
the group was skilled at all tasks essential to survival, regardless of
individual abilities. .
Upper Palaeolithic
➢ It marks the appearance of men of the modern type (Homo sapiens)
in India and new flint industries.
➢ Upper Palaeolithic, between 35,000 and 12,000 BC, underwent a lot
of technological advances such as profusion in the variety of stone
and bone tools and artefacts, constructing dwellings, sewing clothes
with bone needles etc.
➢ This is also the earliest occurrence of art like paintings on walls of
cave sand dwellings, carving of human and animal figurines from
stones and ivory and decorating bodies with jewellery (of living and
the dead with beads and pendants).
➢ In the Upper Palaeolithic phase we find around 600 sites in India.
This may be due to the general presence of grassland dotted with few
trees. The climate was less humid, coinciding with the last phase of
the ice age when the climate became comparatively warm.
Technology
➢ In India, we notice the use of blades and burins. An Upper
Palaeolithic assemblage, characterized by comparatively large flakes,
blades, burins, and scrapers has also been found in the upper levels of
the Gujarat sand dunes.
➢ The economy of a typical Palaeolithic society was a hunter-gatherer
economy. Humans hunted wild animals for meat and gathered food,
firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or shelters.
➢ In the Upper Palaeolithic period, we see emergence of Painting
activities.
- Paintings are linear representations, in green and dark red, of
huge animal figures, such as Bisons, Tigers, Elephants, Rhinos
and Boars beside stick-like human figures. - Mostly they are filled with geometric patterns.
- The animals depicted are larger in size then humans perhaps
because they were biggest threat to human life and yet to be
subordinated.
Society
➢ Human population density was very low, around only one person per
square mile. This was most likely due to low body fat, infanticide,
women regularly engaging in intense endurance exercise, late
weaning of infants and a nomadic lifestyle.
➢ At the end of the Palaeolithic, specifically the Upper Palaeolithic,
humans began to engage in religious behaviour such as burial and
ritual.
Mesolithic Age
➢ A brief period of transition between the Palaeolithic and the foodproducing stage of the Neolithic in most parts of the world, and is characterised by the appearance of Microliths (tiny stone artefacts, often a few centimetres in size) in India.
➢ It is characteristically a few thousand years in duration after the last
stages of the Upper Palaeolithic and ends with the advent of
agriculture.
Geography
➢ Some of the important Mesolithic sites in India are Chhota Nagpur
Plateau in Central India and regions around the banks of River
Krishna. The Mesolithic sites in distribution cover almost the entire
country except a few areas like Indo- Gangetic plain, Assam and most
of the Western coast of India.
➢ In Indo-Gangetic plain, their absence can be explained by the lack of
primary raw material (stones) for making tools. Assam and Western
coast were probably left uninhabited due to very high rainfall and
dense vegetation in this area.
➢ The regions like Gujarat plains, Marwar, Mewar etc. show dense
concentrations of sites in contrast to other areas.
➢ It seems that the Mesolithic people preferred the following
environment-
o Sand-dunes
o Rock-shelter
o Alluvial plain
o Rocky plain
o Lake-shore
o Coastal environment
Technology
➢ The people perhaps produced a variety of implements and weapons
such as arrows, spears, knives, sickles etc. The advantage of these
composite tools was that, being made of a number of micro-lithic
components, one of the broken components could easily be replaced
without discarding the whole tool.
➢ Tools are characterised by parallel-sided blades taken out from
prepared cores of fine-materials as chert, crystal, chalcedony, jasper,
carnelian, agate etc.
➢ In India, Microlith tools are associated with Mesolithc period
(whereas in many other parts of the world microliths are also found
during Palaeolithic period). Size of these tools varies between 1cm
and 3cm. Some of the microliths were used as components of
spearheads, arrowheads, knives, sickles, harpoons and daggers,
joined by natural adhesives like gum and resin.
➢ The invention of microliths brought many additional foods like fish
into the human diets, which provided a hedge against starvation and
a more abundant food supply
➢ It can be inferred that the Mesolithic people had little material
culture. Later, in contact with the metal working and farming people
they acquired a few items of material culture like, pottery, metal tools
and stone beads for ornaments.
Society
➢ As in Europe, Africa and several parts of Asia, India also witnessed a
great climatic change toward the end of the Palaeolithic period. These
must have a bearing upon the mode of human living.
➢ People began to settle down in permanent locations, and began to
rely on uncontrolled agriculture for sustenance in many locations.
➢ The domestication of animal (dog, cattle, sheep and goat) and
cultivation (wheat and barley) began.
➢ This new subsistence economy based on food production had a
lasting impact on the evolution of human society and the
environment.
➢ Humans began to live in groups and started switching towards the
sedentary life style.
➢ The increase in the group size created the need of more food for the
survival of all members of the family, this lead to improvements of the
tools and weapons.
➢ Started eating cooked food by using fire.
➢ Primitive people were also fond of art and paintings as depicted by
the popular cave paintings present at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh.
➢ Farming tribes lived without states and organized governments.
➢ The unspecialized process of disposing the dead was followed by
them. The bodies used to be buried within the habitation area,
whether it is a rock-shelter or an open-air site.
➢ In the paintings of Mesolithic period, various subjects including
animals and human scenes have been found.
o Animals are the most frequently depicted subjects either alone
or in large and small groups and shown in various poses.
o Depiction of human figures in rock paintings was also quite
common.
o Dancing, running, hunting, playing games and quarrelling were
commonly depicted scenes.
o Colours like deep red, green, white and yellow were used in
making these paintings.
o Apart from the animals, hunting scenes, the Mesolithic sites
have also painted of social life, sexual activity, child birth,
rearing of children and burial ceremony, which makes it clear
that Mesolithic man had developed an aesthetic sense.
Neolithic Age
➢ The onset of the Neolithic varies from 10,000 BC to 3,000 BC in
different parts of the world.
➢ In South Asia the date assigned to the beginning of Neolithic period is
8000 BC-7000 BC and the earliest example is Mehargarh Culture.
➢ The Neolithic marked the beginning of settled life for humankind,
though sections of the population still lived as nomadic or seminomadic hunter-gatherers or agro-pastoralists.
➢ The human settlements in the Mesolithic era got more sedentary and
this was the beginning of establishment of villages of Neolithic
culture.
➢ The Neolithic culture had been established in India at a stage when a
far more advanced urban culture exhibiting Chalcolithic features
flourished in the extreme north centring round Indus valley. On the
other hand, the eastern Neolithic culture shows striking similarities
with the Neolithic typologies of China and other sites of South-east
Asia. Therefore, it is safer to say that the Neolithic culture developed
in different parts of India not from a single source.
➢ Research proves that there was a definite link between these
Neolithic peoples of India and the primitive tribes that lived in IndoChina, the Malayan Peninsula and the Indian Archipelago.
Technology
➢ The tools and implements of the Neolithic Age were very different
from those of the preceding ages, i.e., the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic.
Now people used stones other than quartzite and their tools were far
better grooved and polished.
➢ For different types of work, they had different types of tools which
can be very easily distinguished from the rough, crude tools of the
Palaeolithic Age.
➢ As the name Neolithic denotes, it was the New Stone Age, we assume
that only metal they knew about were copper, silver, gold and tin.
➢ Neolithic people were skilled farmers, manufacturing a range of tools
necessary for the tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such
as sickle blades and grinding stones) and food production (e.g.
pottery, bone implements).
➢ They were also skilled manufacturers of a range of other types of
stone tools and ornaments, including projectile points, beads, and
statuettes.
➢ Neolithic Revolution- Man now could keep cattle, sheep and goats. In
due course, as the efficiency of agricultural production and
domestication of animals improved, some farmers were able to
generate surplus food. As a consequence, a section of the population
was freed from the task of food production and their talents and
energies were diverted to specialised tasks such as the production of
pots, baskets, quarrying of stone, making of bricks, masonry and
carpentry. This was the beginning of the new occupations such as the
oil presser, washer man, barber, musician, dancers etc which led to
increased production of non-agricultural goods and services.
o This transition from hunting-gathering to food production
(Between 10,000 BC and 3000 BC) is called the Neolithic
revolution.
o Most importantly, the agricultural surplus and techniques also
brought about deep social divisions and in particular
encouraged inequality between the sexes (male and female).
o The revolution resulted in the discovery of smelting and the
creation of bronze tools led to the Bronze Age (name given to
Late Neolithic period).
o With more food and temporarily better nutrition, population
increased. As families and the number of potential workers
grew, food production could increase even more.
o These developments provided the basis for densely populated
settlements, specialization and division of labour, trading
economies, the development of non-portable art and
architecture, centralized administrations and political
structures, hierarchical ideologies, depersonalized systems of
knowledge (writing), and property ownership.
o Personal land and private property ownership led to
hierarchical society, social struggle and armed conflicts.
Society
➢ Settled Agriculture became known to them, domestication of animals
increased.
➢ Production of fire by friction of bamboos or pieces of wood or flint,
making of painted pottery were all known, to them.
➢ They generally lived in caves, decorated their frails by painting scenes
of hunting, dancing etc. However, in later stages they started living in
built houses.
➢ They knew spinning and weaving, as also making of boats.
➢ Some men of Neolithic were buried in tombs, which have been
discovered show that they used to bury their dead in large earthen
urn. There were also tombs with stone-slab roof on stone pillars.
➢ The domestication of large animals (c. 8000 BC) resulted in a
dramatic increase in social inequality in most of the areas where it
occurred.
➢ Possession of livestock allowed competition between households and
resulted in inherited inequalities of wealth.
➢ Neolithic pastoralists who controlled large herds gradually acquired
more livestock, and this made economic inequalities more
pronounced.
➢ Families and households were still largely independent economically,
and the household was probably the centre of life.
➢ Whether a non-hierarchical system of organization existed is
debatable, and there is no evidence that explicitly suggests that
Neolithic societies functioned under any dominating class or
individual, as was the case in the chiefdoms of the Bronze Age.
Bronze Age
➢ The Stone Age was followed by the Bronze Age in most parts of the
world. The end of the Neolithic period saw the use of metals of which
copper was the first. Consequently, several cultures came to be based
on the use of stone and copper implements. Such a culture is called
chalcolithic which means the stone-copper phase.
➢ The rural life pattern, started in Neolithic period has been perfected
in the Chalcolithic period, and this period forms the transition from
stone ages to pure metal age.
Technology
➢ Around 6000 BC, the smelting of metals such as Copper began which
was used for raw material to be used in tool production. Later, Tin
was mixed with cooper and bronze appeared which stronger metal
than both tin and copper was.
➢ Copper and bronze came to be used substantially, however, its usage
was limited due to the scarcity of the material and dependence on
stone tool equipment did not changed much.
➢ The Neolithic trend of using polished stone tools continued in this
period also.
➢ Copper and its alloys were used in making axes, chisels, knives,
fishhooks, pins, rods, etc.
➢ Use of bronze for tools led to the invention of wheel which
revolutionized pottery production and transport.
➢ The Chalcolithic people made tools, weapons and bangles of copper,
manufactured beads of semi-precious stones such as carnelian,
steatite, and quartz.
➢ Discovery of cotton, flax and silk threads shows that they knew the
manufacturing of cloth.
➢ Painted pottery is one of the distinguishing features of the
Chalcolithic period, most prominent being ‘Black and Red ware’.
➢ They used both Iota and thali.
➢ No plough or hoe has been found at Chalcolithic sites.
➢ Script and writing make an appearance in the Bronze Age in many
parts of the world.
Society
➢ People domesticated animals and agriculture reached advanced stage
producing enough surplus.
➢ Occasionally their houses were made of mud bricks, but mostly they
were constructed with wattle and daub, and seem to have been
thatched. However, the people of Ahar Culture lived in stone-built
houses.
➢ Though the Chalcolithic people of Harappa made extensive use of
bricks, the Chalcolithic people in the rest of India did not use any such
material.
➢ The houses were either circular or rectangular on plan, plastered
with cow dung and lime. They had some light roof supported on
wooden posts as post-holes were encountered in large number in all
the Chalcolithic sites.
➢ The dead were buried, generally specialised burials were followed, ie.
Away from living areas.
➢ Both the settlements and burial practices suggest existence of social
inequalities.
➢ The rate of infant mortality was very high and life expectancy very
low (at 15 it was about 28).
➢ Although most Chalcolithic cultures existing in the major part of the
country were younger than the Indus Valley civilisation, they did not
derive any substantial benefit from the advanced technological
knowledge of the Indus people.
➢ Terracotta figurines of women suggest that the Chalcolithic people
venerated the mother goddess. Probably, the bull was the symbol of a
religious cult.
.
Food Habits
➢ Neither plough nor hoe has been attested to at Chalcolithic sites, but
perforated stone discs, which were used as weights for the digging
sticks abound.
➢ Hunting also was an important occupation for bones of wild animals
like wild pig, deer, stage, sambhar, cheetah, etc. were found in the
excavations. Cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep, pig and rarely horse were
among the domesticated animals.
➢ The Chalcolithic people subsisted on farming and hunting-fishing,
reared cattle, sheep, goat, buffalo and pig, which were also
slaughtered for food.
➢ The principal cereal was barley though wheat was also cultivated.
➢ Fish and animal flesh formed an important part of the diet of the
Chalcolithic people. Fish bones and fishhooks attest to active
fishing.
➢ Regional differences in regard to cereals, pottery, etc., appear in this
phase.
Major Chalcolithic Cultures of India
➢ Chronologically, there are several series of Chalcolithic settlements in
India. Some are pre-Harappan, others are contemporaries of the
Harappan culture and still others are post-Harappan.
➢ Indus Valley Civilization
➢ The Kayatha culture in Madhya Pradesh (2000-1800 BC) is a
contemporary of the Harappan culture.
➢ The Malwa culture (1700-1200 BC) found in Navadatoli, Eran and
Nagda.
➢ Jorwe culture (1400-700 BC) which covers the whole of Maharashtra
except parts of Vidarbha and Konkan.
➢ In the southern and eastern parts of India, Chalcolithic settlements
existed independently of the Harappan culture.
➢ The Chalcolithic settlement of the Vindhyan region, Bihar and Bengal
Pre-Harappan Chalcolithic cultures spread farming communities in
Sind, Baluchistan, Rajasthan, etc., and created conditions for the rise
of the urban civilisation.
Meghalayan Age
Geologists have classified a distinct age in Earth’s history, by the name
“Meghalayan Age”. The current epoch is called the Holocene, which began
9,700 years ago, when a dramatic warming kicked us out of the last ice age.
The Holocene is further subdivided into three parts
➢ The Greenlandian Age – from 9,700 BC to 6,200 years ago (the exit
from the ice age)
➢ The Northgrippan Age- from 6,200 to 2,200 years ago (an abrupt
cooling, attributed to vast volumes of freshwater from melting
glaciers in Canada running into the North Atlantic and disrupting
ocean currents.)
➢ The Meghalayan Age- from 2,200 years ago to present.
➢ A stalagmite which was found in the north-eastern Indian state of
Meghalaya has provided chemical signatures as evidence. For those
who do not know, a stalagmite is a type of a rock formation that forms
on the floor of a cave due to the accumulation from ceiling drippings.
➢ Geologic age dating is the process to assign an age to a material
(rock) to calculate the history of the earth by relating it to time, along
with major event in the Earth’s past, such as the break-up of
continents, dramatic shifts in climate and even the emergence of
particular types of animals and plant life etc.
➢ The Meghalayan age began when a mega-drought devastated
civilisations across the world, whose effects lasted two centuries.
Agriculture-based societies developed in several regions after the end
of the last Ice Age were affected by this 200-year drought which
forced the collapse of civilizations and migrations and regenerations
in Egypt, Greece, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and
the Yangtze River Valley It severely disrupted these great civilisations
bringing them to end. It was likely triggered by shifts in ocean and
atmospheric circulation. The evidence of this drought was found in
the state of Meghalaya (Mawmluh cave in Meghalaya) in India, giving
era its name.
➢ Rainfall decreased by about one third at 4,300 and 4,100 years before
present, so the mid-point between the two would be 4,200 years
before present is called Meghalayan golden spike.
There is still an active debate about assigning a new geologic epoch itself,
other than Holocene, and is being referred to as the Anthropocene epoch
Transition to Iron Age
➢ The eclipse of the Chalcolithic habitation, in Western India, could be
attributed to a decline in rainfall from about 1200 BC onwards. In
fact, the Chalcolithic people could not continue for long with the
digging stick in the black soil area which is difficult to break in the
dry season.
➢ In the red soil areas, especially in eastern India, however, the
chalcolithic phase was immediately followed, without any gap, by the
iron phase which gradually transformed the people into full-fledged
agriculturists.
➢ Similarly, at several sites in southern India Chalcolithic culture was
transformed into Megalithic Culture using iron.
PRELIMS QUESTION
1. Neolithic Age in India is characterized by
a. Domestication of Cattles
b. Crop Agriculture
c. Both
d. None
Answer- c
2. Men started cave paintings in?
a. Palaeolithic period
b. Mesolithic period
c. Chalcolithic period
d. Megalithic period
Answer- a
3. Which of the following statements are true?
a. Mesolithic Technology is based on microblade which were mass
produced
b. Mesolithic culture stage post-dates the earliest farming based
cultures
c. Both
d. None
Answer- a
4. Which of the following statements are true about Mesolithic culture
a. People knew stock breeding
b. People cooked on fire
c. Both
d. None
Answer- c
5. Which of the following periods belongs to proto historic periods
- Neolithic Culture
- Chalcolithic Culture
- Vedic Age
a. I, ii, iii
b. I, ii
c. Ii, iii
d. I, iii
Answer- b
MAINS QUESTION
1. Underline the factors behind the social changes of pre-historic
people.
2. Neolithic Age was an age of revolution which pushed the society so it
could achieve so much in next few millenniums.
3. The prehistoric man was concentrated in the few pockets of the
Indian subcontinent and unlike modern man did not inhabit all of it.
4. Underline the basic principles of the division of the prehistoric time.
5. The ancient civilization in Indian sub-continent differed from those of
Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece in that its culture and traditions have
been preserved without a breakdown to the present day. Comment.
6. Explain the role of geographical factors towards the development of
Ancient India.
7. Mesolithic rock cut architecture of India not only reflects the cultural
life of the times but also a fine aesthetic sense comparable to modem
painting. Critically evaluate this comment
The Indus Valley Civilization
➢ The Indus Valley Civilization has been tentatively identified with
the Meluha known from Sumerian records.
➢ At its peak, the Indus Civilization may have had a population of
over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus River valley
developed new techniques in handicraft (carnelian products, seal
carving) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin).
➢ The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick
houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and
clusters of large non-residential buildings.
➢ Excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with
important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999.
➢ The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is
uncertain since the Indus script is still un-deciphered. A
relationship with the Dravidian language family is favoured by a
section of scholars.
➢ It is suggested that the bearers of the IVC corresponded to proto-Dravidians linguistically. Today, the Dravidian language family is concentrated mostly in southern India and northern and eastern
Sri Lanka, but Brahui is a Dravidian language spoken by the Baloch
and Brahui people in the central part of Baluchistan province in
Pakistan, as well as in scattered parts of Afghanistan, lending
support to the theory.
Geography
➢ The geography of the Indus Valley put the civilizations that arose
there in a highly similar situation to those in Egypt and Peru, with
rich agricultural lands being surrounded by highlands, desert, and
ocean.
➢ Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on
the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot, and on islands, for
example, Dholavira.
➢ By 2600 BCE, the Early Harappan communities had been turned into
large urban centres. Such urban centres include Harappa, Ganeriwala,
Mohenjo-Daro in modern day Pakistan, and Dholavira, Kalibangan,
Rakhigarhi, Rupar, and Lothal in modern day India.
➢ Urban Living
➢ One must remember that Urban Planning across the cities was not
same. General features are discussed but there was no uniformity in
planning.
➢ A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident
in the Indus Valley civilization. The quality of municipal town
planning suggests knowledge of urban planning and efficient
municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene. The
streets of major cities such as Mohenjo-daro or Harappa were laid out
in a perfect grid pattern.
➢ As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and the recently discovered
Rakhigarhi, this urban plan included the world’s first urban
sanitation systems. Within the city, individual homes or groups of
homes obtained water from wells. From a room, that appears to have
been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered
drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner
courtyards and smaller lanes.
➢ The advanced architecture of the Harappans is shown by their
impressive dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and
protective walls.
➢ The massive citadels of Indus cities that protected the Harappans
from floods and attackers were larger than most Mesopotamian
ziggurats.
➢ The purpose of the “Citadel” remains debated. In sharp contrast to
this civilization’s contemporaries, Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt,
no large monumental structures were built. There is no conclusive
evidence of palaces, temples, or residence of kings, armies, or priests.
Some structures are thought to have been granaries. Found at one
city is an enormous well-built bath, which may have been a public
bath. Although the “Citadels” are walled, it is far from clear that these
structures were defensive. They may have been built to divert flood
waters.
➢ Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans, who lived
with others pursuing the same occupation in well-defined
neighbourhoods. However, majority of population was involved in
Agriculture.
➢ Although some houses were larger than others, Indus civilization
cities were remarkable for their apparent egalitarianism. For
example, all houses had access to water and drainage facilities.
➢ Houses were one or two stories high, made of baked brick, with flat
roofs, and were just about identical. Each was built around a
courtyard, with windows overlooking the courtyard. The outside
walls had no windows. Each home had its own private drinking well
and its own private bathroom. Clay pipes led from the bathrooms to
sewers located under the streets. These sewers drained into nearby
rivers and streams.
➢ Harappan cities did not develop slowly, which suggests that whoever
built these cities learned to do so in another place. As the Indus
flooded, cities were rebuilt on top of each other. Archaeologists have
discovered several different cities, one built over the other, each built
a little less skilfully. The most skilful was on bottom.
➢ Even the smallest house at the edge of each town was linked to that
town’s central drainage system. (Is it possible that they not only
drained waste water out, but also had a system to pump fresh water
into their homes, similar to modern plumbing) leo.
Technology
➢ Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measurement
for all practical purposes, including the measurement of mass as
revealed by their hexahedron weights.
➢ As in other cultures, actual weights were not uniform throughout the
area. The weights and measures later used in Kautilya’s Arthashastra
(4th century BCE) are the same as those used in Lothal.
➢ Harappans evolved some new techniques in metallurgy and produced
copper, bronze, lead, and tin.
➢ Materials from distant regions were used in the cities for
constructing seals, beads, and other objects.
➢ The seals have images of animals, gods, etc., and inscriptions. Some of
the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods, but they probably
had other uses.
➢ The Indus civilization’s economy appears to have depended
significantly on trade, which was facilitated by major advances in
transport technology.
➢ The brick weights were in a perfect ratio of 4:2:1. The numerous
inventions of the Indus River Valley Civilization include an
instrument used for measuring whole sections of the horizon and the
tidal dock.
Trade and Transport
➢ The IVC may have been the first civilization to use wheeled transport.
These advances may have included bullock carts that are identical to
those seen throughout South Asia today, as well as boats. Most of
these boats were probably small, flat-bottomed craft, perhaps driven
by sail, similar to that one can see on the Indus River today.
➢ Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and
distant sources of raw materials, including lapis lazuli and other
materials for bead-making.
➢ During the Early Harappan period, similarities in pottery, seals,
figurines, ornaments, etc. document intensive caravan trade with
Central Asia and the Iranian plateau.
➢ The trade networks, economically, integrated a huge area, including
portions of Afghanistan, the coastal regions of Persia, northern and
western India, and Mesopotamia. There is some evidence that trade
contacts extended to Crete and possibly to Egypt. Shallow harbours
located at the estuaries of rivers opening into the sea allowed brisk
maritime trade with Mesopotamian cities.
Agriculture
➢ The nature of the Indus civilization’s agricultural system is still
largely a matter of conjecture due to the limited amount of
information surviving through the ages. Some speculation is possible,
however.
➢ Food production was largely indigenous to the Indus Valley. Already
the Mehargarh people used domesticated wheat and barley and the
major cultivated cereal crop was naked six-row barley, a crop derived
from two-row barley.
➢ Villagers had, by this time, domesticated numerous crops, including
peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as animals, including
the water buffalo.
➢ Indus civilization agriculture must have been highly productive. After
all, it was capable of generating surpluses sufficient to support tens of
thousands of urban residents who were not primarily engaged in
agriculture. Still, very little is known about the farmers who
supported the cities or their agricultural methods.
➢ There is no evidence of irrigation, but such evidence could have been
obliterated by repeated, catastrophic floods.
➢ The Indus civilization appears to contradict the hydraulic despotism
(creation of irrigation by slave labour) hypothesis of the origin of
urban civilization and the state. There is no evidence of kings, slaves,
or forced mobilization of labour.
➢ Instead of building canals, Indus civilization people may have built
water diversion schemes, which – like terrace agriculture – can be
elaborated by generations of small-scale labour investments.
➢ Indus civilization people practiced rainfall harvesting because they
built their lives around the monsoon, a weather pattern in which the
bulk of a year’s rainfall occurs in a four-month period. Archaeologists
discovered a series of massive reservoirs, hewn from solid rock and
designed to collect rainfall, that would have been capable of meeting
the city’s needs during the dry season.
Polity
➢ Archaeological records provide no immediate answers for a center of
power or for depictions of people in power in Harappan society. But,
there are indications of complex decisions being taken and
implemented. For instance, the extraordinary uniformity of Harappan
artifacts as evident in pottery, seals, weights and bricks. These are the
major theories
o There was a single state, given the similarity in artifacts, the
evidence for planned settlements, the standardized ratio of
brick size, and the establishment of settlements near sources of
raw material.
o There was no single ruler but several. Mohenjo-daro had a
separate ruler, Harappa another, and so forth.
o Harappan society had no rulers, and everybody enjoyed equal
status.
Society
➢ Men and women dressed in colourful robes. Women wore jewellery
of gold and precious stone, and even wore lipstick. Among the
treasures found was a statue of a women wearing a bracelet.
➢ Clothing was for the most part, similar for both men and women. The
basic costume of ancient society was a length of cloth wrapped
around the lower part of the body, and a loose-fitting garment for the
upper body, which was usually another length of fabric. A head-dress
was also worn, mainly by the men.
➢ A beautiful small bronze statue of a dancer was found, which tells us
that they enjoyed dance and had great skill working with metals.
➢ In the ancient city of Mohenjo-daro, scientists have found the remains
of a Great Bath, with steps leading down at both ends. This could have
been a public swimming pool, or perhaps have been used for
religious ceremonies. Around this large central pool were smaller
rooms, that might have dressing rooms, and smaller pools that might
have been private baths.
➢ A harp-like instrument depicted on an Indus seal and two shell
objects found at Lothal indicate the use of stringed musical
instruments.
➢ Seals have been found at Mohenjo-daro depicting a figure standing on
its head, and one sitting cross-legged, perhaps the earliest indication,
at least illustration, of the practice of yoga. A horned figure in a
meditation pose has been interpreted as one of the earliest
depictions of the god Shiva.
Religion
➢ In the absence of definite decipherment of Harappan script the
artefacts recovered from various excavations at the above sites are
the only source of information about Harappan religion.
➢ No buildings, which could be identified as temples or places of
worships have so far been discovered in any site. S.R. Rao, however,
has identified a few low structures found in the excavation sites at
Lothal and Kalibangan as fire altars and it is assumed that animals
were scarified in those altars.
➢ A major debate is centred on whether Harappan religion belonged to
Vedic or non-Vedic tradition.
➢ From the archaeological findings, it may be presumed that the most
important – feature of The Indus Valley religion was the cult of
Mother Goddess or Nature Goddess. There are quite a few figurines of
terracotta or other material which display a standing female figure,
with minimum clothing but profusely ornamented, with headdress,
collar, etc., wearing a girdle or band round her loins. Also, the
representation of a figure standing in a bifurcated tree, may be
interpreted to identify the Mother Goddess with the Nature Goddess.
➢ Among male deities Siva can be identified easily as a principal deity in
Harappan religion. Most remarkable representation of this deity is a
three-faced figure wearing a three-horned head-dress, surrounded by
a variety of animals.
➢ Also, the Indus Valley people might have been worshipping various
animals. Though some of the animal figures might have been used as
toys, others were used for religious purpose.
➢ The Indus Valley people also worshipped natural objects like water,
fire, trees, etc. Various trees, plants and foliage have been depicted on
a number of seals. Fire must have been worshipped.
Indus Script
➢ Well over 400 Indus symbols have been found on seals or ceramic
pots and over a dozen other materials, including a ‘signboard’ that
apparently once hung over the gate of the inner citadel of the Indus
city of Dholavira.
➢ Typical Indus inscriptions are no more than four or five characters in
length, most of which (aside from the Dholavira ‘signboard’) are
exquisitely tiny, where the longest on a single surface is 17 signs long.
The longest on any object (found on three different faces of a mass-produced object) carries only 26 symbols.
➢ The term Indus Script refers to short strings of symbols associated
with the Harappan civilization and are most commonly found on flat,
rectangular stone tablets called seals, but they are also found on at
least a dozen other materials.
➢ There are over 400 different signs, but many are thought to be slight
modifications or combinations of perhaps 200 ‘basic’ signs.
Decline
➢ Around 1900 BCE, signs of a gradual decline begin to emerge. People
started to leave the cities. By around 1700 BCE, most of the cities
were abandoned.
➢ Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposed that the decline of the Indus
Civilization was caused by the invasion of an Indo-European tribe
from Central Asia called the “Aryans”.
➢ Today, many scholars believe that the collapse of the Indus
Civilization was caused by drought and a decline in trade with Egypt
and Mesopotamia.
➢ It has also been suggested that immigration by new peoples,
deforestation, floods, or changes in the course of the river may have
contributed to the collapse of the IVC.
➢ The Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear suddenly, and many
elements of the Indus Civilization can be found in later cultures.
➢ Harvard archaeologist Richard Meadow points to the late Harappan
settlement of Pirak, which thrived continuously from 1800 BCE to the
time of the invasion of Alexander the Great in 325 BCE.
➢ Decline of Harappa drove people eastward. Excavations in the
Gangetic plain show that urban settlement began around 1200 BCE,
only a few centuries after the decline of Harappa and much earlier
than previously expected.
➢ A possible natural reason for the IVC’s decline is connected with
climate change that is also signalled for the neighbouring areas of the
Middle East: The Indus valley climate grew significantly cooler and
drier from about 1800 BCE, linked to a general weakening of the
monsoon at that time.
➢ Alternatively, a crucial factor may have been the disappearance of
substantial portions of the Ghaggar Hakra river system.
➢ A tectonic event may have diverted the system’s sources toward the
Ganges Plain, though there is complete uncertainty about the date of
this event, as most settlements inside Ghaggar Hakra river beds have
not yet been dated.
➢ According to another theory, the slow eastward migration of the
monsoons across Asia initially allowed the civilization to develop. The
monsoon-supported farming led to large agricultural surpluses,
which in turn supported the development of cities. The IVC residents
did not develop irrigation capabilities, relying mainly on the seasonal
monsoons. As the monsoons kept shifting eastward, the water supply
for the agricultural activities dried up. The residents then migrated
towards the Ganges basin in the east, where they established smaller
villages and isolated farms.
➢ The actual reason for decline might be any combination of these
factors.
➢ In the aftermath of the Indus Civilization’s collapse, regional cultures
emerged, to varying degrees showing the influence of the Indus
Civilization.
➢ In the formerly great city of Harappa, burials have been found that
correspond to a regional culture called the Cemetery H culture. At the
same time, the Ochre Colored Pottery culture expanded from
Rajasthan into the Gangetic Plain.
Similarities with present Indian culture, i.e. the features of Indus Valley Civilization continuing today
➢ Importance of 4 and 16 in weighs and counting
➢ Wearing a single cloth by men and women alike (dhoti)
➢ Wearing of similar headgear, i.e. a cloth around head
➢ The house built around a central courtyard, i.e. a central
courtyard surrounded by rooms (found at Bhagwanpura site)
➢ Worship of Mother Goddess and fertility cult.
➢ Worship of Yogi and Pashupata, which later was acculturated
into Lord Shiva.
➢ Swastika is the symbol which is found on the seals of Harappa,
which became one of the most auspicious symbols of
Hinduism.
➢ Many of the Harappan idols are found having mark
(tilak/bindi) on their forehead.
➢ Many of the Harappan female idols are wearing bangles, a
practice continued since then.
➢ The use of water/bath for the worship or near worship places.
The stepped bath of Mohenjo daro (supposed to be for
worship) later became model for sarovars or kunds of sacred
places of not only Hinduism but of many other religions.
➢ The Harappan idols are found with waist chain around their
waists and anklets around the ankles, which are wore by
everyone from children to adults in India.
➢ The fire altars found in Harappan cities are exactly similar to
the Vedic altars, which continued to this day.
Questions
1. The Urbanisation of the Indus Valley Civilization was a spontaneous
process. Examine
2. Discuss the probable administrative structure of the Indus Valley
Civilization. Support your arguments with logical examples.
3. The Indus Valley Civilization had a monotheistic religion devoid of
priests, sacrifices and rituals. Examine
4. The Indus Valley Civilization disappeared without leaving a trace. For
Indians of later times, it seems as alien a civilization as in any distant
continent. Critically comment
PRELIMS
➢ Regarding the Indus Valley Civilisation, consider the following statements:
(2011)
1. It was predominantly a secular civilisation and the religious element, though
present, did not dominate the scene.
2. During this period, cotton was used for manufacturing textiles in India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) Only 1 b) Only 2 (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Ans- c
➢ Which one of the following is not a Harappan site? (2019)
(a) Chanhudaro (b) Kot Diji (c) Sohgaura (d) Desalpu
Ans-c Sohgaura is known for copper plate inscription of Mauryan era
➢ Which one of the following animals was NOT represented on the seals and
terracotta art of Harappan culture? (2001)
(a) Cow (b) Elephant (c) Rhinoceros (d) Tiger
Ans- a
➢ Which one of the following pairs is correctly matched? (2001)
(a) Harappan Civilisation — Painted Grey Ware
(b) The Kushans — Gandhara School of Art
(c) The Mughals — Ajanta Paintings
(d) The Marathas — Pahari School of Paintin
Ans- b
➢ The Gandhara School of Art – the Kushana period,
➢ Painted Grey Ware – Vedic period,
➢ Ajanta Paintings – Gupta period,
➢ Pahari School of Paintings – Mughal period.
Match List–I with List–II and select the correct answer using the codes given
below the lists. (2002)
Codes: A B C D
(a) 1 2 3 4
(b) 2 1 4 3
(c) 1 2 4 3
(d) 2 1 3 4
Ans- b