ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my deep sense of gratitude to my Internal Guide, Ms.

JITESH ANTONY for her able guidance and useful suggestions, which helped
me in completing the project work, in time.

Words are inadequate in offering my thanks to him for the encouragement and
cooperation in carrying out the project work.

Finally, yet importantly, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my beloved

parents for their blessings, my friends/classmates for their help and wishes for the
successful completion of this project.

SHUBHAM YADAV

IX
SOURCES OF INDIAN HISTORY
Primary resources available to students of Indology and Indian history come from
three sources: Literature, Archeology, and Foreigner's Accounts. Rudiments of
ancient Indian history have indeed been available to Indians for thousands of
years, but it is impossible to arrange them in a chronological order or to
differentiate history from mythology and traditions from imaginations. The
sculptures and the inscriptions that are passed on to us tend to glorify the kings or
the donors and it is hard to cross check the validity of some of the claims found in
them. Much of the foreign sources on India, namely the travelogues of explorers
have been assembled through second hand information and it is difficult to
differentiate realities from hearsay.

HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW

LITERATURE
References to historical events and traditions are scattered in many ancient
Indian texts, even in the mythological Ramayan and Mahabharat, the Hindu epics
believed to be of divine origin. We have to even consider unlikely resources of
grammar books of Panini and Patanjali for hidden historical references and
events. Some biographies are available. However glorifying is the language, they
do provide deep insights into the great historical persons they illustrate. The
following is a list of biographies available:

In Sanskrit
Harsha-Charita by Banabhatta - Biography of Harshavardhana, the Emperor of
India

Vikramankeva-Charita by Billana - Biography of king Vikramaditya

Prithviraja-Charita by Chand-Bardai
In Tamil
Nandik-Kalambakam by a court poet - Biography of Pallava King Nandivarman II

Kalingattupparani - semi-historical narration of life of Kulottunga I

Biographies of Vikrama Chola, Kulottunga II, and Rajaraja of by Ottakkuttan

The oldest Indian linguistic text, Yaska's Nirukta (apprx. 5th Century B.C.) while a
valuable resource, does not contain historical information [Basham]. But Panini's
masterpiece Ashtadhyayi (apprx. 4th century B.C) profusely illustrates the stability
and maturity attained by Sanskrit among scholars of the time. It tells us when
Sanskrit (meaning reformed) came in to vogue replacing Prakrit, the language of
the Vedas, the holy texts of Hindus.

The Arthashastra of Chanakya (300 B.C.) gives a detailed account of political

system of administration during the Mauryan empire and is a valuable resource to
the researchers.

ARCHAEOLOGY
The archaeological resources for study of Indian history consist of coins,
inscriptions (pictures), sculptures (topics - pictures) and other artifacts (topics -
pictures). The inscriptions have helped the most; they have provided dates,
names of kings, and have recorded important events. The monuments spread all
over India are undying witnesses of the artistic skill of ancient Indians and testify
to their wealth and grandeur at various epochs of history. They also give us an
illustrated view of the period cultures than it is possible to cull from works of text.

Excavations at Takshashila, Hampi, Sindhu (Indus) Valley, Saraswati Valley have

revealed extremely worthy information for Indologists.
 FOREIGNER’S ACCOUNTS
Some of the most stunning accounts of ancient India are provided by the visiting
foreigners :

Greek Accounts
The Greeks who accompanied Alexander the Great in his Indian campaign
recorded their encounters of this mystical, magical land. Although much of these
works are now lost, the details have percolated into subsequent Greek literature.
Special reference is to be made of the Indica by Megasthenes who lived in the
court of Chandragupta Maurya, of Periplus of the Erythrean Sea by an unknown
businessman (second half of 1st century A.D) and The Geography of India by
Ptolemy (about 130 A.D.)

Chinese Accounts
After the spread of Buddhism, Chinese travelers came to India in big numbers to
collect religious books and to visit the holy places of Buddhism. Works of Fa-Hien
(5th century A.D.), Huen-Tsang (7th century A.D.) and I-Tsing (7th century A.D.)
are important historical accounts.

Islamic Accounts
Islamic traveler Alberuni who accompanied Sultan Mahmud (1017 A.D.), made a
careful study of the social institutions of India and his memoirs (Alberuni's India)
are a treasure of historical evidence. Marco-Polo passed through some parts of
southern India on his way from China to Persia (1292 A.D.) and has left a very
interesting narration of social manners and customs of South India.

EPILOGUE
By utilizing all these evidence, it has been possible to throw some light on the
civilization and culture that flourished in India, and to construct a political history
from 7th century B.C. onwards. Our knowledge about India's glorious past was
very little till the 19th century, when the genius and patient industry of a number
of scholars, mostly European, substantially enhanced it.

Jones and Wilkins are considered the fathers of Indology.

“ Sir William Jones (1746-94) came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court,
under the governor-generalship of Warren Hastings. Jones was a linguistic genius
(see: The Father of Indology) and with the help of Charles Wilkins, an officer with
the East India Company who had learnt Sanskrit from elite Bengali Brahmins, in
1784 the Asiatic Society of Bengal was formed. The first real steps in revealing
India's past were then taken through the publication of the journal Asiatic
Researches. ”

Still many areas of Indian history, especially cultural history have enormous voids
in them.

Professor R.C. Majumdar, a noted Indian historian has said :

"... although it is difficult to accept, the Indians totally lacked the historical sense".

The ancient Indians made great inroads into astronomy, physics, mathematics, all
kinds of literature and arts but never seriously took to documenting their history
and their indifference has cost their posterity very dearly.

As we make new discoveries, some established facts may need a second

look as well.
THE
HARAPPAN
CIVILIZATION

 INTRODUCTION
 ORIGIN OF THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION
 EXTENT OF THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION
 URBAN PLANNING
 ART OF SCULPTURE AND CRAFTS
 SCIENCE
 ART OF SCULPTURE AND CRAFTS
 RELIGION
 DECLINE OF THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
The four great ancient centers of civilization in the Old World are the river valleys
those of the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates, the Huang Ho and the Indus .

One of the earliest evidences of human civilization in India is found in ancient

Indus valley civilization. The Indus valley cities were one of the first cities that
came into existence and formed the basis of civilization. The Indus river valley
civilization lasted from 3300 - 1700 B.C. It basically flourished from 2600 - 1800
B.C. This civilization is also known by the name of Harappan civilization since the
first city to be excavated was Harappa. The two main cities of Harappa and
Mohenjo-daro that were excavated are located in the modern day Pakistan.

Located in what's now Pakistan and western India, it was the earliest known
urban culture of the Indian subcontinent.

“ The Indus Valley Civilization, as it is called, covered an area the size

of western Europe. It was the largest of the four ancient civilizations of
Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China. “

However, of all these civilizations the least is known about the Indus Valley
people. This is because the Indus script has not yet been deciphered. There are
many remnants of the script on pottery vessels, seals, and amulets, but without a
"Rosetta Stone" linguists and archaeologists have been unable to decipher it. They
have then had to rely upon the surviving cultural materials to give them insight
into the life of the Harappan's.

This article will be focusing mainly on the two largest cities of Harappa and
Mohenjo-Daro, and what has been discovered there.
ORIGIN OF THE
HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION
The ruins of Harrappa were first described in 1842 by Charles Masson in his
Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan and the Punjab, where
locals talked of an ancient city extending "thirteen cosses" (about 25 miles), but
no archaeological interest would attach to this for nearly a century.

In 1872–75 Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan

seal (with an erroneous identification as Brahmi letters).

“ It was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered
prompting an excavation campaign and resulting in the discovery of the
civilization at Harappa by Sir John Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and
Madho Sarup Vats, in 1921–22 and at Mohenjo-daro by Rakhal Das Banerjee, E. J.
H. MacKay, and Sir John Marshall. “

By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but

excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer
Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944.
Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites before the
partition of the subcontinent in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani,
Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein.
Sir John Marshall
The discovery of this civilization was an epoch making event in
the history of India.It now became clear that history of India began from 2500 B.C.
instead of 1000 B.C. The Harappan culture belongs to the Bronze Age , therefore it
is also known as the Bronze Age Civilization.
EXTENT OF THE
HARAPPAN CIVILISATION
The Indus Valley Civilization encompassed most of Pakistan, extending from
Balochistan to Sindh, and extending into modern day Indian states of Gujarat,
Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, with an upward reach to Rupar on the upper
Sutlej.

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. Recently, Indus
sites have been
discovered in Pakistan's
northwestern Frontier
Province as well. Other IVC colonies can be found in Afghanistan while smaller
isolated colonies can be found as far away as Turkmenistan and in Gujarat.

Coastal settlements extended from Sutkagan Dor in Western Baluchistan to Lothal

in Gujarat. An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortughai in
northern Afghanistan, in the Gomal River valley in northwestern Pakistan, at
Manda on the Beas River near Jammu, India, and at Alamgirpur on the Hindon
River, only 28 km from Delhi. 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.
There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in Pakistan
and the seasonal Ghaggar River in India. Many Indus Valley (or Harappan) sites
have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds.Among them are: Rupar,
Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, and Ganwariwala. According to J. G. Shaffer and D.
A. Lichtenstein,[28] the Harappan Civilization "is a fusion of the Bagor, Hakra, and
Koti Dij traditions or 'ethnic groups' in the Ghaggar-Hakra valley on the borders of
India and Pakistan."

According to some archaeologists, over 500 Harappan sites have been discovered
along the dried up river beds of the Ghaggar-Hakra River and its tributaries,[29] in
contrast to only about 100 along the Indus and its tributaries;[30] consequently,
in their opinion, the appellation Indus Ghaggar-Hakra civilisation or Indus-
Saraswati civilisation is justified.

Map showing the extent of the Indus Valley or the Harappan Civilization.
URBAN PLANNING
The town planning of the Harappan civilization affirms the fact that the civic
organization of the city was highly developed. The roads, dwelling houses, large
buildings and forts were very well executed. They followed a system of
centralized administration. The houses were even protected from noise, odors,
and thieves. Harappan town planning had the inclusion of many traveling houses
which ranged from two roomed to large buildings. Houses were properly placed
on both sides of the roads, and also in the lanes. The doors of the houses opened
in the lanes and not on the roads. The houses were built on plinths that rose
above the street level with stairs recessed at the wall at the front door. The
planning did not allow any hindrance on the roads so everything was well
organized.

The quality of municipal town planning suggests the knowledge of urban planning
and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene, or,
alternately, accessibility to the means of religious ritual.

As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently partially excavated

Rakhigarhi, this urban plan included the world's first known 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.

The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage that were developed and
used in cities throughout the Indus region were far more advanced than any
 found in contemporary urban
sites in the Middle East and
even more efficient than those
in many areas of Pakistan and
India today.

The advanced architecture of

the Harappan’s is shown by
their impressive dockyards,
Drainage System of the Harappan Civilization
granaries, warehouses, brick
platforms and protective walls.
The massive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the Harappans from floods
and may have dissuaded military conflicts.

The Citadel was the centre of important buildings, most of these settlements
were built of, mud bricks, chiseled stones and burnt bricks. The citadels faced the
west, which acted like sanctuaries at the time of aggression and during peace they
played the role of community centers. Some structures are thought to have been
granaries.

Found at the city of Mohenjo-Daro is an enormous well-built bath ,the "Great

Bath", which may have been a public bath.

The Great
Public
Bath
ART OF SCULPTURE AND CRAFTS
Various sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry and anatomically detailed figurines
in terracotta, bronze and steatite have been found at excavation sitesA number of
gold, terra-cotta and stone figurines of girls in dancing poses reveal the presence
of some dance form. Also, these terra-cotta figurines included cows, bears,
monkeys, and dogs.

Sir John Marshall is known to have reacted with surprise

when he saw the famous Indus bronze statuette of a
slender-limbed dancing girl in Mohenjo-daro:

“… When I first saw them I found it difficult to believe that

they were prehistoric; they seemed to completely upset
all established ideas about early art, and culture.
Modeling such as this was unknown in the ancient world
up to the Hellenistic age of Greece, and I thought,
therefore, that some mistake must surely have been
made; that these figures had found their way into levels
some 3000 years older than those to which they properly belonged. … Now, in
these statuettes, it is just this anatomical truth which is so startling; that makes us
wonder whether, in this all-important matter, Greek artistry could possibly have
been anticipated by the sculptors of a far-off age on the banks of the Indus.”

Seals are one of the most commonly found objects in Harappan cities. They are
decorated with animal motifs such as elephants, water buffalo, tigers, and most
commonly unicorns.
 The first objects unearthed from
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were
small stone seals marked with Indus
script writing which still baffles
scholars. These seals are dated back
to 2500 B. C.

Many crafts "such as shell working, ceramics, and agate and glazed steatite bead
making" were used in the making of necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments
from all phases of Harappan sites and some of these crafts are still practiced in
the subcontinent today.

Some make-up and toiletry items (a special kind of combs (kakai), the use of
collyrium and a special three-in-one toiletry gadget) that were found in Harappan
contexts still have similar counterparts in modern India.

The clay pottery was baked and its surface was

painted with glazed colours. Birds, animals and
human figures were made on these items of
pottery. This clearly depicts the excellence of the
artistry of the Harappan’s.Their art was
definetely ahead of their era in terms of skill and
the techniques practised by them.
SCIENCE
The people of the Indus Civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length,
mass, and time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform
weights and measures. Their measurements are said to be extremely precise;
however, a comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation across
the Indus territories. Their smallest division, which is marked on an ivory scale
found in Lothal, was approximately 1.704 mm, the smallest division ever recorded
on a scale of the Bronze Age.

Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of

measurement for all practical purposes, including the
measurement of mass as revealed by their
hexahedron weights.

These weights were in a perfect ratio of 4:2:1 with

weights of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100,
200, and 500 units, with each unit weighing
approximately 28 grams, similar to the English Imperial ounce or Greek uncia, and
smaller objects were weighed in similar ratios with the units of 0.871. However,
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.

Unique Harappan inventions include an instrument which was used to measure

whole sections of the horizon and the tidal lock. In addition, Harappans evolved
some new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead and tin.
The engineering skill of the Harappans was remarkable, especially in building
docks (at Lothal in Gujarat) after a careful study of tides, waves and currents.

In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest
(and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo (i.e., in a
living person) was found in Mehrgarh. Eleven drilled molar crowns from nine
adults were discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Mehrgarh that dates, from
7,500-9,000 years ago. According to the authors, their discoveries point to a
tradition of proto-dentistry in the early farming cultures of the Harappa region.

Other indicators of the advanced

engineering practices is that the
bricks used to build at these Indus
cities are all uniform in size. It
would seem that a standard brick
size was developed and used
throughout the Indus cities.

LIFE AND ECONOMY

The Harappan people were native to South Asia -- that is, the Harappan
civilization was the culmination of several thousand years of indigenous
development. The Stone Age cultures, whose remains are found from 12,000
years ago, developed agriculture independently of the other ancient civilizations.
By 6500 BC, they were living in villages, and cultivating barley and wheat. By 5500
BC, bones of domesticated sheep, goats, and zebu, the humped Indian cattle
appear in the archaeological record in abundance.

DRESS AND ORNAMENT

The Indus Valley people were the first in the world to spin cotton and woolen yarn
which has been confirmed by the discovery of a number of clay spindles of
different sizes all over these cities. Moreover needles and buttons have also been
found there.

The people preferred loose clothes.

 Men wore dhotis and shawl. The women wore a type of skirt and wrapped a
shawl round their shoulders somewhat like a modern day Indian sari.

Men and women both rich and poor wore ornaments.

Necklaces, fillets, armlets and finger rings were common to
both men and women.In addition to these women also wore
girdles, ear-rings, nose-rings, anklets, bangles, nose-studs,
bracelets and also used cosmetics.

FOOD AND OCCUPATION

Some post-1980 studies indicate that food production was largely indigenous to
the Indus Valley. It is known that the people of Mehrgarh used domesticated
wheat and barley, and the major cultivated cereal crop was naked six-row barley,
a crop derived from two-row barley. Archaeologist Jim G. Shaffer (1999: 245)
writes that the Mehrgarh site "demonstrates that food production was an
indigenous South Asian phenomenon.”

Domestication of animals was another occupation of the people of the Indus

valley. Oxen, bulls, sheep, pigs, buffaloes, cows and elephants were domesticated.
Camels and asses were used as the beasts of burden.

There were carpenters, goldsmiths, potters, toy-

makers, weavers, engravers, seal-makers and brick-
layers. Bead-making, tool-making were other
occupations.

The people ate wheat and barley. They ground these in millstones and baked
them into bread. Rice too was a part of their food.Besides these milk and milk
products, fruits (especially pomegranate and banana), fresh vegetables were also
taken by them as items of their food.
TRADE AND COMMERCE
The Indus civilization's economy appears to have depended significantly on trade,
which was facilitated by major advances in transport technology. These advances
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 those one can see on the Indus River
today; however, there is secondary evidence of sea-going craft. Archaeologists
have discovered a massive, dredged canal and what they regard as a docking
facility at the coastal city of Lothal in western India (Gujarat state). An extensive
canal network, used for irrigation, has however also been discovered by H.P.
Frankfort.

Judging from the dispersal of Indus civilisation artifacts, the trade networks,
economically, integrated a huge area, including portions of Afghanistan, the
coastal regions of Persia, northern and western India, and Mesopotamia.

There was an extensive maritime trade network operating between the Harappan
and Mesopotamian civilizations as early as the middle Harappan Phase, with
much commerce being handled by "middlemen merchants from Dilmun" (modern
Bahrain and Failaka located in the Persian Gulf).[43] Such long-distance sea trade
became feasible with the innovative development of plank-built watercraft,
equipped with a single central mast supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth.

Several coastal settlements like Balakot (near Sonmiani) in Pakistan along with
Lothal in India testify to their role as Harappan trading outposts. Shallow harbors
located at the estuary of rivers opening into the sea allowed brisk maritime trade
with Mesopotamian cities.

SOCIAL LIFE
In Indus valley civilization, the society was divided into three distinct social groups.
One group ruled and administered the city; the other group included the
merchants who were associated with trade and other business activities in the
city. The third group were the laborers who worked in the city.

Razors, bronze mirrors and combs made of ivory speak of the people interest in
personal upkeep.

Toys like the whistle and carts besides puppets,

rattles and dolls made of terracotta speaks
greatly about the attitude of the people in child
care. People enjoyed playing in dice and
marble.

Gambling was a favorite

past time of the elder members in the society.

Miniature Votive
Images or Toy Models from
Harappa, ca. 2500. Hand-modeled
terra-cotta figurines with
polychromy.
LANGUAGE
Well over 400 distinct Indus symbols have been found on seals, small tablets, 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.

[ READ FROM RIGHT TO LEFT]

It is believed that their writing was a pictographic script, or at least seems to be.
The script seems to have had about 400 basic signs, with many variations. The
sign probably stood forwards and for syllables. The direction of the writing was
generally from right to left. Most of the inscriptions were found on seals. The seals
were probably used in trade and also for official and administrative work. So the
Harappans seem to have used writing mainly for these sorts of things.

Archaeologists are not sure what language the Harappan people spoke. The
scholars have not been able to decipher the language of the Harappans. Sir John
Marshall was the first to suggest that the language of the Indus Civilization was
Dravidian. Most scholars are agreed with Marshall. Piero Meriggi, a scholar who
deciphered the Hittite hieroglyphs, opined that Brahvi, the Dravidian language
spoken even now in part of Baluchistan, must be the original Harappan language.

RELIGION
Scholars are unable to draw a conclusion regarding the religion of Indus people.
Unlike Mesopotamia or Egypt, there was no such building discovered so that we
can conclude it might be a temple or involve any kind of public worship. However
some historians are of the opinion that Harappan people were Hindus on the basis
of the seals.

For example, seals have been recovered with the repeated motif
of a man sitting in a yogic position surrounded by animals. This is
very similar to the Hindu god of Shiva, who is known to have been
the friend of the animals and sat in a yogic position. These seals
are known as the Shiva seals.

This is an interesting point because of the accepted notion of an Aryan invasion. If

Aryan's had invaded the Indus Valley, conquered the people, and imposed their
own culture and religion on them, as the theory goes, it would seem unlikely that
there would a continuation of similar religious practices up to the present. There
is evidence throughout Indian history to indicate that Shiva worship has
continued for thousands of years without disruption.
 Another point that might indicate the
Harappan's being a Vedic culture is
the discovery of fire altars at several
Indus sites. Fire rituals and sacrifice
were an important part of Vedic
religious practices. But what was
significant about these alters, is that
they were aligned and constructed in
the same manner as later discovered
altars were. The fire altars were then
Vedic in construction indicating that the Harappan's were a Vedic culture.

In view of the large number of figurines found in the Indus valley, it has been
widely suggested that the Harappan people worshipped a
Mother goddess symbolizing fertility.

Some Indus valley seals show swastikas which are found in

later religions and mythologies, especially
in Indian religions such as Hinduism,
Buddhism and Jainism. The earliest
evidence for elements of Hinduism is
present before and during the early

Mother Goddess- SHAKTI

Harappan period. Phallic symbols

resembling the Hindu Siva Lingam have been found
in the Harappan remains.

In the earlier phases of their culture, the Harappans

buried their dead; however, later, especially in the
Cemetery H culture of the late Harrapan period, they
also cremated their dead and buried the ashes in
burial urns, a transition notably also alluded to in the Rigveda, where the
forefathers "both cremated (agnidagdhá-) and uncremated (ánagnidagdha-)" are
invoked.

DECLINE OF THE
HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION
By about 1700 BC, the Harappan culture was on the verge of decline. The causes
of its decline are not certain. The physical existence of the civilization ended due
to various factors.

(a) Ecological changes led to the decline of land and agriculture, thereby enforcing
the need to evacuate to other area might have been the reason for the
disintegration of the Indus valley. Shifts in the monsoon pattern and changes in
temperature led to the area more arid.

(b) Increase in population, excessive deforestation, decline in agriculture etc.

might have created economic problems leading to the gradual decay of the
culture. The marked decline in the quality of building and town planning indicates
that the authorities were losing control.

(c) The changes in the river flow patterns and correspondent widespread flooding
would have disrupted the agricultural base.

(d) The invasion of the Aryans is the other view that is said to be another reason
which might have also led to the decline of the Indus valley.

The late George F. Dales, who established HARP, has said regarding the Aryan
invasion theory:

"Nine years of extensive excavations at Mohenjo-Daro ( which seems to have been

rapidly abandoned) have yielded a total of some 37 skeletons which can be
attributed to the Indus period. None of these skeletons were found in the area of
the fortified citadel, where reasonably the last defense of this city would have
taken place." He further states that "Despite extensive excavations at the largest
Harappan sites, there is not a single bit of evidence that can be brought forth as
unconditional proof of an armed conquest and destruction on the scale of the
supposed Aryan invasion."

The skeletal remains found at Harappan sites that

date from 4,000 years ago, show the same basic
racial types as are found today in Gujarat and
Punjab, India. This is interesting, because if a
foreign light-skinned people entered and took over,
it would seem likely that there would be genetic evidence for this. The long
continuity of ethnic groups in this region would indicate that the people living
there had not seen an influx of a different ethnic group that would have mixed
with their own.

The Indus cities may have declined, for various reasons, but their culture
continued on in the form of technology, artistic and religious symbols, and city
planning. Usually, when a people conquer another they bring with them new
ideas and social structures. It would seem that if indeed Aryan's invaded India,
then there would be evidence of a completely different sort of religion, craft
making, significant changes in art and social structure. But none of this has been
found. There appears to be an underlying continuity in the culture of India, and
what changes have occurred is due to largely internal factors.

The remains of the Indus civilization are enormous, and most of them are yet to be
excavated. There are whole cites that have yet to be excavated, like the largest
known Indus culture site of Ganweriwala, in the Cholistan desert of Pakistan. No
doubt the continuing excavations will lend more insight into the world of this
enigmatic civilization.

CONCLUSION
When dealing with a civilization as vast as that of the ancient Indus Valley, with no
intelligible indigenous written records to use as reference, any possibility of
applying center and periphery models becomes increasingly complex. We know of
the Harappan people only through a limited set of physical artifacts. What we
know is an extrapolation of the excavation of only partial areas of a tiny fraction
of sites. The artifacts that have survived are those of stone, mud brick, fired clay
and stoneware, metals (silver, gold, copper, bronze), gems, bone and ivory. Cloth,
bark, leaf, reed etc. have presumably perished in the thousands of years and
tropical climate, and with them, perhaps the literary records of this culture, if
they had any.

The Harappans certainly had writing. We have several thousand inscriptions, but
all of them are short, the longest is 26 characters. No relationship with any other
writing system has been found, and the writing remains undeciphered, despite
many claims to the contrary.

The uniformity of physical artifacts found over the vast region of the Harappan
culture tends to make us think in terms of a single religion, language and culture.
However, people could share a material basis of life and yet be very different. The
common writing may have accommodated a language of the elite only. Harappa
could have been multi-lingual and multi-religious. Certainly the area that was
Harappan, now exhibits great diversity. Nevertheless, we tend to talk of language
and religion of the Harappans in the singular.

When the Harappan civilization declined, some features of the culture did not
continue to its successors. Writing vanished, for almost 1400 years. So did city
planning. So did the specific forms of the the Harappan religion and literature. The
warlessness of the Harappans, if real, vanished as well. Incredible though it
seems, the language(s) of this widespread and numerous people also seem to
have vanished with little trace.

However, other things continued on into historic times (historic times, in the
Indian context, begins around 300 BC, with Ashoka). For example, water
management methods, and the standardized systems of weights continued on.
Other cultural artifacts include things like Sindoor; possibly Shiva (Pashupati) and
Shakti worship. The river boats on the Indus today are of Harappan design, and
our bullock carts are descended from them.

We may find out more about the Harappans through further archaelogical
excavations -- there is certainly ample scope for that, through decipherment of
their script ,and perhaps through genetic studies of today's population that can
help decipher who is related to whom. The study of the ancient civilization is a
young field with exciting times ahead.

REFERENCE
 This above is mostly based on the writings of Jonathan
Mark Kenoyer . I primarily use his "Ancient Cities of the
Indus Valley Civilization".
 Indus Valley Civilization (1990) In Encyclopedia Britannica.
(p. 302). Chicago, IL.
 Kenoyer, Jonathan. (July 2003) Uncovering the keys to lost
Indus cities. Scientific American. pg 71.
 http://www.Harappa.com/har/har1.html )

 Rajaram, N.S, Frawley, David, (2001) Vedic Aryans and the

Origins of Civilzation: a literary and scientific perspective.
New Delhi, India. Voice of India. pg. 304.
 http://www.google.com