Harappan Civilization :

Civilisation is said to be an advanced stage of human cultural development . Some of these

traits are :
● Evolution of Cities
● Surplus food
● Division of Labor
● System of Writing
● Public building
● Development of technology
The period between 4000 and 3000 BC saw remarkable progress . Man accrued greater
knowledge and skill , made more efficient tools , started to settle at the banks of rivers , villages
evolved into towns . Surplus food freed people from only farming and developed new skills

The Harappan Civilization : It was discovered in the 20 centenary up till then it was believed
that the history of India began with the advent of the aryans . After its discovery the history of
india was put to par with the oldest civilization like the mesapotanium civilization . It was first
discovered in Harappa in the west province of Punjab in Pakistan .

Sources : Knowledge of the Harappan civilization is entirely based on archaeological remains

such as building , pottery , seals , etc. This is because no adequate written accords are
available . Therefore the major sources of info of the civilization are as follows :-

The Great Bath :-

● This is one of the largest public building at Mohenjo-daro
● It is a rectangular tank surrounded with corridors
● Has 2 flights of stairs in the north and south
● To make it waterlight it is made of burnt bricks and mortar
● Water was provide by a well in the adjacent room
● Was surrounded by porticos and sets of rooms
● Had a stairway which led to the upper story . ( Some scholars believe it was provided to
members of some kind of priesthood other believe it were some kind of changing room )
● Some feature of the bath lead scholars to think it as some kind of ritual bath
● Great bath indicates that the art of building had reached a high degree of perfection
● The structure indicates there was a ruling class that mobilized labor and collected taxes
● Most scholars agree that the bath as used for religious purpose
● Its design shows efficient planning in structural features .
The Citadel :-
● Raised area in each city
● Made of mud brick platform
● Had house of ruling class and important buildings
● Points to elaborate planning in the development of cities
● Specific building points to some kind of social classification
Seals :-
● These seals show the artistic side of the harappan ,about 2000 of them have been found
● Most of them have short inscriptions and pictures of bull , tiger , goat , etc.
● Most are in rectangular and square shape while some circular
● These were made up of terracotta, steatite, agate, etc.
● There provide info abt the scripts , trade , religion and beliefs of harappan
 ● Seals of Pashupati show people bevelives in Shiva
● Seals were used by traders to stamp their goods
● These seals were found in other regions indicated trade had spread over a vast area
Bearded Man :-
● A stone statue of a bearded man was found in mohenjo-daro
● It had a shawl over its left arm and half-closed eyes
● Therefore some scholars believe it is a yogi
● The sculpture is of high artistic value
Dancing Girl :-
● A bronze statue of a dancing girl was found in Mohenjo-daro .
● The figure shows vigour, variety and ingenuity
● Her right arm rests on her hip while her left arm is heavily bangled and hold a small bowl
against her left leg
Dockyard :-
● A rectangular dockyard was discover in lothal gujarat
● It was surrounded by a massive brick wall, prob as a protection against floods
● It was made of baked bricks and was connected by channels to Gulf of Camby
● Lothal was an important trading and manufacturing center
Scripts :-
● Harappan used a pictographic script
● These signs represented birds , fish etc.
● There are abt 375-400 sings in their scripts
● Thay were found on seals , copper tools , signboard , etc

ORIGIN OF THE CIVILIZATION :-

Forgin Origin :-
● Some scholar believe then the civilization came in being as a sudden migration of
people
● They believe that the harappan was an offshoot of the mesapotanimum civilization
● But excavation show a striking differences between them
● Some scholar believe that trade played an important role trade with mesopotamia played
an important role in the harappans development
● But this theory has been denied due to no evidence of trade during harappan early stage
Indigeneus origin :-
● Recent research show that the harappa originated for indian soil
● Some historians believe harappans were a village culture and not forgin
● This culture prob contributed to their development
● These historian found similarities between the post harappan and pre harappan
civilization
Extent of civilization :-
● Read it
Urban planning :-
● Harappan Cities :-
○ Important harappan cities are :- Harappa and Mohenjo-daro
○ Others may include :- Chanhudaro , lothal , Kalibangan , ect.
Features of Urban planning
● Each city was divided into 2 parts :- The citadel and the Lower town
 ● The 2 were separated by a wall and the citadel had most of the important buildings while
the lower part and residential building where people lived and worked
● The main street followed a grid pattern and the street edges were rounded for better
mobility
● The houses drained all their waste water into street drains
Houses :-
● The residential houses were built in high mount to protect from flood and had deep
foundation
● Houses were of various size from one bedroom houses and houses with courtyard, toilet
and private wells and each had a drain pipe
● The entrances were narrow
● The kitchen was placed on the corner of the courtyard and wa son the ground floor
● They were made of bricks and wood and had doors , windows , etc
Monumental Architecture :-
The Great Bath :- (already done )
Granaries :-
● In harappan there were 2 rows of 6 granaries each
● At the south of the granaried working floors consisting of rows of circular bricks were
found
● It is believed that the floors were meant for threshing grains
● 2 roomed barracks possibly for labours were also found
● It is thought that food grains were brought here by boat
● The granaries were elevated to prevent mild web
Trade :-
● The harappans traded in stone metal , shell , etc
● Ther did not use metal money but used the barter system
● Cities like mohenjo daro harappan and lothal were centers for Metallurgy , making of
tools weapons etc
● Rice was exported from punjab and gujrat , cotton from lothal and surkotada and lethal
and chanhudaro were the center of beads making
● Hrrapan also trade with mesopotamia and other places in wester asia
● They also set up trade cologne in northern afghanistan
● The harappan merchants were importing and exporting goods too
● Things like gold copper and lead were also exported
Weight and Measure :-
● The harappan people used a set of cube weight
● The basic unit was 16 with larger ones being its multiples and the smaller ones its
fraction
Transport :-
● Many seals with ships on them and a terracotta model of a ship were found during
excavation
● Boats were used to carry goods from production center to cities and and bullock cart
were used for in land travel
● Some models of carts with drivers in it were also found
Arts and Craft :-
Read it yourself
 Decline of the civilization :-
● Floods and earthquake :-
○ Some scholar believe that floods were the reason of the abatement of the
settlement
○ They concluded this as they saw some houses and streets were covered with
salty clay left by the flood
○ The people aging built up the houses and streets over the debris after the flood
retrieved
○ After a while of this the people abandoned the settlement itself
○ Other point in the book
● Increased Adertity :-
○ According to some historians the harappan civilization declined due to increase in
adirtity and drying up of river Ghaggar
○ This happened as the tributaries of Ghaggar , sutlej was captured by the indus
river and Yamuna shifted towards the east
○ This left the river water less and increases adirtity which lead to the decline of
their civilization
● Deforestation :-
○ As the civilization was a bronze age culture it needed a lot of wood , wood was
also needed to produce jewelry , baked brick , stone water and boats .
○ This could have lead to deforestation entire resulting in climate change in the
region
● Attacks :-
○ Some historians believe that the aryans destroyed the indus valley civilization
○ Thay believe that in the last phase of mohenjo - daro men , women and children
were massacred in their streets and houses
○ This is evident from the skeletons of 13 males and female and children found
laying in a room
● Heritage :-
○ The decline of the the harappan civilization did not result in its total
disappearance
○ Many of its features were found in later civilization like their way of making bricks
, beads , jewellery , etc
○ Its most remarkable achievement , cotton cultivation was later adopted by the
Egyption civilization
○ Its religious sphere still continue to this day