The Harappan (Indus Valley) Civilisation

Big picture

The Harappan Civilisation is India's first urban (city-based) culture. Its mature phase lasted roughly 2600–1900 BCE. It is called "Harappan" after the first site to be excavated, Harappa (on the Ravi, now in Pakistan), dug by Daya Ram Sahni in 1921. Mohenjo-daro (on the Indus, Sindh) was excavated by R.D. Banerji in 1922.

Town planning – the most-asked feature

• Cities were laid out on a grid pattern, with streets crossing at right angles.
• Most towns had a raised citadel (western part) and a lower town (eastern part).
• Baked bricks of a standard size were used.
• Covered drainage ran along the streets – remarkable for its time.
• No clear temples or palaces have been found.

Important sites (learn with one feature each)

Economy and life

• Farming of wheat and barley; cotton was grown – among the earliest known use of cotton.
• Trade with Mesopotamia, whose texts probably call the Indus region "Meluhha".
• Steatite seals carry a script that is still not deciphered.
• Standard weights (often cubical) suggest controlled trade.

Why did it decline?

There is no single answer. Scholars point to climate change and drying rivers, floods, shifts in river courses and a fall in trade. The old "Aryan invasion" explanation is no longer accepted as the main cause.

Background: how we discovered it

Until the 1920s, Indian history was thought to begin with the Vedic age. Excavations at Harappa (1921) and Mohenjo-daro (1922) under John Marshall, then Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, pushed the story back by more than a thousand years. Scholars now divide the culture into three phases:

It was the largest Bronze Age civilisation by area – from Shortugai (Afghanistan) in the north to Daimabad (Maharashtra) in the south, and from Sutkagen Dor (Balochistan coast) in the west to Alamgirpur (Uttar Pradesh) in the east. After the 1947 partition, many important sites were found in India, especially along the Ghaggar–Hakra river system in Haryana and Rajasthan, and in Gujarat.

Daily life, step by step

Economy. Farmers grew wheat, barley, peas, sesame and cotton. Rice remains are reported from Lothal and Rangpur. The plough was known (Kalibangan field; terracotta plough models from Banawali). Animals such as cattle, sheep, goats and buffalo were domesticated. The horse is not clearly attested in the mature phase.

Crafts. They made bead jewellery (Chanhudaro and Lothal had bead-making workshops), copper and bronze tools, black-on-red painted pottery, terracotta figurines and shell objects.

Trade. Harappan seals and beads have been found in Mesopotamia. Lothal's dockyard and the site of Sutkagen Dor point to sea trade. Weights were mostly binary at the lower end (1, 2, 4, 8, 16…) and decimal for higher values.

Religion (as far as we can infer). It included a Mother Goddess cult (terracotta figurines), the "proto-Shiva" seal (often called Pashupati), worship of trees (pipal), animals (the humped bull, the unicorn motif) and possibly of fire (the Kalibangan altars). With the script undeciphered, these remain interpretations, not certainties.

Society and polity. The uniform bricks, weights and town planning suggest some central or shared authority. However, we do not know whether there were kings, priests or merchant councils. There are no royal tombs and no large palaces.

Art highlights

Causes and effects of the decline

Scholars combine several causes:

1. Climate change – weakening monsoons after about 2200 BCE (the "4.2 kiloyear event") reduced rainfall.
2. River shifts – the Ghaggar–Hakra dried up, and the Indus changed course and flooded.
3. Decline in Mesopotamian trade – the cities lost their markets.
4. Ecological stress – deforestation for brick kilns and overuse of land are suggested by some scholars.

The effect was de-urbanisation, not extinction. Many crafts, farming practices, weights and symbols continued in later Indian culture – for example, the namaste-like postures, bangles and the use of the swastika motif.

Case study: Dholavira's water management

Dholavira in the Rann of Kutch had little rain. Its people built stone reservoirs, dams across seasonal streams and drains to store every drop. The city was divided into a citadel, a middle town and a lower town – unusual among Harappan sites. A large signboard of ten Harappan signs was found near a gateway. In 2021, UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site. It is a model often cited in GS1 culture and in GS3 water conservation answers.

Common misconceptions

• "The Harappans were the same as the Vedic people." – There is no proof of this. The Harappan culture was urban, used seals and lacked the horse-centred culture of the Rigveda.
• "Aryan invasion destroyed the cities." – This idea was proposed by Mortimer Wheeler but is no longer accepted as the main cause. There is no evidence of large-scale massacre.
• "Mohenjo-daro is in India." – It is in Sindh, Pakistan. Many large sites in India are Rakhigarhi, Dholavira, Lothal and Kalibangan.
• "The script has been read." – Many claims exist, but none is accepted. The script is usually written right to left.

How UPSC asks it

Prelims often uses "match the site with its feature" questions and "which of the following statements is/are correct" about town planning, crops, the absence of temples, or trade. Mains questions take a broader theme, such as the contribution of the Harappan civilisation to Indian culture, or the features of town planning and their relevance today.

Mains answer framework

Q-type: "Discuss the salient features of Harappan town planning and their relevance today."

1. Introduction: dates, extent, first urbanisation of South Asia.
2. Body: grid layout, citadel–lower town, drainage, standard bricks, the Great Bath and granaries, water harvesting at Dholavira.
3. Relevance today: urban sanitation (Swachh Bharat), water harvesting (Jal Shakti Abhiyan), standardisation and planned cities.
4. Conclusion: remarkable civic sense 4,500 years ago. Add a one-line mention of the gaps in our knowledge (undeciphered script).

Mains practice question

Q. "The Harappan civilisation was remarkable for its urban planning but left many questions unanswered." Discuss. (150 words)

Answer outline: Introduction – a Bronze Age civilisation (mature phase c. 2600–1900 BCE) spread over a very large area. Planning – grid streets, baked bricks of standard proportions, covered drains, the citadel and lower town, the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro, granaries and the dockyard-like structure at Lothal. Standardisation – weights, seals, bricks across distant sites suggest coordination. Unanswered questions – the script is undeciphered; the nature of political authority (no clear palaces or royal tombs); the causes of decline (shifting rivers, climate change, decline of trade – probably several factors). Conclusion – archaeology continues to revise our picture, as discoveries at Rakhigarhi and Dholavira (a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021) show.