1. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

 

2.INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION (2500-1750BC0

- Indus valley civilization was the first major civization in south Asia. which sppread across a vast of land in present  day india and pakistan (Around 12 lakh sq.km

-It extended from Manda (in jammu) in the north to daimabad in the south and from Alamgirpur 9in uttar pradesh) in the northeast to sutkagendor ( in Baluchistan)

 in the west, this civilisation spread roughly across modern day Rajasthan, punjab, Gujarat,  Pakistan and some adjoining ares.

- john marshall was the first scholar to use the return indus civilization. The indus civiliztion belongs to proto-historic peroid 9chaocolithic age/Bronze age0

- According to archaeological tradition, the most appropriate name is Harappan civilization as the harappa was the first discover site.

-According to radiocarbon dating 9carbon-14), it spread from the year 2500 - 1750 BC.

- Importatnt sites of this civilisation are Mohenjodaro and chanhudaro in sindh: Harappa in west punjab. pakisthan: Lothal and Dhlavira in gujarat: Kalibanga in Rajasthan and banwali in Haryana,

 -other sites are Ropar in punjab: rangpur and surkotada in Gujarath: Almgirpur in wetern uttar pradesh : kot Diji and Ali -murad in sind and sutagendor in baluchistan.

-The largest  and latest site in inda. is Rakhigarhi in Haryana, DR j.P Joshi and dr, r.s Bisht were involved in it.

-capital cities-harappa, mohenjodaro(largest sites,_

-Port cities- Lothal, Sutkagender , Allahdino, Balakot, Kuntasi.

Important Harappan sites

               city :                                                            Archaeological finds

  Harappa (Buried city) :  2rows of six granaris with brick platform, stone symbol of lingam and yoni virgin-goddess, clay figures of mother goddess wheat and barly in wooden mother, copper scale and mirrior, vanity box, dice.

 Sculpture :   Dog chasing a deer (bronz) nude male and nude dancing female (stone) red sand male torso.

Mohenjodaro (Mound of the Dead) : The great bath The great granary (Largest building) multi -pillared assembly hall.proto shiva seal ,c aly figures of mother goddess, Dice, Sculpture : Brone dancing girl, steatite imae of bearded na.

Kalibangan (Black Bangle) : Decorated bricks, bricks, bangle factory., wheels of a toy cart wells in every house.  remains ofa massive brick wall around both the citadel and lower town 9lower town of Lothal is also fortified0 bones of camel, tiled floor.

chanhudaro (lancashire of india) : Inkpot, lipstick, cats with seated driver ikkas of bronzw, imprint of gog;s paw in a brick ony city without citadel.

Baimabad  : Bronze images of charioteer with chaiot, ox, elephants and rhinoceros.

Amri : Actual remains of rhinocero.

Alsmgirpur I: Impression of cloth on a trough.

  Lothal : (machif indus vally civilation) : Rice. husk, fire, altars, grinding mavine tuks of elphant, terracotta fighure of jorse and seal, gying vat, painted jar (bird and foX) terracotta ship, hoses with entrance on

Ropar : mian streets impressions of cloth on some dealsm Modern day chess instrument of measuring 180, 90 and 45 degree angles buildings made of stone and soil Dog buried with humans. one incribed steatite seal with typical indus pictographs ova pit burials.

Banawali : oval shaped settlement . only city with radial streets, lack of systematic drainage pattern, toy plough, largest number of barey grains.

Surkotada : both citadel and lower town Fortified with stone wall first actual remains of horse bones, cemetry with four pot burials,

Dholvaira: only site to be divided in to 3 parts gaint water reservoir unique water harnessing ysyem dams and embanments, a stadium rock - cut architecture.

Sutkagendor : Two fold division of township citadel and Lower town.

TOWN PLANNING 

- Elaborate town - palnning : It followed the grid system. Roads well cut, dividing the town in to large rectangular blocks. Lamp posts at intervals indicate the existense of streetlighthing flanking

the streets lanes and by lanes and by lanes were we;; planned.

- Houses had no window facing the strrets used burnt bricks of good qualit as the buliding material.

-Good drainge sysem  Drians were made of mortar lime and gypsum and coverd with large brick slabs for easy cleaning.

-The town were divided into two parts: 

(i) upper part of citadel and 

(ii) Lower part, in citadel public buildings. Gransreis , important work shops and religions part  buildings were there, In Lower part, people used to live six grareis in a row were found in the citadel at Harappa.

-In Mohenjodaro a Big public bath (Great Bath) mesauring 12 m by 7m and 2.4 m deep has been found It was probably used for ritual bating, steps led from either end to the surface with changing rooms alongside.

AGRICULTURE

-Indus people were the first to produce cotton in the world, The harappans were the earliest people to produce cotton. It was called sindon by the Greeks

-they produced sufficient to feed themselves, The main crops were wheat barly, rice (Lothal and Rangpur in gujarath0 Dates, Mustard etc.

ART AND CRAFT

- The Harappan culture belongs to -The Bronze Age, Bronze was made by mixing tin and copper tools were mostly made of copper and bronze. for making bronze, copper was obtained from Khetri in Rajasthan and from Baluchistan, nd tin from afghanistan.                         

- Bronze image  of the famouse dancing girl 9identifeid as devadasi) has been found at Mohenjodaro.

-The pottery was red and black in colour.

-Very  fond  of ornaments (of gold, silver, ivory, copper, etc) ornamemts were worn by both men and womaen.

ECONOMIC LIFE

- well - knit external and internal trde. Agricuturel products, cotton goods, terracotta figuriness, pottery, certain beads (from chanhudaro) conch- shell 

(from Lothal) ivory products, copper etc, were exported.

-Trade with sumer of Mesopotamia (Iraq) Bahrian etc.

-The sumerian texts refer to trade releation with Meiuha which was the name given to the indus region, The sumerain texts also refer to two itermaedaite stations- Dilmun 9Bahrain) and makan (makram coast)

- Flint tool - work, shell - work , bangle making pottery making etc were practised raw material for these came from differnt sources: gold from Karnataka : silver

from afghanistan nd iran: copper from khetri and Baluchistan: etc.

-Iron was not known to the people.

-Weights and measures of accuracy existed in Harappan culture (found at Lothal) 16 was the unit of measurement (16,64,160,320) Barrter system was ther,

-harappan seals was made of steatite. seals were square or rectanaglur in shape. Seals were made of steative pictures of one horned bull unicorn shape. 

selas were made of steatite picture of one horned bull unicorn 9a mythosgical animal) 

buffalo,tiger, ehino, goat and elephant on selas. Humpless bull is representd in most of the indus seals,

 Lion was not known to Indus people  susa and ur are mespatamian places whwere Harappan seals were found. 

RELIGIOUS LIFE

-Many trees (pipal0 animals (bull) birds (dove. pigeon) and stones were worshipped phallus (lingam) and yoni worship was also prevalent

- Pashupatinath representes male deity The upper classes preferred a god, nude with two horns, much similar to pasupati shiva.

-chief female deity: A terracotta figure where aplant is shown growing out of the embryo of a woman represents mother goddess.

- Dead bodeis were placed in the north-south orientation.

SCRIPT 

- Written from right to left in the first line and left to right in the second line. This style is called Boustrophedon.

-The script is not alphabetical but pictographic (about 600 undeciphered pictographs).