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Evidence
of similar settlements is to be found in many other parts of India.
In the Vale of Kashmir, at Burzahoun near Srinagar, a settlement
was dated with radiocarbon to around 2375 BC; bone and antler harpoons and
needles and ground-stone axes were used by the settlers.
Other sites were found in widely separated locations such as in
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh as well as in Assam and central India.
All these populations used stone axes and pottery of different
grades. For example, in Assam cord-impressed pottery was found, whereas
burnished gray pottery was the style in Kashmir and Karnataka.
B):
THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION AND ITS CONTEMPORARIES:
“ India confronts Egypt and Babylonia by the 3rd
Millennia with a thoroughly individual and independent civilization of her
own, technically the peer of the rest.
And plainly it is deeply rooted in Indian soil.
The Indus civilization represents a very perfect adjustment of
human life to a specific environment.
And it has endured; it is already specifically Indian and forms the
basis of modern Indian culture”. V.
Gordon Childes’ words were in tribute to the city dwellers of
Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Recent archaeological discoveries put Indian
history into much further back in time, although the formal urban
civilizations flourished between 3000 and 2300 BC.
The development of the Indus Valley civilization as exemplified by
Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa is a natural sequence of events considering the
fertility of the alluvial soil the river basin offered.
It is also considered to be a natural extension of the earlier,
semi-nomadic civilizations of Baluchistan and elsewhere in India. Much of the evidence excavated at these sites points to an
indigenous Indian civilization rather than an imported one, for example,
from Mesopotamia. However,
ample evidence exists for contacts between these and other cultures
including the Persian, Mesopotamian as well as the far east, the latter
represented by the Chinese.
IMAGES FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN MOHENJO-DARO
Evidence for settlement in the floodplains of the Indus has been
dated back to the beginning of the 3rd Millennium.
The site evidently offered an excellent opportunity for
agriculture. Rapidly, these
settlements expanded and developed into discreet societies, spreading
north and east and by the middle of the millennium, reached as far as
Kali Banga. Other sites included Chanhu-daro, Kot Diji and Amri. In most
instances the transformation seems to have been peaceful but at least in
the latter two sites there is suggestion of violent upheaval, as evidenced
by thick layers of ash.
Even this early, certain practices that can be considered distinctly
Indian appeared, some of which already point to roots of Hinduism.
An example of the latter is found in the form a seated yogi and
objects reminiscent of Shiva lingam (a phallic representation of the Lord
Shiva). Bullock carts with
framed canopy and the shape of boats are almost unchanged to this date. Women wore elaborate ornaments and bangles, another
distinctive Indian trait. These
people built great granaries and citadels, the latter bearing similarities
with Mesopotamian structures. Their
greatest achievement, however, was the exquisitely planned cities with
roads and streets laid out in a grid pattern.
The houses were made of burnt brick; they had living quarters built
around a central courtyard and many also had sewage system for removal of
waste into municipal sewage through drainage chutes.
Communal baths were also a common feature and these predate Roman
baths by at least a millennium. Most
the houses had private wells and at least one bathroom.
Agriculture and domestication:
Animals have been regularly domesticated by the inhabitants of all
the Indus Valley settlements. Wheat, barley and rice were among the
cereals cultivated by these peoples. Other crops include dates, melon and
several legumes. The
cultivation of cotton was of course, of importance for textile manufacture.
Buffalos, cattle, camels, pigs, cats, dogs, sheep, goats and fowl were all
domesticated by these peoples.
Tools and implements: Copper and bronze were used for making tools
and implements. Knives,
spears, arrows, razors and chisels were all used by all the Indus Valley
civilizations. Also in evidence is use of gold, silver and lead.
Another specialty of the civilization was the use of pottery. An
enduring industry and one that India is famous for was already in evidence
in Indus valley centers; it is the textile industry using cotton grown locally.
Trade: Evidence for
trade between Indus valley inhabitants and various other regions of India
as well as the Persian Gulf
states including Mesopotamia include the Harappan seals (used to seal
bundles of merchandise), as well as items unique to certain regions of
both India and the other Asian countries
with trade links with the Harappan cultures.
Some examples of the latter are turquoise and alabaster (both from
Iran), jade (central Asia), gold (north Karnataka), copper (from Rajasthan
as well as Baluchistan and further west; amethyst (Maharashtra) and
fuchsite (from Karnataka). Also,
official inscriptions in Mesopotamia mention Melham (ancient Acadian name for the Indus region).
Language, Religion: Inscriptions recovered from the Indus Valley
have no resemblance to the Indo-European family (Sanskrit, Latin etc) or the
middle-eastern languages. Although
it seems to be written from right to left, the closest resemblance is
thought to be with the Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada ,
Malayalam and Tulu). Final word on the deciphering of the recovered
inscriptions is awaited. Religious
practices seem to indicate distinctly Indian attributes. A belief in a
Great God (presumably Lord Shiva) and a Great Mother God (Shiva’s
spouse, Parvati) and the origins of yogi in meditative posture, the
swastika are clearly Indian. Some signs of influence from Mesopotamia are also evident.
Cemeteries excavated at Harappan, Lothal and Kali Banga indicate a clear
belief in an afterlife.
Art: Stone sculpture, which are rare finds, vary greatly in quality.
Many are of poor artistic quality but some are excellent.
Cast-bronzes are generally of better quality and exemplifies
technical excellence. Of most
interest are probably toys; examples are monkeys pierced to climb a string
and cattle that nod their heads!
The fall of the Harappan Culture is thought to have occurred after
1750 BC. The speculated
causes of their decline are a catastrophic flood or a major change in the
course of the Indus river that led to the dying out of the fertile area and one
even more plausible cause
being the population growth outstripping the food supply and leading
to deforestation.
SOURCES:
Encyclopedia
Britannica
The
True Path, by Roy Mathews, Perseus Publishing
http://www.san.beck.org/EC7-Vedas.html
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