First Indians

• There has only been one discovery of an archaic human fossil in South Asia – a partially
complete cranium dated to around 250,000 years ago, recovered from Hathnora in Madhya
Pradesh’s Narmada valley in 1982.
• In India the extinction of the archaic Homo species may have happened around 35,000 years
ago
• Homo sapiens would have then become for the first time master of all they surveyed. So modern
humans in India have had a very long time to spread themselves out.
• The First Indians and Zagrosian herders from Iran planted the first seeds of an agricultural
revolution that spread like wildfire across India’s north-western region, creating the necessary
conditions for the birth of the world’s largest early civilization.
• In the early Holocene we see agricultural experiments in the Fertile Crescent in west Asia
• The earliest evidence for ‘domesticated’ wheat varieties – emmer and einkorn – come from sites
in the Upper Euphrates valley in the Levant, dated to about 8500–8200 BCE
• The first evidence for domestication of goats, on the other hand, comes from the settlement of
Ganj Dareh in the central Zagros mountain region and is dated to 7900 BCE
• The Kacchi plain where Mehrgarh is located is a semi-arid region even in today’s wetter and
warmer Holocene climate, so it is likely to have been desert-like until about 9700 BCE because
of the glacial age
• The region would have become significantly populated only when the climate changed, the
deserts started turning green.
• The First Indians, expanding their range westwards from their glacial age refuges settled there.
• Iranian agriculturist population from around the Zagros region had contributed significantly to the
ancestry of the ‘Indus Periphery’ population at least by between 4700 BCE and 3000 BCE.
• The residents of Mehrgarh who raised the first mud-brick homes of two or three rooms may not
have realized it then, but they were laying the foundation for the Harappan Civilization.
• It took about 4500 years, or over 150 generations, for those humble mud-brick abodes to turn
into the urban structures of a Harappa or a Mohenjo-daro
Metal Age
• The Neolithic period is followed by Chalcolithic (copper-stone) period when copper and
bronze came to be used.
• The metal first used was copper.
• The Harappan culture is considered as a part of Bronze Civilization
• The Chalcolithic age is followed by Iron Age. Iron is frequently referred to in the Vedas
• Several Chalcolithic sites, such as Jorwe, Nevasa, Daimabad in Ahmadanagar district,
Chandoli, Songaon, and Inamgaon in Pune district and also Prakash and Nasik have
been excavated
• Jorwe culture named after Jorwe, the type-site situated on the left bank of the Pravara
river, a tributary of the Godavari.
• The people of the Chalcolithic phase use different types of pottery, one of which is
called black-and-red and seems to have been widely prevalent from nearly 2000 BC
onwards
• The burial practices were different. In Maharashtra, the dead body was placed in the
north–south position, but in south India in the east–west position.
River Civilizations
1. Mesopotamian civilization - Period: 3500 BC–500 BC - First civilization in the world
2. Indus Valley civilization - Period: 3300 BC–1900 BC – Largest Ancient Civilizations
3. Egyptian civilization- -Period: 3150 BC–30 BC - Banks of the Nile
4. Maya civilization Period: 2600 BC–900 AD
5. Greek civilization - Period: 2700 BC–479 BC
6. Chinese civilization - Period: 1600 BC–1046 BC
Harappan Civilization - Bronze Age Urbanization
• The Indus Civilisation represents the first phase of urbanisation in India
• The Indus valley site of Harappa was first visited by Charles Mason in 1826.
• In 1853, A. Cunningham, the British engineer who became a great excavator and explorer,
noticed a Harappan seal.
• Though the seal showed a bull and six written letters, he did not realize its significance
• Much later, in 1921, the potentiality of the site of Harappa was appreciated when an Indian
archeologist, Daya Ram Sahni, started excavating it.
• At about the same time, R.D. Banerjee, a historian, excavated the site of Mohenjo-daro in Sindh
• Large-scale excavations were carried out at Mohenjo-daro under the Sir John Marshall in 1931.
• Later in the 1940s, Mortimer Wheeler excavated the Harappan sites
• In the post-Independence period, archaeologists from both India and Pakistan excavated the
Harappan and connected sites
• The Question – Indus Valley or Sarasvathi civilization ?
• Harappan culture covered parts of Punjab, Haryana, Sindh, Baluchistan, Gujarat, Rajasthan,
and the fringes of western UP.
• It extended from the Siwaliks in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south, and from the Makran
coast of Baluchistan in the west to Meerut in the north-east.
• The area formed a triangle and accounted for about 1.5 Million sq. km
• Which is a larger area than that of Pakistan, and certainly larger than ancient Egypt and
Mesopotamia.
• No other culture zone in the third and second millennia BC in the world was as widespread as
the Harappan

Harappan culture is divided into various phases:

I. Pre Harappa 7000 – 3000 BCE

II. Early Harappan 3000–2600 BCE
III. Mature Harappan 2600–1900 BCE
IV. Late Harappan 1900–1700 BCE
• The Early Harappan Phase is related to the Hakra Phase, identified in the Ghaggar-Hakra
River Valley.
• The earliest examples of the Indus script date back to 3000 BC.
• This phase stands characterized by centralized authority and an increasingly urban quality of
life.
• Trade networks had been established and there are also evidences of the cultivation of crops.
Peas, sesame seeds, dates, cotton, etc, were grown during that time.
• Kot Diji represents the phase leading up to Mature Harappan Phase.
• By 2600 BC, the Indus Valley Civilization had entered into a mature stage.
• The early Harappan communities were turning into large urban centres, like Harappa and
Mohenjodaro in Pakistan and Lothal in India.
• The signs of a gradual decline of the Indus River Valley Civilization are believed to have started
around 1800 BC and by 1700 BC, most of the cities were abandoned.
• The civilization had over 5 million inhabitants.
• Most of the inhabitants of the civilization were artisans and traders.
Town Planning
• The use of burnt bricks in the Harappan cities is remarkable, because in the contemporary
buildings of Egypt mainly dried bricks were used.
• Harappa and Mohenjodaro each had its own citadel or acropolis, which was possibly
occupied by members of the ruling class.
• Below the citadel in each city lay a lower town containing brick houses, which were
inhabited by the common people.
• The remarkable thing about the arrangement of the houses in the cities is that they followed
the grid system.
• Houses had more than one floor, Bathroom facilities and multiple rooms
• The drainage system of this cities was very impressive.
• In Kalibangan many houses had their wells.
• At sites such as Dholavira and Lothal (Gujarat), the entire settlement was fortified, and
sections within the town were also separated by walls.
Great Bath
• The Great Bath is one of the well-known structures among the ruins of Mohenjo-daro
• Called as the "earliest public water tank of the ancient world“
• It measures 39 feet 23 feet, and has a maximum depth of 8 feet.
• this building is tentatively termed as house of priests and labelled as "college of priests“
• The floor of the tank was watertight, a thick layer of bitumen (waterproof tar) and Gypsum
was applied
• Rainwater also may have been collected for the purpose, but no inlet drains have been
found.
• Not for public purpose but for conducting Ritual practices
• The large tank found in Dholavira may be compared to the great bath.
Granary
• Largest building measuring 150 feet length and 50 feet breadth.
• All cities had granaries.
Important Cities

Harappa – Buried City

• Daya Ram Sahni in 1921
• Situated on the bank of river Ravi in Montgomery district of Punjab (Pakistan).
• Sandstone statues of Human anatomy
• Granaries
• Bullock carts

Mohenjodaro (Mound of Dead)

• R.D Banerjee in 1922
• Situated on the Bank of river Indus in Larkana district of Punjab (Pakistan).
• Great bath
• Granary
• Bronze dancing girl
• Seal of Pasupathi Mahadeva
• Steatite statue of beard man
• A piece of woven cotton
• Largest City – 500 hectares
Chanhudaro
• N.G Majumdar in 1931
• Sindh on the Indus river
• Bead makers shop
• The Only city which don’t have citadel.
• Traces of Lipstick
Amri
• N.G Majumdar in 1935
• On the bank of Indus river
• Antelope evidence
Kalibangan – Black Bangle
• Ghose in 1953
• Rajasthan on the bank of Ghaggar river
• Fire altar
• Camel bones
• Wooden plough
Lothal
• R.Rao in 1953
• Gujarat on Bhogva river near Gulf of Cambay
• First manmade port
• Dockyard
• Rice husk
• Fire altars
• Chess playing
Surkotada
• J.P Joshi in 1964
• Gujarat
• Bones of horses
• Beads
Banawali
• R.S Bisht in 1974
• Hisar district of Haryana
• Beads
• Barley
• Evidence of both pre-Harappan and Harappan culture
Dholavira
• R.S Bisht in 1985
• Gujarat in Rann of Kachchh
• Water harnessing system
• Water reservoir
ROPAR
• Punjab, on the banks of river Sutlej. Discovered by Y.D Sharma (1955)
• Dog buried with humans.
Economy
• Agriculture was an important source of subsistence for the Harappans.
• Metal money was not used and trade was carried by barter system.
• They practised navigation on the coast of the Arabian Sea.
• Copper was obtained from the Khetri copper mines of Rajasthan and Tin was possibly brought
from Afghanistan.
• A Harappan jar has been found in Oman. Harappan seals, weights, dice and beads are found
in Mesopotamia.
• They cultivated diverse crops such as wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, sesame and various
millets.
• Agricultural surplus was an important stimulus for a number of developments.
• They adopted a double cropping system.
• Comparatively rainless, the Indus region is not so fertile today, but the prosperous villages and
towns of the past testify that it was fertile in ancient times.
• Today the rainfall is about 15 cm but not in the past.
• The Harappans used ploughs, Ploughed fields have been found at Kalibangan.
• They used both canal and well irrigation.
• Pastoralism was also practised by the Harappans
• It seems that as early as 1800 BC, the people of Lothal grew rice
• The Indus people were the earliest people to produce cotton
Craft production
• Bead and ornament making, shell bangle making and
metalworking were the major crafts
• They made beads and ornaments out of carnelian, jasper,
crystal, and steatite, metals like copper, bronze and gold
and shell, faience and terracotta or burnt clay.
• The blades made out of Rohri – chert – a Sedimentary
rock
• The Harappans also practised boat-making
• They did not have the knowledge of iron
a. Shell - Nageshwar and Balakot
b. Lapis lazuli - Shortughai
c. Carnelian - Lothal
d. Steatite - South Rajasthan
e. Copper - Rajasthan and Oman
• Dancing Girl made of Bronze in
Mohenjadaro.
• Priest King made of Steatite are the two
significant figurines of Harappa.
• The Harappans had great expertise in the
use of the potter’s wheel.
• Numerous pots have been found painted
with a variety of designs.
• They may have used Lost Wax technique.
• About 2000 seals have been found, and its
purpose was to facilitate trade.
• We do not find much stone work in
Harappa and Mohenjo-daro
Weights and Measures
• Since they were involved in commercial transactions, they needed standard measures.
• The ratio of weight is doubled as 1:2:4:8:16:32.
• The small weight measures 13.63 grams.
• They also used a measuring scale in which one inch was around 1.75 cm.
• The tradition of 16 has continued in India up to modern times and till recently, 16 anas
constituted one rupee.
Harappan Society and Culture
• Harappans wore clothes
• The mention of “Meluhha” in the cuneiform inscriptions refers to the Indus region.
• There was No Gender discrimination – Women were treated equal.
• Excavations indicate a hierarchy in urban habitation
• The citadel or the first locality was where the ruling class lived, may have been the seat of
sovereign power.
• Lowest tower was where the common people dwelt.
• The middle settlement may have been meant for bureaucrats and middle-class merchants
• Social differentiation is also indicated by different residential structures
• It appears that taxes were collected in grain
• No trace of any standing army.
• The Harappan rulers were more concerned with commerce than with conquest, and Harappa
was possibly ruled by a class of merchants.
Religion
• The Indus people worshipped nature and fertility.
• They worshipped the pipal tree.
• Some of the terracotta figures appear to be mother goddess
• In one figurine, a plant is shown growing out of the embryo of a woman.
• The male deity is represented on a seal. This god has three-horned heads, and is
represented in the sitting posture of a yogi, with one leg placed above the other.
• This god is surrounded by an elephant, a tiger, a rhinoceros, and below h is throne there is a
buffalo, and at his feet two deer.
• Identified as Pashupati Mahadeva or Proto – Shiva.
• We also encounter the prevalence of the phallus worship, which in later times became so
intimately connected with Shiva.
• Numerous symbols of the phallus and female sex organs made of stone have been found in
Harappa, and were possibly meant for worship.
• They buried the dead. Burials were made elaborately and evidence of cremation is also
reported
• Believed in after life and evil spirits.
• But there was NO TEMPLES and NO IDOL worship
Harappans and Animals
• Pastoralism was also practised by the Harappans.
• They domesticated sheep, goat and fowl.
• They had knowledge of various other animals including buffalo, pig, rhinoceros, tiger, deer
and elephant.
• But Horse was not known to them.
• The Harappan cattle are called Zebu. It is a large breed, often represented in their seals.
• They also ate fish and birds.
• Evidence of boar, deer and gharial has been found at the Harappan sites.
• Mythical animal – Unicorn – One Horned Horse.
Harappan Script
• what language did the Harappans speak ?
• Most historians argue that many languages would have been spoken in the vast region of the
civilization, not just one.
• it is still possible that the civilization had one predominant language family with its own dialects
or subgroups.
• It is also likely that it had an official language that was depicted in the seals.
• But Originally its Proto Dravidian Language, precisely Elamo – Dravidian
• As the Zagros planters migrated towards east and bought themselves their Language.
• Elamite was extinct by 400 BC, still there are strong relation with Tamil.
• Brahui Tribes still living in Baluchisthan, speaking Dravidian Language – Tamil.
• The Harappans invented the art of writing like the people of ancient Mesopotamia.
• Their script is yet to be deciphered. There are nearly 4000 specimens of Harappan writing on
stone seals and other objects
• They did not write long inscriptions. Most inscriptions were recorded on seals and contain only
a few words.
• The Harappan script is not alphabetical but largely pictographic
• It is the indigenous product of the Indus region and does not indicate any connection with the
scripts of western Asia.
• Writing Pattern is considered as Bousterophedon (Right to left and Left to right)
• The longest text has about twenty six signs.

Decline
• The Indus Valley Civilisation declined from about 1900 BCE.
• Reasons said are Invasions, floods and shifting of the river course, decline of the trade with the
Mesopotamia, drying of the river and water resources due to continuous drought cited as
reasons for the ruin of Indus civilisation
Truth
• It is difficult to account for this cultural collapse. The environmental factor may have been
important.
• Similarly, rainfall decreased at about that time.
• The break in their exports to Mesopotamia deprived the craftsmen of their livelihood.
• The emergence of Elam as a powerful state around 2000 BC interrupted the supply of Harappan
goods to Mesopotamia and the Mesopotamian imports, including tin, to the Harappan
settlements.
• Once the aristocracy living in the cities failed to exercise its control over crafts and cultivation,
Harappan culture collapsed.
• Post-urban Harappan cultures were primarily Chalcolithic in which tools of stone and copper
were used.
• In course of time, the people shifted to the southern and eastern directions from the Indus
region.
• The decline of the Harappan Civilization coincides with the arrival of a new migrants from North
Western India, Who later mixed with these people to create Vedic Civilization.
The route to the East
• In Search of Better life and agriculture they shifted their settlement gradually towards Ganga –
Yamuna Doab.
• But they lived a pastoral life, and NO Burnt bricks were found afterwards till the Second phase of
Urbanisation at 500 BC ( i.e. 1000 Years later)

The route to the south

• The most common assumption is that this happened after the civilization declined and new
migrants speaking Indo-European languages – or Aryans – arrived in north-western India
sometime after 2000 BCE.
• In fact, there is reason to think Dravidian languages may have reached south India perhaps as
early as around 2800 BCE.
• Those who brought Dravidian languages to south India first may not have been the urbanites of
the Harappan Civilization but pastoralists.
• The possible arrival of Harappan urbanites almost a thousand years later would have built on an
existing foundation of Dravidian language presence in south India
• The distribution of Dravidian place names in Maharashtra, Gujarat and north-western India could
provide further evidence
• Discoveries at Daimabad suggest that Late Harappan culture extended into the Deccan
Plateau in India.