The earliest known civilization in India, the starting point of Indian history, was a highly developed one, dating back to a bout 2500 B.C. Discovered in the 1920s, it was initially thought to have been confined to the valley of the Indus, hence its early identification as the Indus Valley Civilization. Of its towns, two earned great renown, for they represented the high-water mark of that civilization. These were Mohenjodaro and Harappa, both now in Pakistan. Later archaeological excavations, however, established the |
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contours of this civilization
to an area in norhtwestern and western India,
far beyond the valley of the Indus; hence
"Harappa culture" is the more recent label put
on these descoveries. Among the Indian sites are
the ones at Ropar in Punjab, and Lothal and
Kalibangan in Gujarat and
Rajasthan. |
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The
towns at Mohenjodaro and Harappa were well
planned, with streets cris-crossing one another
at right angles, a system of sewage and a fairly
clear division of localities and types of houses
earmarked for the upper and the lower strata of
society. There were also public buildings, the
most famous being the Great Bath at Mohenjodaro,
meant perhaps for ritual bathing, and the
granaries. Production of metals such as copper,
bronze, lead and tin was undertaken and some
remnants of furnaces have survived to bear
evdence. There were two kilns to make the burnt
bricks, used extensively in domestic as well as
public buildings. The Harappa cultrue had
developed its own pictographic script;
unfortunately, its definitive decipherment still
remains to be achieved |
Among the discoveries at Harappa sites are a couple of thousand seals in various quadrangular shapes and sizes, each with a human or an animal figure carved on it. It is not unlikely that these seals served as the trademarks of merchants, for Harappa culture had extensive trade relations with the neighboring regions within India and with distant lands in the Persian Gulf and Summer (in Iraq). That the Harpy society was divided between rich and poor, traders, artisans and peasants is clear from the evidence pointing to different |
professions as well as from
the standardized sizes of residential buildings
characteristic of different localities. That
such an advanced social and economic
organization should have had an organized
government can be safely assumed, even if we
know little about its form or actual working. We
know, how ever, that the Harappans worshipped
gods and goddesses represented in male and
female forms; they might also have held some
trees sacred. They had perhaps evolved some
ritual ceremonies. but we know little else for
certain about their religious
life. |
