Indus Valley Civilization

What is civilization?
Civilization is the state of condition of persons living and functioning together, jointly, cooperatively so that they produce and experience the benefits of so living and functioning jointly and cooperatively. The word civilization drives from the Roman word for city. It implies a society involving cities, and cities involve people living and acting together, jointly, cooperatively, interactively.1 In simple words civilization may be defined as an advance state of human society, in which high a level of culture, science and government has been reached.2

Four major early civilizations of world3

There were many great civilizations in the world history but the four major early civilizations were: 1- The Egyptian civilization around the Nile River about 3150 B.C. 2- The Mesopotamian/Sumerian civilization around the Tigris and Euphrates about 3100 B.C. 3- The Indus valley civilization of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro around the Indus River about 2600 B.C.
1 2

http://www.definitions.net/definition/civilization (May 16, 2012) http://www.definitions.net/definition/civilization (May 16, 2012) 3 http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_the_4_major_early_river_civilizations (May 16, 2012)

4- The Chinese/Shang civilization around the Yellow River about 1600 B.C. The civilization described here is Indus valley civilization.

Indus valley civilization in nutshell

Indus valley civilization was a Bronze Age civilization developed on Indus River floodplain from 2600 B.C. to 1900 B.C. Geographically it was spread on an area of about 1,250,000 km2, comprising the whole of Pakistan and western parts of India and eastern parts of Afghanistan. The civilization extended east into Ghaggar-Hakra River valley and upper reaches GangesYamuna Doab, in west it extended to Makran coast of Baluchistan and in north to northeast Afghanistan. The Indus civilization is among the worlds earliest civilizations, contemporary to the great Bronze Age empires of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. It was declined during the mid-second millennium B.C. and was forgotten until its rediscovery in 1920.

Discovery4
The great Indus valley civilization was declined in about 1900 B.C. until it was rediscovered in 1920. The first city of Indus valley civilization also known as Harappan civilization to be unearthed was located at Harappa, excavated in 1920 under the British rule in Indian subcontinent. To date, over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the general region of river Indus in Pakistan.

Emergence of Indus Valley Civilization5

4 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization (April 26, 2012) http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Indus_Valley_Civilization (April 26, 2012)

By twenty-sixth century B.C., some pre-Harappan settlements grew into cities containing thousands of people. Subsequently, a unified culture emerged throughout the area, bringing into conformity settlements that were separated by as much as 1,000 km and muting regional differences. This cultures sudden appearance appears to have been result of planned effort. For example, some settlements appear to have been deliberately rearranged to conform to a conscious, well developed plan. For this reason, Indus civilization is recognized to be the first to develop urban planning.

Urban development6
The stability of this great civilization for about 1,000 years by no surprise was due to well planning. All the buildings were well planned and were built with baked bricks of same size the net of streets were laid within the town with a elaborate system of covered drains. There were clear division of localities and houses were earmarked for the higher and lower strata of society. There were also public buildings including the famous Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro and vast granaries. Useful metals like copper, bronze, lead and tin were also produced and some remnants of furnaces provide evidence of this fact. The bricks making kilns supports the fact that burnt bricks was used for buildings.

Occupations6
Mostly the people living in the Indus valley civilization were farmers. The Harappans cultivated wheat, barley, peas and sesame. They were also the first to grow cotton and made clothes from it. They also tamed domestic animals like camel, goats, buffaloes and fowls. Another occupation
6

http://sympweb.tripod.com/IndusValleyhistory.htm (April 26, 2012)

adopted by the people of Indus valley was trade. Harappan civilization had trade relations with the neighboring regions in India and with distant land in the Persian Gulf and Sumer (Iraq).

Religion7
The religion of the people of Indus valley civilization was Hinduism. Those people worshiped mother goddess named Parvati and Sakti. Like Hindus of today they also considered cow as sacred. They used to bath in rivers for holy purposes and considered rivers holy.

Science and Technology7

The people of Indus valley achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass and time. They were first to develop the system of weights and measures. Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measurement for all practical purposes. They evolved some new techniques in metallurgy and produced lead, tin, bronze and copper. They were remarkable in building docks. Discoveries also revealed that those people also had knowledge of proto-dentistry and were the first to drill human teeth. They were also advanced in the transport technology. The Indus valley civilization may have been the first civilization to use wheel transport. Their transport included bullock carts and boats like small bottom crafts and sea-going crafts.

Arts8
The people of Indus valley were great lovers of fine arts, especially dancing, painting and sculptures. Various sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry, terracotta figures, and other

7 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization (April 26, 2012) http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Indus_Valley_Civilization (April 26, 2012)

interesting works of art indicate that they had fine artistic sensibilities. Sir John Marshall once reacted with surprise when he saw the famous Indus bronze statuette of the slender-limbed "dancing girl" in Mohenjo-Daro: " When I first saw them I found it difficult to believe that they were prehistoric; they seemed to completely upset all established ideas about early art. Modeling such as this was unknown in the ancient world up to the Hellenistic age of Greece, and I thought, therefore, that some mistake must surely have been made; that these figures had found their way into levels some 3,000 years older than those to which they properly belonged. Now, in these statuettes, it is just this anatomical truth which is so startling; that makes us wonder whether, in this allimportant matter, Greek artistry could possibly have been anticipated by the sculptors of a faroff age on the banks of the Indus." This statement by Sir John Marshall shows that the people of Indus civilization were well aware of art and they were even more advanced than the other civilizations of latter time.

Decline of Indus Valley Civilization9

The scientists and historians think that decline of Indus valley happened by geological disturbances and climate change. Around 1800 B.C., signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around 1700 BC, most of the cities were abandoned. However, the Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear suddenly, and many elements of the Indus civilization can be found in later cultures. Many people think that the possible natural reason for the Indus valley

http://indianhistory.info/indus.htm (April 26, 2012)

civilization decline is connected with climate change: The Indus valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BC, linked to a general weaking of the monsoon at that time. No matter what happened to Indus valley civilization, it was one of the greatest civilizations of all times. It was advance in technology, science and art. There urban planning was well planed and at that time the streets were provided with the drainage system. In short words it was the civilization which still makes the people wonder and think how such an advanced civilization from time accord some 4500 years back.