Social Sciences: Class 6 — Chapter 6: The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation

The most ancient civilisation of India, known as the Harappan, Indus, or Indus-Sarasvatī Civilisation, represents a remarkably well-balanced community life characterized by mutual accommodation rather than exploitation.

• What is a civilisation? An advanced stage of human society with specific organizational, technological, and cultural characteristics.
• What was the earliest civilisation of the Indian Subcontinent? The Indus-Sarasvatī (or Harappan) Civilisation, flourishing from about 2600 to 1900 BCE.
• What were its major achievements? Planned cities, advanced water management, extensive trade networks, and sophisticated crafts.

A civilisation represents an advanced stage of human society. It is characterized by at least the following essential features:

• Government and Administration: To manage a complex society and its diverse activities.
• Urbanism: Town-planning, the growth of cities, and public management (including water and drainage systems).
• Variety of Crafts: Management of raw materials and production of finished goods like ornaments and tools.
• Trade: Both internal (local) and external (with distant regions) to exchange goods.
• Writing: A system of writing needed to keep records and communicate.
• Cultural Ideas: Expressed through art, architecture, literature, oral traditions, or social customs.
• Productive Agriculture: Surplus food production to feed both villages and cities.
• Metallurgy: The techniques of extracting metals from nature, purifying or combining them, and studying their properties.

The vast, fertile plains of the Punjab and Sindh, watered by the Indus River and its tributaries, made the region highly favorable to agriculture. A few millenniums ago, the Sarasvatī River also flowed through Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.

• The Transition: Around 3500 BCE, agricultural villages in this region began growing into towns. By 2600 BCE, these towns transitioned into planned cities, marking the First Urbanisation of India.
• Nomenclature: Archaeologists refer to this culture as the Indus, Harappan, Indus-Sarasvatī, or Sindhu-Sarasvatī civilisation.
• The Term "Harappan": Inhabitants are called Harappans because the city of Harappa (in modern-day Pakistan's Punjab) was the first site of this civilisation to be excavated (in 1920–21).

Harappan cities were built according to precise, sophisticated plans, showcasing advanced civic engineering.

• City Layout: Cities typically featured wide streets oriented to the cardinal directions (North-South, East-West).
• Dual Division: Most cities were divided into two distinct parts:
  • The Upper Town (or Citadel): Often fortified, where the local elite probably lived and administrative buildings were located.
  • The Lower Town: Where common people lived and worked.
  • Exception: Dholavira in Gujarat had three distinct zones (Upper, Middle, and Lower towns) and used stone foundations instead of bricks.
• Building Materials: Buildings were constructed with high-quality, standardized baked bricks.
• The Great Bath: Located in Mohenjo-daro, this elaborate tank ($12 \times 7$ metres) was waterproofed with natural bitumen (tar) and surrounded by rooms and a drainage system for cleaning. It was likely used for special public or religious rituals.

The Harappans prioritized cleanliness and water conservation to an extraordinary degree.

• Drainage System: Individual houses had separate bathing areas connected to a larger network of covered brick drains running beneath the streets.
• Wells: In Mohenjo-daro, hundreds of brick-built wells supplied freshwater to households.
• Reservoirs: In dry regions like Dholavira (Gujarat), the Harappans built at least six massive stone-cut reservoirs (the largest measuring 73 metres in length) connected by underground channels for rainwater harvesting.

Archaeological excavations have yielded rich evidence of the daily, cultural, and symbolic lives of the Harappans.

• Objects of Daily Use: Bronze mirrors, terracotta pots, standardized stone weights, and bronze chisels.
• Recreation: Stone gamesboards, terracotta whistles, and toys for children and adults.
• Artistic Masterpieces:
  • The Priest King: A stone statuette of a bearded figure wearing an embroidered robe.
  • The Dancing Girl: A delicate 10.8 cm bronze figurine depicting a young woman adorned with bangles covering her arm.
  • Terracotta figurines showing cultural gestures like the 'namaste'.
  • Narrative pottery designs, such as a depiction resembling the folk tale of the thirsty crow.

Around 1900 BCE, the urban phase of the Sindhu-Sarasvatī civilisation began to decline. Cities were gradually abandoned, and the population shifted toward a simpler, rural lifestyle.

• Peaceful Society: There is no archaeological evidence of warfare, standing armies, or foreign invasions.
• Primary Causes of Decline:
  • Climatic Change: Around 2200 BCE, global climate shifts led to reduced rainfall and drier conditions, making urban agriculture unsustainable.
  • Drying of the Sarasvatī: The drying up of the Sarasvatī River's central basin forced the abandonment of major cities like Kalibangan and Banawali.
• Legacy: Although the grand cities disappeared, Harappan cultural traditions, crafts, and agricultural technologies survived and integrated into subsequent phases of Indian civilisation.