Thread by @INDArtCulture

𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐔𝐒 𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐘 𝐂𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

- The four great civilizations of the world are Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Chinese Civilization & Indus Valley Civilization (IVC).
- Bronze age civilization spread over modern Afghanistan, Pakistan & India.

PC- NewIndianExpress

- IVC was the greatest among the other four civilizations of the world spread over 12,60,000 sq. km area
- Indus Valley Civilization is a collection of all the civilizations that existed along the Indus river and the Ravi river. It was not a single city spread over lacs of miles

Northern-most site of IVC: 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮 (J&K)
Southern-most site of IVC: 𝗗𝗮𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗱 (MH)
Eastern-most site of IVC: 𝗔𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗴𝗶𝗿𝗽𝘂𝗿 (UP)
Western-most site of IVC: 𝗦𝘂𝘁𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿 (Pak-Iran border)

Three phases of IVC are:

-Early Harappan Phase from 3300 to 2600 BCE (Harka Phase)
- Mature Harappan Phase from 2600 to 1900 BCE
- Late Harappan Phase from 1900 to 1300 BCE

By 2600BCE IVC appeared in the mature stage.

𝑻𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝑰𝑽𝑪

- Harappa and Mohenjodaro had its citadel, which was possibly the area of members of the ruling class.

- Lower towns were laid out in a rectangular grid pattern containing brick houses occupied by the common working-class people.

- Use of burnt mud bricks

- IVC does not have a large monumental structure like temples/palaces.

- Granaries – On the raised platform and having strategic air duct

- Great Bath – Array of galleries and rooms surrounding it

PC- harappa .com
IMG- Great bath of Mohenjodaro

- Advanced Drainage System – Small drains from each house and connected to larger drains; covered loosely; Casspits at regular intervals.

- Quality of town planning suggests the knowledge of urban planning

-Burial system– Wooden coffin, Respect to the body, No. of pots observed

𝑨𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑰𝑽𝑪

- Situated near flood plains

- Wheat, barley (Punjab), Barley(Rajasthan); Millets(Gujarat), Rice cultivation ( Lothal & Rangpur only)

- Earliest people to produce cotton

- Bull was known

- Ploughed field surface (pre Harappan @ Kalibangan)

- Many sites in semi-arid lands, where irrigation required for agriculture.

- Traces of canals at the Harappan site of Shortughai in Afghanistan

- Animals were also reared on a large scale

𝑬𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝑨𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑰𝑽𝑪

- Presence of numerous seals, uniform script and regulated weights and measures

- Trade-in stone, metal, shell, etc

-Trade by the barter system.

- No metal Money used

- Dockyard at Lothal

- The trading colony in Afghanistan facilitated trade with Central Asia.

- Trade-in Lapis lazuli

- Items Exported- Agate, Quality wood, Ivory Boxes, Pottery, Cotton, Copper, etc

-Long route trade was made possible by advances in the transportation technology at that time

𝑪𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑰𝑽𝑪

- The Harappans were very well acquainted with the manufacturing and use of Bronze.

- Copper from Khetri copper mines of Rajasthan

- Tin was possibly brought from Afghanistan.

- Textile impressions found on several objects.

- Practiced boat-making, bead making, and seal-making.

- Terracotta manufacture was also an important craft.

- The goldsmiths made jewelry of silver, gold, and precious stones.

𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑰𝑽𝑪

- Single centralized authority

- No evidence that they followed orders from someone.

- No temples/Palace

- More inclined towards trade; peaceful political life

𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑰𝑽𝑪

- Socially stratified

- Mirror and comb evidence

- Use of copper, silver, gold beads

- Agate and carnelian- semi-precious stones

- Evidence of chess and Dice

- Image Worshippers – Mother Goddess

- Tree and animal worshiper – Bull and Unicorn

- Swastik symbol (now preserved at the British Museum)

- Pashupati seal (Proto shiva)

PC- National Museum, New Delhi
Pashupati Seal and Mother Goddess

𝑺𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒑𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑰𝑽𝑪

- Seals- mostly square seals, triangular, circular also found

- Steatite soft stone- most common material for seals

- Bi-directional writing style (Boustrophedon), pictographic script

- Animal impression on seals- Bull, Unicorn, Rhinoceros, Tiger, Elephant, Buffalo, bison, goat, crocodile, etc.

- No evidence of cow

- The lion was not known to Indus people

- Seals with hole found on dead bodies – Used as amulets

𝑷𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒖𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒊 𝑺𝒆𝒂𝒍

- Discovered at Mohenjo-daro depicts human/deity

- Pashupati wears 3 horned headgear;

- Surrounded by animals – Tiger(Left), Rhinoceros(Right), Antelopes(Bottom)

PC- National Museum, New Delhi
IMG- Pashupati Seal (Proto shiva)

𝑩𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒛𝒆 𝑭𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔

- Made using Lost wax techniques(Cire Perdue)

- Wax figures coated with wet clay—Clay coated figures heated—Wax melted inside—wax poured out thr. small hole and insertion of liquid metal—after solidification metal figure of the same shape obtained.

𝑩𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒛𝒆 𝑫𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍

- World’s oldest bronze sculpture

- Bangles in left arm, bracelet & amulet in right arm

- Tribhanga Dancing posture

- The dancing girl reveals that people were aware of some form of dancing

PC- National Museum, New Delhi

𝑻𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒂

- Use of fire-baked clay

- Made using the pinching method

- Found mostly in Kalibangan and Gujarat

Ex. Mother Goddess
Wears loincloth and girdle, fan-shaped headgear
Facial expression- lacks finesse Probably worshiped for prosperity

PC- National Museum

𝑱𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑶𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔

- Both men and women wore ornaments

- Bead making factories at lothal and chanhudaro

- Cotton and wool for fabric

- Conscious of fashion – different styles of beard and hairs

- Bearded Priest- draped in shawl, half closed eyes, armlet

- Red sandstone male torso – Rock Sculpture

- Metal ornaments like bronze and gold ornaments have been excavated

- They had skills in making jewelry

- Necklaces, bangles, ornaments and other crafts were made of beads, ceramics , horns, etc

PC- National Museum
Beard Priest

- Great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time

- A touchstone bearing gold streaks was found in Banawali, which was probably used for testing the purity of gold

PC- National Museum, New Delhi

𝑷𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚

- Plain as well as Painted Pottery

- Painted- Red and Black Pottery; Red colour at background and black paint to draw designs and figures

- Plain pottery for household purpose

- Perforated pottery might have been used for straining liquors

PC- Civilsdaily

𝑫𝒆𝒄𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑰𝑽𝑪

Many possibilities predicted by archaeologist

- Possibility of epidemics

- Floods Silt on house -->>repeated flood leads to migration of people

- Earthquake as in seismographic zone

- Change in course of the river

𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒂𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑹𝒊𝒈 𝑽𝒆𝒅𝒂

- The Rigveda speaks of a battle at a place named "Hariyumpia" which has been identified with Harappa.

-In Rigveda river Saraswati is also mentioned which could have been another name or tributary to Indus river

𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑹𝒂𝒌𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒉𝒊 𝑬𝒙𝒄𝒂𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏

- DNA analysis of skeletal remains at the Rakhigarhi site, have questioned the Aryan invasion theory

- It is known biggest township of IVC on the Indian sub-continent.

- Ritual System of Harappan

PC- Indiatoday

- Central Govt. plans to develop Rakhigarhi as a tourist hub and set up a museum.

- paper titled “An Ancient Harappan Genome
Lacks Ancestry from Steppe Pastoralists and
Iranian Farmers” questioned on Aryan Invasion Theory

Find paper at - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31495572/

𝑰𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒔 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝑪𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑺𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒔

- Harappa

- Sutkagendor

- Mohenjodaro

- Dholavira

𝑰𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒔 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝑪𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑺𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒔

- Banawali

- Amri

- Lothal

- Surkotada

- Kalibangan

- Alamgirpur

References:
- National Museum, New Delhi
-Harappa.com
-Hindustanmerijaan.com
- Indian Art & Cuture by Nitin Singhania
- Indian Art & Culture by Gaurav Agarwal