Indus Valley Civilization

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Indus Valley Civilization

• a Primary Phase Culture
• little or no continuity with the following
  cultures
• forgotten until the 19th Century
• rediscovered by the British, while building
  railroads

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Harappan society and its neighbors, ca. 2000
B.C.E.
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Harappan Culture

• Indus valley
• not desert
• well-watered and heavily forested
• 500 miles along the river valley
• 10-20 times larger than Mesopotamia or Egypt

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Foundations of Harappan Society

• The Indus River
• Silt-enriched water from mountain ranges
• Major society built by Dravidian peoples,
  3000-2500 BCE
• Cultivation of cotton before 5000 BCE, early
  cultivation of poultry
• Decline after 1900 BCE
• Major cities Harrapa (Punjab region and
  Mohenjo-Daro (mouth of Indus River)
• 70 smaller sites excavated (total 1,500)

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India
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Harappan culture sites
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Hydraulic Culture

• like Egypt and Mesopotamia
• agriculture and flood-control
• significant industry and trade
• cities very common

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Lack of Sources

• literate culture
• we cannot read the writing
• writing on bricks and seals
• did not use paper or clay tablets

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Unicorn seal writing
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More seals
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and more seals...
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Seated yogi early Shiva?
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Reasonable generalizations

• rapid development early 2,000s B.C.
• roughly contemporary with Egypt and Mesopotamia
• early village culture
• changing rapidly to urban civilization

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Generalizations, cont

• cities dominated both economic and political
  activity
• origins of the people are unclear
• similar to the Mediterranean type

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Major Cities

• Harappa and Mohenjo-daro
• surrounded by smaller cities, towns, and villages
• one situated in the north
• one situated in the south

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Mohenjo-Daro Ruins

• Population c. 40,000
• Regional center
• Layout, architecture suggests public purpose
• Broad streets, citadel, pool, sewage
• Standardized weights evident throughout region
• Specialized labor
• Trade

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Cities, cont

• uniform culture over a wide area
• cities built on a common plan
• a grid always NS and EW axes
• with twelve smaller grids
• kiln-dried brick

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Grid map of Mohenjo-daro
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Mohenjo-daro aerial view
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Mohenjo-daro
view of the Citadel
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The Great Bath
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another view of the Great Bath
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view of a small, side street
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looks like a small tower, but actually it is a
neighborhood well
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A bathroom on a private residence
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A public well in Harappa, or perhaps an ancient
laundromat...
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A large drain or sewer
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Monumental architecture

• very-large scale building
• walled cites, with fortified citadels
• always on the same scale
• palaces, temples

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Architecture, cont

• large grain storage facilities near temples
• a theocracy ??
• planned economy

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Harappan granary
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Cities

• very densely populated
• houses two to three stories
• every house is laid out the same

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Culture and Society

• advanced agriculture
• surplus production
• textiles wool and cotton
• domesticated animals and fish

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Bronze Age technology

• no swords
• spears and bows
• stone arrow heads

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Society

• dominated by priests ?
• from the fortified palaces and temples ?
• power base fertility ?
• deities male and female, both nude
• bull worship and phallic symbols

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A priest?
A bull
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Trade

• with lower Mesopotamia
• but gradually declined

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Decline

• domination of an indigenous people ?
• who rebelled ?
• foreign invasion?
• gradual decline ?

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Combination of Changes

• climate shift the monsoon patterns
• flooding
• destruction of the forests
• migrations of new peoples the Aryans

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The Aryan Invasion

• Aryans, lighter-skinned invaders from the north
• Dravidians, darker-skinned sedentary inhabitants
  of Harappa
• Color Bias
• Socio-Economic Implications
• Difficulty of theory no evidence of large-scale
  military conquest

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Possible route of the Aryan invasions
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The Aryans

• not to be confused with Hitlers Aryans
• these Aryans speak an Indo-European dialect
• related to other languages like Greek and Latin

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The Aryans, cont

• they called themselves Aryans
• their land Aryavarta
• land of the Aryans

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The Early Aryans

• Pastoral economy sheep, goats, horses, cattle
• Vegetarianism not widespread until many centuries
  later
• Religious and Literary works The Vedas
• Sanskrit sacred tongue
• Prakrit everyday language, evolved into Hindi,
  Urdu, Bengali
• Four Vedas, most important Rig Veda
• 1,028 hymms to gods

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Gradual settlement

• over a long period of time
• gradual infiltration
• more primitive than the earlier culture

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Settlement, cont

• new society by 1,200 B.C. or so
• little evidence
• not literate
• no record system

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Oral Tradition

• passed down from priests and singers
• written down in the 500s
• The Vedas
• Veda means knowledge

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The Vedas

• our primary source
• early Aryan tradition
• later Hindu religion
• four vedas
• the Rig Veda is the oldest

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Krishna with Arjuna on the battlefield of
Kuruksketra 2 points to the first person who can
tell whether this is a modern or ancient painting
and why?
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Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna in his manifold
aspects
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The Vedas

• oral poetry
• come to have a sacred character
• provide some historical information

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The Aryans

• restless, warlike people
• tall, blue-eyed, fair-skinned
• describe the indigenous population as
• short, black, noseless, and slaves

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The Aryans, cont

• villages and kingdoms constantly fighting
• warchiefs and kings
• aristocrats and freemen

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The Aryans, cont

• fond of fighting, drinking, chariot racing,
  gambling chasing women and bragging about their
  spears
• any modern comparisons ???
• fond of taking soma
• a psychedelic drug
• probably psychotropic mushrooms

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Aryans and Hindus

• Aryans give rise to Hindu society
• but different characteristics
• cows they ate them
• classes, but no castes
• priests subordinate to the nobility
• the Mahabharata

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The Iron Age new sources

• the Vedas passed on orally
• the Brahamanas interpretations on the Vedas
• the Upanishads interpretations and symbolic
  studies
• forerunners of later dissenting literature

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Strain of change

• Iron Age change causes strain on the class system
• blurring of lines between Aryans and Daas
• answered with the caste system

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Caste System, 1000 BC

• skin color
• ritual purity
• Us--Them feelings
• divine order of four castes

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Caste System (Varnas)

• Brahmins the priests
• Kshatriyas the warriors
• Vaisyas merchants and peasants
• Sudras non-Aryans

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Caste system, cont

• produced by Brahmins
• literature emphasized the divine order
• hierarchical relationship
• inheritance and marriage

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Caste system in practice

• warrior class did not always accept it
• nor the other classes
• the process of evolution is still going on
• the most powerful organizer of Indian society
• thousand of castes today

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Castes

• define a persons social universe
• define a persons standard of conduct
• define a persons expectations
• define a persons future
• define how a person deals with others

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Books you can read, if you read

• Bridget and Raymond Allchin. The Rise of
  Civilization in India and Pakistan.
• A.L. Basham. The Wonder That Was India.
• Walter A. Fairservis. The Roots of Indian
  Tradition
• Jonathana Mark Kenoyer. Ancient Cities of the
  Indus Valley Civilization
• Juan Mascaro, trans. The Upanishads
• Stuart Piggott. Prehistoric India
• Romila Thapar. A History of India
• Romila Thapar. Recent Perspectives of Early
  Indian History