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1. Harrapan Economy
By,
Dr. Virag Sontakke

2. Harrapan
Economy

3. Introduction
• Harappan civilisation also known as Indus Valley
Civilization, Ghaggar-Hakra Civilizations, Indus-
Saraswati Civilizations, Saraswati Civilizations.
• One of the oldest civilization in India.
• Spread in North-Western part of Indian
subcontinent.
• It was the period of the Bronze Age.
• IVC identified as Urban culture
• Numerus cities were excavated
• Material remains indicate strong economical base
• Chronology: 2500-1750 B.C.E.

4. • Spread over a
large area.
• Punjab, Haryana,
Uttar Pradesh,
Gujrat, Rajasthan
etc.
• It covered an area
about 1299600
Sq. metre.
• IVC was the most
extensive among
all other ancient
civilizations.
Geographical Extent

5. Major Centres of Indus Valley
Civilization
• So far archaeologists have come across more than
1500 sites belonging to this civilization.
• Out of these, only a few can be regarded as urban
cities:
1. Harappa,
2. Mohenjodaro,
3. Ganeriwala
4. Rakhigadi,
5. Dholavira etc.

6. Important Factors of IVC
• Town Planning
• Architecture
• Houses and sanitation
• Wells and roads
• Uniformity in settlements, material culture
• Big Urban Cities
• Long distance Trade and Commerce
• Art and Crafts

7. Town Planning
• Town planning was the trademark of IVC.
• Citadel and lower town
• Houses and public/administrative buildings
• Cities were built as per grid pattern
• Housed with complete privacy
• Multi storied houses
• Remarkable washroom system
• Impressive drainage system
• Uniformity in brick size

11. Economy of Indus Valley

12. Archaeological Evidence
1. Pottery
2. Beads
3. Seals-sealings
4. Sculptures
5. Terracotta
6. Weights
7. Dockyards
8. Botanical remains
9. Zoological remains
10.Written Evidence:
Mesopotamia

13. Economy of IVC
Major
Agriculture
Animal Rearing
Hunting
Art & Crafts
Terracotta
Bangles
Beads
Pottery
Seals
Metals
Sculptures
Trade
Internal
External
Commerce
Merchants

14. Agriculture
• Agriculture was the primary source of living.
• Flood supported farming helped to surplus
production
• The agriculture depended on rainfed water.
• Irrigation Canal: Shortughai
• The surplus produce was stored in the granary.
• Palaeobotanical Remains:
• Tools: Sickle, Hoe, storage jar, Granary, circular
platform
• Crop: wheat, rice, maize, cotton and various
vegetables.

15. Agriculture
• Kalibangan: Field
• Banawali and Bhawalpur:
TC plough
• Stone Blades: Sickle
• Seals: Humped Bull

16. Crop Pattern
• Double crop pattern:
Rabi (Winter) and Kharip (summer)
• IMP Crops: Barley, wheat, Rice, horse grams,
green gram, chickpea, grass pes, sesamum,
• Cereals: wide range of pulses
• Fruits: jujube, almond, grapes, Watermelon,
date and pistachio etc.
• Vegetables: Garlic,
• Other: cotton, henna (mehendi),
• Rabi: Wheat + barley : sown in November
• And Reaped in March/April
• Kharip: Cotton: sown in June/July
• Reaped in September/October
• Wheat: Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Kalibangan
etc.
• Rice: Harappa, Kalibangan, Lothal, Rangpur
• Millets: Harappa, Surkothda, shortughai

17. Animals
• Domestic
• Oxen,
• Buffaloes,
• Goats,
• Sheep and
• Pigs
• Humped bulls
• Dogs.
• Cats.
• Asses and camels were
used for transport.
• Horses were not in
regular use.
Wild
• Boar
• Deer
• Rhinoceros
• Elephant
• Leoprads
• Rabbits
• Peacocks
• Monkeys
• Wild Fowl
Aquatic
• Fish
• Tortoise
• Molluscs
• Catfish:
Harappa

18. Animal Rearing
• Zoological Remains:
cattle, bull, sheep,
goat, pigs, camel
• T.C. figurines
• Symbols on seals

19. Usage of Animals:
1. Meat
2. Milk
3. Wool
4. Transportation

20. Hunting Tools:
Harpoons, bone
tools, copper
implements

21. Art and
Craft
Industry
Ceramics
Beads
Terracotta
Metal
Seals
Stones
Timber
Textiles
Sculpture
Pottery

22. Pottery
• Advanced technology.
• Wheel made
• Thick and heavy pots
• Red ware, BRW, Grey,
Buff ware
• Painted on black
• Large variety of shapes
• Pottery Kiln:
Mohenjodaro,
Harappa, Nausharo,
Chahundarao etc.
• Red: Oxide (geru)
• Black: iron oxide/black
manganese

23. Terracotta
• Figurines: Animals,
humans
• Animals: Bull,
Buffalos, monkey,
dogs etc.
• Toy cart: with solid
wheels
• Bangles: various
sizes
• Mask: Mohenjo-
Daro, Harappa
• Burnt in open kilns

24. Craft of Toy Making

25. Stone work
• Major craft
• Evidence: Dholavira
(fine, polished pillar)
• Chert Blades
• Blades used as:
knifes, sickles
• Source: Rohri hills of
Sindh

26. Stone Tools: Blades

27. Copper
• Large number of copper objects
• Along with copper mainly bronze items
• Bronze= copper +tin/nickel
• Domestic items: Vessels, pots,
• Weapons: Axes, arrowheads, swords
• Decorative: Mirror, rings, bangles
• Hunting: Fish hooks,
• Harappa: Sixteen copper furnace
• Lothal: copper workshop
• Mohenjo-Daro: Store of copper oxide

28. Metal: Copper and Bronze
Metal

29. Gold and Silver
• Gold and Silver
used mainly for
ornaments
• Items: Necklaces,
bracelets,
brooches,
pendants, earrings
etc.
• Allahdino: hoard of
gold and silver
jewelry
• Silver: emboss
conch shell and to
make vessels
• Lead: for plumb
bobs

30. Variety of ornaments

31. Bead Making
• Major craft in IVC
• New material, style and
techniques
• Material: steatite, agate,
carnelian, lapis lazuli,
turquoise, faience, jasper,
onyx, etc.
• 41 new raw material
• Furnace: Lothal,
Chahundaro
• Lothal: two pots
containing 582 carnelian
beads in one and 212
carnelian, shell and
steatite beads.

32. Semi-precious
Stone Beads
Luxurious items
• Important trading
item
• Variety of Shape: long
barrel cylindrical
beads’ was most
important ones
• The long barrel
cylindrical beads were
worn as girdles across
the hip portion of
females.
• The placing of agate and
eye beads across the
upper arm from child
burials of Sanauli may
be to ward off evil
elements

33. Beads Making Drills and Polishers
Ernestite drill bits
Drill: Cylindrical
stone drill
Drill: Harappa,
Mohenjo-Daro,
Dholavira etc.
• Average Size: 3.81 cm long and 2.54 mm to 3.048 mm in diameter (Mackay: 1937)
• A total of 1588 ernestite drill bits have been recorded from Dholavira
Ernestite is, “….a fine grained metamorphic rock composed primarily of quartz, sillimanite, mullite, hematite and
titanium-oxide phases”.
Ernestite is composed mainly of quartz and mullite-sillimanite along with minor presence of hematite (iron oxide)
and rutile (titanium oxide).

34. Sculpture Making

36. Textiles
• Cotton and woolen textiles
• Evidence: T.C. figurines
(shawl, skirts etc.)
• Cotton: cloth impressions
found in Mohenjo-Daro,
Lothal etc.
• Cotton threads: Harappa
• Spindle whorls
• Mesopotamia: Cotton
imports from Melhua

37. Bangle workshop
• Bead Production center at Bagasara, Gujrat evidence of Shell, faience, agate, steatite
• Shell working centers: Chaundaro, Balakot, Nageshwar, Kuntasi, Dholavira, Lothal
• Ivory: Comb

38. Timber
• Sissoo: Furniture, construction.
• Tamarisk: fuel
• Rosewood: coffins found at
Harappa.
• Deodar and pine: used in
buildings and for other
purposes;
• Teak :boats and carpentry
• Bamboo: baskets, mats, ropes,
house etc.

39. Weights and Mesures
• Standardized system of weights and
measures.
• Shape: Cubic and spherical in shape
• Material: chert, jasper and agate.
• Weight: First doubling, from 1, 2, 4,
8, to 64,
• Weight: Decimal multiples of sixteen,
320, 640, 1600, 6400 (1600 × 4),
8000 (1600 × 5) and 128,000 (i.e.
16000 × 8).
• Ivory scale: Lothal,
• Shale Scale: Mohenjo-Daro
• Kenoyer: Shops in the gateway of
Harappa.

40. • These weights may have been used
for controlling trade & possibly for
collecting taxes

41. Seals of Indus Valley Civilization
• Seals were used for trade
• Perforated boss at the
back
• The sealing also
conveyed the identity of
the sender.
• Seals: square or
rectangular
• Average size: 2.54 cm
• Material: Generally
steatite
• Seldom: Silver, faience,
copper, soapstone
• Motifs: elephants, tigers,
unicorn, antelope,
crocodile, humped bull,
hare, buffalo, rhinoceros
etc.
• Composite animals:
human + plants
• Inscriptions

42. Resource Centres
• Gold: Sutlej river,
Hatti mines
• Lapis Lazuli:
Shortughai in
Afghanistan.
• Copper: Khetri,
Rajasthan
• Tin: Haryana,
Afghanistan
• Beads: Khambhat,
Gujrat
• Chert blades: Rohri
• Shell: Nagwada,
Western coast
• Wood: Himalaya,
Peninsular India

43. Trade and Commerce
• IVC were Trading
Communities
• Trade: Road & Sea
• Internal and External
• Road Transportation: Carts,
chariots and animals
• Sea Transportation: Ships,
boats
• External trade: Mesopotamia
• ‘Meluha’ which was the
ancient name of IVC.
• Seals
Export Items
• Carnelian beads
• Textile
• Conch shells
• Ivory items
• Text from Melhua:
1. Lapis Lazuli
2. Copper
3. Carnelian
4. Ebony
5. Silver
6. Gold
7. Ivory
8. Dog
9. Fish
10. Wool

44. Mode of Trade
• Two-wheeled cart
• Camel
• Boats

45. Cultural contact and internal trade
route
• Copper: Ganeshwar-
Jodhpura culture link
• Stone Bead: Neolithic
of Kashmir link
• Trade Route:
1. Sindh-Baluchistan-
costal Sindh-Indus
plain-Rajusthan
2. Sindh-Gujrat
3. Sindh-east Punjab-
Rajusthan
4. Coastal Routs:
Gujrat-Lothal-
Dholavira

46. Foreign Trade: Mesopotamia
• King Sargon of
Mesopotamia: 2334-
2279 BCE
• Mentions: Melhua
(India), Magan (Oman),
Dilmun (Bahrain)
• Akkadian Court:
Translator of Melhua
• Mesopotamia: Melhua
traders Village
• Mesopotamia: reference
of Melhua Ships
• Sites: Kish, Ur, Lagash,
Nippur

47. External Trade Evidence
• Failaka, Persian Gulf :
round IVC seal
• Ras-al-Qala, Bahrain:
Plenty IVC objects
• Hamad, Bahrain: IVC
seal and carnelian
beads
• Altyn Depe,
Turkmenistan:
Harappan Seal
• Iran (Shah tepe, Susa,
Tepe Yahya, Jalalabad
etc): IVC carnelian
beads, seals.
• Umm-an-Nar, Oman:
etched carnelian beads,
pottery

48. Foreign Trade: Archaeological Findings
• Mesopotamia: Carnelian Beads
• Long barrel shape found in burial in
Mesopotamia
• Mesopotamia: Inlay work items
• Lothal: 3 Persian /Gulf seals
• Lothal: Mesopotamia copper inlets
• Mohenjo-Daro: Mesopotamia stone weights

49. Conclusion
• Intensive agriculture and surplus production played
important role in the flourishing of IVC.
• People of IVC lived healthy and urban life
• Cemetery R-37: healthy agriculturists
• IVC Show an organised trading system
• The trade must have been internal at the start.
• IVC extensively exploited resource places
• Adopted high class technology
• Become a first urban civilisation of India

50. Any Questions ?