The Indus Valley Civilization was one of the earliest civilizations in South Asia, developing around 4,500-5,000 years ago along the Indus River valley. Excavations in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro revealed well-planned cities with multi-storied brick houses, bathrooms, and drainage systems, suggesting a complex society that accumulated great wealth as traders. The Indus Valley people were likely Dravidians who farmed along the river and depended on seasonal floods for irrigation. While the civilization declined suddenly around 1750 BCE for unknown reasons, it provides evidence of an advanced Bronze Age culture in the Indian subcontinent.

2. Indus Valley Civilization.
The earliest traces of civilization in the Indian
subcontinent are to be found in places along, or
close, to the Indus river. Excavations first
conducted in 1921-22, in the ancient cities of
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, both now in Pakistan,
pointed to a highly complex civilization that first
developed some 4,500-5,000 years ago, and
subsequent archaeological and historical research
has now furnished us with a more detailed picture
of the Indus Valley Civilization and its inhabitants.
The Indus Valley people were most likely
Dravidians, who may have been pushed down into
south India when the Aryans, with their more
advanced military technology, commenced their
migrations to India around 2,000 BCE.

3. The houses of these cities were solidly built
of bricks and many were multi-storied and
equipped with bathrooms and lavatories.
The high quality of the pottery, along with
hoards of gold and silver found at Indus
Valley sites, suggests great the
accumulation of great wealth. The city was
amazingly well planned with broad main
streets and good secondary streets.

4. The Indus valley civilization belongs to the
Bronze Age. Excellent tools made of bronze
(an alloy of copper and tin) have been
discovered. They also exported copper, along
with peacocks, ivory and cotton textiles in
return for silver and other commodities.
However, the inhabitants of the various towns
and cities in the Indus Valley were essentially
farmers, and depended on the periodic floods
to irrigate their land

5. The twin cities of Harappa and Mohenjadaro, which
are the two most famous of the Indian Valley
civilization sites, are now in Pakistan; both seem to
have been built fully planned, and have identical
layouts. Neither changed till near the end of the
period. Though there was a long period of gradual
decay towards 1750 B.C., the actual end was
sudden, and remains unexplained though the
evidence suggests that the Indus may have changed
its course and floods might have followed.