indus valley civilization

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INDUS VALLEY
CIVILIZATION
The first civilization on the Indian subcontinent appeared in the Indus River valley. AT its peak,
the Indus Valley civilization covered an area larger than those of either Eygpt or Mesopotamia.
In this section, you will study the rise and decline of the Indus Valley civilization.
Indus Valley Civilization Lost and Found:
The Inuds Valley civilization arose around 2500 B.C. Little was known about the civilizaiton
until archaeologists uncovered two ancient cities in the 1920s. One runined city was named
Harappa and the other Mahenjo-Daro.
Because Harappa was the first site to be found, the Indus Valley civilization also became known
as the Harappan civilization.
Since the 1920s, archaeologists have discovered some 1,400 Indus Valley cities and towns.
About one thrid of those sites are in present-day Pakistan and the rest are in the Inida. These
sites covere an astonishing 1.5 million square miles. This represent an area almost times the size
of Alaska.
A River Valley Civilizatoin:
Like those of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Indus Vaelley civilization arose in a major river
valley. The Physical settings of the three civilizations were similar. All three developed in hot
desert areas. Their people relied on a great river for water and fertile soil.
Like the Nile, the Indus River flooded every year. As you have read, these floods created a fertile
plain, but they also washed away fields and frams.
SOTH ASIAN HISTORY 2ND SEMESTER LL.B. PART I,
TOPIC: INDUS CIVILIZATION DATED 29th ,Sep,2016
Presented by: SM Zarkoon, Lecturer,
B.Sc. LL.B. LL.M. {Criminology & Law of Evidence}
University Law College Khojjak Road Quetta.
Email: lawyer.21st@yahoo.com Ph.# 081-2843053

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Overtime, the people of the Indus Vaelley learned to manage these floods. They planted crops in
the rich soil and raised a surplus of food.
Well Planned Cities:
The Indus Valley people build large and well-organized cities. These cities were construced on a
huge raised mounds of earth and rock. During times of floods, these sites remained above water.
Most cities had wide, straight streets arranged in a rigid pattern. In constrast , the streets of
Egyptian and Sumerian cities twisted and turned without any visible plan.
The people of the Indus Valley used hard, oven-fired brick to build the most important buildings
in each city. These bricks were uniform, or the same in size, form one city to the next.
The bricks lasted longer and had a much harder composition.
Then Sun-dried bricks used in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
The Indus Valley cities offered well-designed plumbing and sewage systems. Each house had a
bathroom and toilet. Wast-water from houses flowed into brick-lined sewage channels. A trash
chute in each house led to a rubbish bin the street.

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Mohnjo-Doro Site:
The Indus Valley city of Mohnejo-Daro was about three miles arounda nd included a centeral
mound that rose more than 20 feet high.
All of these features refelcted suprising level of Centeral Planing , or Planning carried out by a
single strong government, yet scholars know almost nothing about Indus Valley government.
Archaeologists have found no royal statutes or tombs to suggest that kinds ruled the Indus Valley
cities. Instead, a few strong rulers may have governed the cities.
The Indus Valley Economy:
Indus Valley farmers domesticated a number of animals. They raised sheep, cattle, chickens, and
ducks for food. They kept horses, camels, and donkeys for transporation. They may also have
domesticated the Indian elephant. Animals seem to have been important to these people. They
carved wooden animals and painted picturs of animals on poettry.
Far-Reaching Trade:
Trade was another key economic activity. Traders imported precious metals, stones, and timber
from distant lands. To import means to bring goods in from another land. Achaeologists have

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found gold from India, Copper from present-day Afghanistan, and Turquoise from present-day
Iran at Indus Valley sites. They have also discovered poettery from Mesopotamia.
Inuds valley tranders also expored jewelry , cotton, cloth, and other goods to Egypt and
Mesopotmia. To expert means to send goods out to another land for sale. Most were shipped by
boat from the port city of Lothal and the Arabian Sea. Archaeologists have found a 700-foot
dock at Lothal. Garnaries and factories for making trade beads stood next to the dock.
Indus Valley trade was well orgnized. Traders used stone seals to identity their goods. They
stamped the seals on soft clay squares and attached these markers to the goods. Trade was also
regulated , or controlled, by a system of uniform weights and measures. Under this system, every
trader used the same units to weight and measure goods. Traders used scales and stone cubes to
weigh objects and measured objects by using a standard unit of lenghth of just over one foot.

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Indus Civilization Trade Weights used!

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An Indus river boat, shown on a seal
Politics & Government
 The government divided the region into city states
 Governed by powerful Priests-kings
 The religion was the basis for their government, with all of their laws coming from their
religious beliefs.
 Just like the Sumer civilization of Mesopotamia and the Egyptian civilization, the
government of the Indus Valley was ruled by religion
 The Indus government was well organized. The government in the Indus Valley was a
monarchy
 A monarchy is a:
Form of government in which supreme authority is vested in a single and usually heredita
ry figure, such as a king
 The Indus Valley people called their kings, rajas.
 The rulers governed through trade and religion, instead of military strength.

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 The king did not have the highest class or power as the kings did in other civilizations,
the priests did.
 A citadel is a barrier of a civilization to protect it from invasions and natural disasters. In
Mohenjo-Daro their was a fortress within the citadel. This deals with government
because the kings and rulers of the Indus valley used these citadels to their advantage to
gain authority. This is where the rulers held their authority from
 When the Aryans invaded this civilization, elders became the head of the society.
 Kings and rulers in this civilization were upper class and the people of the Indus Valley
liked and followed them.
A sculpture found in the Indus Valley. Believed to be a Priest-King

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A citadel which was on of the highest points in the village
Languages & Organized Religion
Religion
 Who/what they worshiped is uncertain because we haven't been able to translate the
Indus Valley script. We can infer from the statues and drawings that their religion may
have been polytheistic. The Indus Valley was a polytheistic religion, which means they
worshiped more than one god.
 The Indus people probably worshiped Mother Goddess symbolizing fertility, in addition
to male and female deities. She was seen as the source of all creation. The people also
worshiped Lord Shiva who is the Lord of the Beast (Pashupati). The worship of mythical
animals is evident from the existence of a human figure with animal properties.
 Many Indus seals show pictures of gods, which indicates how important religion was to
them. Plants, trees, and animals are also featured. These people also worshiped the Sun,

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the Fire and the Water. The worship of trees was widespread. The Pipal tree was
considered most sacred.
 Water ceremonies suggest that water was an important part of Indus religion. The great
bath of Mohenjo-Daro, is where people might have taken purification baths or
participated collectively in some kind of ritual baths on important occasions.
 Some Indus Valley seals show swastikas, which are also found in Hinduism and other
religions such as Buddhism and Jainism. Swastikas were sacred symbol for good luck
 Many historians believe that the religious beliefs of the Indus Valley people was the
beginning of modern day Hinduism. Just like Hinduism, Indus Valley people believed in
the worship of Shiva, certain animals and trees among many other deities.
 The discovery of amulets suggests that the Indus valley people had belief in magic and
charms.
 In the grave sites in Harappa, Lothal, and Kalibangan, bodies have been found buried
with pottery and other personal items. This suggests that the the Indus people believed in
an afterlife.
 They disposed of their dead either by burial or by cremation. When they cremated the
dead, they preserved the ashes of the bodies in clay urns, because they believed the gods
would take the ashes to heaven.
Languages
 The Indus Valley civilization was literate -- we know this from seals inscribed with a
script
 Currently, we are unable to translate the Indus Valley script but we can assume what the
words with pictures on the seals
 The seals consisted of very short and brief texts. The average number of symbols on the
seals is 5, and the longest is only 26.

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The mother goddess which was seen as the creator of all things

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Swastika Seals
Indus Civilization Language