Dr. Nisar Ahmed Solangi

Part-I

When the great civilizations of the ancient world are discussed, attention is often drawn to the pyramids of Egypt, the royal cities of Mesopotamia, or the maritime traditions of the Minoans and Phoenicians. Yet, centuries before many of these maritime powers reached their peak, the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) had already developed a sophisticated urban society supported by an extensive riverine and maritime trading network.

Archaeological discoveries over the past several decades indicate that the Indus Civilization was among the earliest Bronze Age societies to integrate urban planning, standardized production, inland waterways, seaports, and long-distance maritime commerce into a coherent economic system. Rather than existing in isolation, it participated in an interconnected world that linked South Asia with Mesopotamia, the Arabian Gulf, Oman, and parts of Central Asia.

The Indus Valley Civilization flourished between approximately 3300 and 1300 BCE, reaching its Mature Harappan phase between 2600 and 1900 BCE. During this period, remarkable cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, Rakhigarhi, Ganeriwala, and Lothal emerged as centers of administration, manufacturing, and commerce. Their carefully planned streets, sophisticated drainage systems, standardized brick architecture, and regulated weights and measures reveal a civilization possessing an exceptional degree of social organization.

However, the true strength of the Indus Civilization extended well beyond its cities. Its prosperity rested equally upon agriculture, specialized crafts, industrial production, and an extensive commercial network that connected inland settlements with distant overseas markets.

The Indus River and its numerous tributaries served as natural commercial highways, enabling the movement of people and goods across vast distances. These inland waterways eventually opened into the Arabian Sea, from where Harappan merchants established maritime connections with “Mesopotamia, Oman, Bahrain (ancient Dilmun), the Iranian Plateau”, and regions of Central Asia.

Today, archaeological evidence suggests that these interactions involved not merely the exchange of commodities but also the movement of technologies, artistic traditions, administrative practices, and cultural ideas, making the Indus Civilization one of the principal participants in the international economy of the Bronze Age.

From Rivers to the Sea: Early Sindhu Watercraft

The foundations of Harappan maritime trade lay in an efficient system of river transport. Archaeological evidence—including engraved seals, terracotta models, painted pottery, and iconographic representations—demonstrates that the people of the Indus Valley employed several types of boats suited to different aquatic environments.

Many archaeologists believe that some of the earliest river craft were constructed from tightly bundled reeds and other marsh vegetation. These lightweight vessels were particularly suitable for navigating shallow rivers, floodplains, estuaries, and coastal lagoons. To increase durability and waterproofing, the reed bundles were likely coated with “natural bitumen (asphalt)”, a technique that was also widely employed in ancient Mesopotamia. The use of similar waterproofing technology has prompted some scholars to suggest the possibility of technological exchange between the two regions, although direct evidence remains limited. Because reed boats were made from organic materials, none have survived archaeologically. Nevertheless, their existence is supported indirectly through terracotta models, seal engravings, ceramic depictions, and comparisons with contemporary Bronze Age boat-building traditions elsewhere in Southwest Asia.

These early vessels formed the first link in a transportation network that connected agricultural settlements, manufacturing centers, and emerging ports throughout the Indus basin.

Lothal: One of the World’s Earliest Engineered Harbours

Among the greatest achievements of Sindhu Valley maritime engineering is the port settlement of Lothal, located in present-day Gujarat, India.

Excavations conducted during the twentieth century revealed an impressive brick-lined basin connected to an ancient river channel leading toward the Gulf of Khambhat. Many archaeologists interpret this structure as one of the world’s earliest purpose-built tidal dockyards, although some researchers continue to debate aspects of its precise function.

Regardless of this debate, there is broad scholarly agreement that Lothal served as an important center of maritime commerce and industrial production.

The basin appears to have allowed vessels to enter during high tide, unload cargo safely, and remain protected from strong currents. An elaborate system of spillways and drainage channels helped regulate water levels while reducing the risks posed by floods and tidal fluctuations.

Adjacent to the dock were extensive warehouses, workshops, bead-manufacturing facilities, shell-working industries, and residential quarters. Together, these installations indicate that Lothal functioned not merely as a harbour but as a sophisticated logistics center responsible for the storage, processing, and redistribution of goods.

In modern economic terminology, Lothal may be viewed as an early example of an integrated logistics and supply-chain hub, although such comparisons should be understood as analytical analogies rather than direct historical equivalents.

From River Boats to Ocean-Going Ships

IVC seals frequently depict boats without masts, suggesting that many vessels operating on rivers, lakes, and sheltered coastal waters relied primarily on paddles, poles, or oars for propulsion.

Long-distance maritime trade, however, almost certainly required larger and more robust vessels.

Although no complete IVC seagoing ship has yet been discovered, archaeological evidence and comparative studies suggest that ocean-going craft were probably constructed from wooden planks and equipped with sails suitable for voyages across the Arabian Sea.

These larger vessels would have transported substantial cargoes over hundreds of kilometers, linking Sindhu civilization ports with trading centers in Mesopotamia and the Arabian Gulf.

Taken together, the archaeological evidence indicates that the Indus Civilization operated a dual maritime transportation system: smaller boats served inland waterways and coastal navigation, while larger wooden ships facilitated overseas commerce.

This integrated network enabled raw materials, manufactured goods, merchants, and ideas to move efficiently across one of the largest urban civilizations of the Bronze Age.

References: (APA 7th Edition)

Chakrabarti, D. K. (1990). The External Trade of the Harappan Civilization. Munshiram Manoharlal.

Kenoyer, J. M. (1998). Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. Oxford University Press.

Law, R. W. (2011). Inter-Regional Interaction and Urbanism in the Ancient Indus Valley. Palgrave Macmillan.

McIntosh, J. (2008). The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO.

Possehl, G. L. (2002). The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. AltaMira Press.

Ratnagar, S. (2004). Trading Encounters: From the Euphrates to the Indus in the Bronze Age. Oxford University Press.

Rao, S. R. (1985). Lothal and the Indus Civilization. Asia Publishing House.

UNESCO. (2021). Nomination Dossier: Lothal – The Harappan Port City. Paris: UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

Wright, R. P. (2010). The Ancient Indus: Urbanism, Economy, and Society. Cambridge University Press.

Read: Lessons from the Indus Valley Civilization

_________________ 

Dr. Nisar Ahmed Ali Nawaz Solangi is a distinguished Public Health Specialist with over 28 years of experience in primary healthcare, health management, and policy development. Throughout his career, he has served in leadership capacities, He holds MBBS from the University of Sindh and a Master of Public Health from Griffith University, Australia. He is a dedicated polymath committed to the intersection of ancient civilization and emerging technology. He is deeply engaged in the study of the Indus Valley Civilization—focusing on its maritime history, trade networks, and egalitarian governance. Currently based in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Solangi is a tireless advocate for the digital preservation and global dissemination of the Sindhi language and culture. He is actively involved in pioneering initiatives on social media” Our Digital World”. By bridging the gap between historical heritage and digital innovation, he aims to create a new paradigm for cultural representation in the AI era.

The post The Masters of Meluhha’s Seas first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Dr. Nisar Solangi

The modern world is governed by an unprecedented network of constitutions, legal codes, international treaties, and human rights conventions. From the United Nations Charter to national constitutions and environmental agreements, humanity has never possessed so many written laws intended to protect peace, justice, and human dignity. Yet wars continue, corruption flourishes, environmental destruction accelerates, and international law is frequently violated.

This paradox invites a fascinating historical reflection. More than four thousand years ago, the Indus Valley Civilization—one of the world’s earliest urban societies—appears to have maintained remarkable civic order without leaving behind any deciphered legal code or written ethical literature.

The Indus script remains undeciphered. No equivalent of the Code of Hammurabi has been discovered. No philosophical treatises, moral sermons, or legal manuals survive. Archaeologists therefore cannot identify the civilization’s formal ethical doctrines or legal principles.

Yet the archaeological evidence tells an extraordinary story.

Across an area extending from present-day Pakistan to northwestern India, Indus cities displayed remarkable uniformity in their urban planning. Streets followed carefully designed grids. Sophisticated drainage systems carried wastewater beneath cities. Public wells provided access to clean water, while standardized brick sizes and weights promoted consistency in construction and commerce.

Unlike contemporary civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Indus world produced no colossal royal palaces, pyramids, or monumental tombs celebrating kings and military conquest. Instead, enormous resources appear to have been invested in civic infrastructure that benefited the entire community.

Many archaeologists interpret these features as evidence of a society that emphasized cooperation, public welfare, and standardized civic norms rather than conspicuous royal power. While this should not be mistaken for proof of democracy or formal equality, it suggests an unusually collective approach to urban life for the Bronze Age.

The contrast with today’s world is striking. Modern societies possess detailed legal systems enforced by courts and governments, yet written laws alone have not prevented armed conflicts, corruption, inequality, financial crimes, or violations of international humanitarian law.

Political philosophers have long argued that laws are effective only when supported by social values and institutions that encourage voluntary compliance. A legal system written on paper cannot guarantee ethical conduct if public trust and civic responsibility are absent.

The Indus Civilization appears to illustrate the opposite phenomenon. Although no readable ethical texts survive, its cities embody what may be called “practical ethics”—values expressed through infrastructure, standardization, sanitation, and collective investment in public goods. The civilization’s material remains suggest that cooperation and public welfare were embedded in everyday urban life rather than proclaimed through surviving written commandments.

This does not mean that the Indus Civilization possessed a moral code comparable to the Ten Commandments or other later religious traditions. Such a conclusion would exceed the available evidence because the script remains undeciphered and no legal or philosophical texts can be read. Nevertheless, its archaeological legacy demonstrates that ethical principles may sometimes be reflected more powerfully in institutions and daily practices than in written declarations.

Perhaps the enduring lesson of the Indus Valley Civilization is that civilization is measured not merely by the laws it writes but by the values it practices. In an age when legal frameworks are increasingly challenged by conflict and division, the silent cities of the Indus remind us that public trust, civic responsibility, and investment in the common good may be among humanity’s oldest—and most necessary—foundations of social order.

(Written with the support of AI)

Read: Uncovering the Secrets of the Indus Valley Civilization and Its Un-deciphered Script

_________________________

Dr. Nisar Solangi is based in Saudi Arabia 

The post Lessons from the Indus Valley Civilization first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Dr. J Ravikumar Stephen G.

In recent times, right-wing propagandists have enlisted pseudo-intellectuals to push the narrative that the term “Dravidian” was invented by Bp. Dr. Robert Caldwell, L. L. D, as part of a missionary ploy to divide Indians. They claim that there was never a distinction between Aryans and Dravidians, that both groups are indigenous to India, and that the Aryan Invasion is a myth. Furthermore, they argue that the Indus Valley Civilization should be renamed the Saraswati Valley Civilization and that the Indus script is actually proto-Sanskrit in origin.

Pseudo-intellectuals argue that the Indus Valley Civilization should be renamed the Saraswati Valley Civilization and that the Indus script is actually proto-Sanskrit in origin 

Many have reached out seeking clarifications on the misleading content being circulated by RSS-affiliated YouTube channels and certain publications. Here, I provide a concise response to these distortions of history:

Expansion Means Invasion

The Aryans did invade India, expanding their territory through military conquests. Initially, they occupied a small region of South Asia (as seen in 1st map). However, by the time of the ‘Baudhayana Dharmasutra (BDS)’ 1.1.2.10 (compiled between 8th to 6th centuries BC), they had established a vast territory called Āryāvarta (आर्यावर्त)—defined as the land (refer to the 2nd map) west of Kālakavana, east of Adarsana, south of the Himalayas, and north of the Vindhyas.

By 1000 BC, their expansion was substantial. The question arises—how did they acquire these territories? They defeated the Dravidian Nanda rulers and established dominance over the regions of Magadha (as illustrated in the 3rd map of).

The Mahabharata war was not a battle between indigenous rulers; it was a conflict between Aryan cousins who had already invaded South Asia and established Āryāvarta.

The Word ‘Dravidian’—An Aryan Invention

The term “Dravidian” is often falsely attributed to Bp Dr Robert Caldwell, L L D, but its origins are much older. The first known usage in post-Vedic literature appears in the works of Kumārila Bhaṭṭa, a 7th-century Assamese scholar of the Mīmāṃsā School, in his book ‘Tantra Vartika’ (see the 4th picture).

However, references to the “Dravida people” exist even in the ‘Mahabharata’, and following are the references:

– Adi Parva (Book 1, Chapter 177)

– Sabha Parva (Book 2, Chapter 31)

– Vana Parva (Book 3, Chapter 51)

– Karna Parva (Book 8, Chapter 17)

The word “Aryan” was originally an endonym (a name a group uses for itself), but the Vedic Aryans and Iranians later adopted it to glorify themselves. In contrast, Dravidian became an exonym (a name given by outsiders) and later a demonym (a term for people from a specific region).

The Ghaggar River and the Saraswati Myth

The Ghaggar-Hakra River (an intermittent river in India and Pakistan – refer to the 5th image) is often misidentified as the Saraswati River of the ‘Rig Veda’. However, scientific studies, including those by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), confirm that:

– In pre-Harappan times, the Ghaggar was a tributary of the Sutlej River.

– The Sutlej changed its course around 8,000–10,000 years ago, leaving the Ghaggar-Hakra as a seasonal, monsoon-fed river.

– The Harappan civilization did not rely on the Ghaggar for sustenance, meaning even if Ghaggar were Saraswati, it played no role in the Indus Valley Civilization, as Sutlej has changed its course 6,000-years before the fall of Harappan cities.

Therefore, calling the Indus Valley Civilization the Saraswati Civilization is baseless.

The Indus Civilization Was Not Aryan 

The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was not Aryan in origin. A clear architectural contrast exists between the Dravidian-built cities and later Aryan settlements:

– The Dravidians used brick-based architecture, as seen in Harappan cities, Nalanda (see the 6th picture), and Sarnath (refer to the 7th image).

– In contrast, Aryan settlements in the Gangetic plains used timber (see the 8th & 9th pictures), even for royal structures like the palace of Chandragupta Maurya.

– The absence of brick structures in early Aryan settlements proves that Aryan culture and architecture were foreign to South Asia.

This historical evidence debunks the claim that the Aryans were indigenous and that the Indus Civilization was proto-Aryan.

—

Upcoming Discussion: The Aryan Expansion Beyond India

To fully understand the Aryan Invasion, we must first examine what transpired in the Levant region before the Aryans replicated the same strategy in South Asia. My next blog will explore the history of the Levant from 5000 BCE or earlier.

Read: Beyond Nilakanta Sastri: Revisiting Dravidian and Aryan Narratives

________________

Dr. J Ravikumar Stephen G., is the Founder, Dravidianism Revival Centre, Peace Coalition of the People of South Asia, and Sages of the New Covenant. He is also the Presiding Bishop of General Convention of the Episcopal Churches in Southern and South Eastern Asia.  The Dravidianism Revival Centre is located in Badlapur, Greater Thane Maharashtra, India. Emal: Peace.Evangelist@gmail.com

The post Debunking Myths: The Truth about Dravidian Identity and Aryan Invasion first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Staff Report

Karachi, Sindh

The national and international archaeologists and anthropologists have underlined the need of modern technology, laboratories and the human resources for conducting the research on a scientific way and preserving the archaeological sites of Indus Valley Civilization as well as other civilizations.

Such views were expressed by the experts at a conference titled ‘Indus Valley Civilization: An Unfinished Agenda’, organized by Sindh government’s Antiquities Department in collaboration with Sindh Exploration & Adventure Society at National Museum of Pakistan in Karachi on Saturday January 13, 2024.

Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, American archaeologist from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Dr. Joseph Schuldenrein, also an archaeologist from America, Zaffar Iqbal from Hunza University, Zakir Khan from Hazara University, Mehreen Bukhari from Italy, Dr. Sarfaraz Solangi, Dr. Asma Ibrahim, Dr. Kaleem Lashari and other experts presented their papers at the conference.

Dr. Syed Junaid Ali Shah, Caretaker Minister for Culture & Antiquities, was the chief guest, who said in his address that the Indus Civilization was the mother of all other civilizations. “We are fortunate for having such an ancient treasure of civilization.”

Also read: Massive rains cause major damage to Mohen Jo Daro

Stating that Sindh government is working on various schemes related to the research on ancient civilization of Sindh, he said the provincial antiquities department is establishing an Archaeological Laboratory at Hub area and the work on this project is almost in final phase.

“We had to send precious artifacts of Indus Valley Civilization for research to Italy, France and other countries, but now the research could be carried out at national level,” he added.

Emphasizing the mapping of Indus River, Caretaker Minister said a document in this regard would soon be released that would help understand the routes linked to the Indus Valley.

Dr. Juaid said that 2022 floods had caused severe damage to the archaeological sites in Sindh. “We must devise the ways to protect the archaeological sites from the natural disasters in future.”

Also read: Sindh to invite private sector for preserving heritage sites

Dr. Kaleem Lashari spoke about the threat to ancient archaeological site of Mohen Jo Daro posed by increasing subsoil water level. “In order to understand the Indus Civilization, one has to carry out study on other related civilizations,” he viewed.

Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer said that the evidences found from Mohen Jo Daro and other civilizations indicate that this land produced many things and such products used to be exported. “The people of Indus Valley used to make ornaments from the seashells,” he said.

Ms. Mehreen from Italy spoke about the paintings on earthen ware found from Indus Valley archaeological sites.

Dr. Joseph Schuldenrein, in his paper said that during the dry core drilling at Mohen Jo Daro, evidences have been that more layers of ancient civilization are still underneath. He also drew attention to the rising water level and salinity that could erase those hidden evidences of civilization.

Dr. Zaffar Khan of Hazara University, Mansehra, in his paper spoke about the threat to the precocious artifacts found from Balochistan, as no measures have been taken so far for their preservation.

_________________

The post Modern Technology, Labs, Human Resources Needed for Research on Indus Civilization first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Tom Garlinghouse

The Indus Valley Civilization is one of the oldest civilizations in human history. It arose on the Indian subcontinent nearly 5,000 years ago — roughly the same time as the emergence of ancient Egypt and nearly 1,000 years after the earliest Sumerian cities of Mesopotamia. The Indus Valley Civilization, in its mature phase, thrived for about 700 years, from around 2600 B.C. to 1900 B.C.

“The Indus Valley Civilization, also called the Saraswati or Harappan civilization, is one of the ‘pristine’ civilizations on our planet,” William Belcher, an anthropologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, told Live Science.

A pristine civilization is one that arose indigenously or independently of other civilizations. More specifically, it is one that developed on its own, without conquest, and without the benefit of cultural exchange or immigration with another established society. Generally, the six pristine civilizations recognized by archaeologists and historians are in the following areas: Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Mesoamerica (which includes parts of Mexico and Central America), the Andean region and the Indus Valley. These civilizations arose at different times — the earliest of these, Mesopotamia, arose some 6,000 years ago, while the earliest Andean civilization, the Chavin,(opens in new tab) developed in approximately 900 B.C.

The Indus Valley Civilization covers approximately 1 million square kilometers and extends throughout northwest India, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan

The Indus Valley Civilization derives its name from the Indus River, one of the longest rivers in Asia. Many of the Indus Valley Civilization’s large, well-planned cities, such as Mohenjo-Daro, Kot Diji and Chanhu-Daro, were situated along the course of the Indus River, which flows from the mountains of western Tibet, through the disputed region of Kashmir and southwestward before emptying into the Arabian Sea near the modern city of Karachi, Pakistan. Other Indus Valley Civilization cities were located next to different major rivers, such as the Ghaggar-Hakra, Sutlej, Jhelum, Chenab and the Ravi Rivers, or on the alluvial floodplains between rivers. Today, much of this area is part of the Punjab region, which is translated as the “land of the five rivers” in what is now Pakistan. Other Indus Valley Civilization cities are located in northwest India, and a few additional cities are in northeastern Afghanistan, near archaeological sites where tin and lapis lazuli, a blue metamorphic rock, were mined.

“The Indus Valley Civilization covers approximately 1 million square kilometers [386,000 square miles] and extends throughout northwest India, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan,” Belcher said. “This really makes it one of the largest ‘Old World’ civilizations in terms of geographic extent.”

The Indus Valley Civilization first came to the attention of the world through the work of British officer-archaeologists during the mid-1820s

Indus Valley Civilization cities were characterized by sophisticated urban planning and included water control systems and grid-focused neighborhoods, with roads and alleyways laid out on the cardinal directions. Many of the roads were broad avenues that were paved in baked brick with elaborate drainage systems. Although archaeologists don’t know the exact number of inhabitants that these cities contained, the larger urban centers, like Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, might have had between 30,000 and 40,000 people, or possibly more, Belcher said.

DISCOVERY OF THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

“The Indus Valley Civilization first came to the attention of the world through the work of British officer-archaeologists during the mid-1820s,” Belcher said.

The first of these, according to World History Encyclopedia, was a man who went by the alias of Charles Masson (his real name was James Lewis). Masson was a soldier of artillery who deserted the British army in 1827 and subsequently roamed the Punjab region. He was an avid coin collector, and he excavated ancient Indian archaeological sites looking for coins. His travels eventually took him, in 1829, to the Indus city of Harappa, in modern-day Pakistan, where he looked for coins and other artifacts. Most of the city was buried by that time, but Masson made a record of the city’s ruins in his field notes, which included drawings. Masson had no idea how old the city was or who built it — he attributed it to Alexander the Great, according to World History Encyclopedia.

When he returned to the United Kingdom, Masson published a book called “Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan and the Punjab,” which caught the attention of a former British army officer and engineer named Alexander Cunningham, who was the head of the Archaeological Survey of India. Spurred on by Masson’s findings, Cunningham excavated at Harappa in 1872 and in 1873 and wrote an extensive interpretation of his findings, though many of his conclusions were speculative and incorrect, Belcher said. For example, Cunningham argued that the city was probably only 1,000 years old, much younger than its real age of 2600 B.C., according to Harappa.com. Cunningham based this conclusion on what local inhabitants of the area told him about the site’s traditional folklore. He also argued that the origins of the city were likely due to contact with people from the Near East, possibly the inhabitants of Mesopotamia. He is credited with being the first scholar to discover and comment on the famous Indian seals, which contain the still much-debated Indus Valley script.

The first announcement of the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization was made in the Sept. 20, 1924 issue of the Illustrated London News.

A British archaeologist named John Marshall continued the work begun by Cunningham when he became director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1904. He excavated at Harappa and then later, in 1924, at Mohenjo-Daro (“the mound of the dead” in the Sindhi language, a site that was brought to his attention by local people. Marshall speculated, like Cunningham, that the civilization was likely only perhaps 1,000 years old. But, unlike Cunningham, he noted the many similarities between the archaeological sites of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, and recognized that the two cities were representative of a single culture, which he termed the Indus Valley Civilization.

The first announcement of the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization was made in the Sept. 20, 1924 issue of the Illustrated London News. Here, some of the first images of the Indus Valley Civilization were portrayed, including brick buildings, a glazed brick shrine and graves.

THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION’S SOCIETY AND CULTURE

More recent archaeology has fleshed out our understanding of the Indus Valley Civilization, though many questions remain. “We now have thousands of sites,” Belcher said, “but few have been excavated in detail.”

Despite this dearth of excavations, the few Indus Valley archaeological sites that have been analyzed reveal a complex, urbanized society that was involved in sophisticated urban planning and large-scale building projects (such as large baths and multi-story buildings), as well as numerous crafts, including pottery-making, metallurgy, lapidary (stone and gem) arts and brick-making. Food production was an important endeavor for such a large population, and the Indus Valley people utilized an irrigation system that involved storing water in large tanks to grow several important food crops, including barley, wheat, sesame and various legumes, according to Belcher. Cotton was also an important crop for the civilization’s clothing and textiles. The Indus Valley people raised domesticated animals, including cattle, water buffalo, pigs, sheep and goats. The discovery of the bones of ancient wild animals, such as deer and fish, in Indus Valley cities attest to hunting and fishing during the civilization’s existence.

Archaeologists have uncovered some artifacts that could point to a ruling class. For example, a small steatite figurine known as the “priest-king,” was found during the excavations at Mohenjo-Daro in 1925, and may represent a member of the ruling class of the city

Little is known about the political systems of Indus Valley society, though Belcher suggested that a cultural elite may have ruled with enough power and authority to initiate large-scale building projects. However, few elaborate tombs and no definitive temples or palaces have been discovered that are indicative of a distinct authoritarian or royal class.

Nonetheless, archaeologists have uncovered some artifacts that could point to a ruling class. For example, a small steatite (soapstone) figurine known as the “priest-king,” was found during the excavations at Mohenjo-Daro in 1925, and may represent a member of the ruling class of the city.

Perhaps the most famous structure of Mohenjo-Daro is the so-called Great Bath. It has been interpreted as a communal bath built for ritual purposes, though its actual function remains a mystery, Belcher said. It measures 893 square feet (83 square meters), is 7.9 feet (2.4 m) deep and is rectangular in shape, according to Britannica.

Some scholars have claimed that the lack of evidence of temples and palaces suggest that the Indus Valley Civilization was not actually a state, but was a collection of independent cities whose societies were based on consensual decision-making processes, and that there was no social stratification. However, this viewpoint is debated.

“I doubt this, given the amount of labor that would have been required to make the cities,” Belcher said. “The distribution of settlements does suggest that we have a state or a series of smaller city-states. The planning and architecture of these urban centers would definitely have required coordination.”

One theory, Belcher noted, was that the society was controlled by a class of merchants. “Some researchers suspect that the society was integrated through a system of rituals and iconography that was manipulated by a class of merchants,” he said. “This allowed this class to control specific trade routes and forms of trade goods.”

“We believe the writing system is logosyllabic, meaning that each sign represents a sound,” Belcher said

Trade likely played a vital role in Indus Valley society, Belcher said, and there were many long-standing trade networks that connected with areas as far away as Mesopotamia and Egypt, according to World History Encyclopedia. Most of the Indus Valley Civilization’s major cities are located at the juncture of several geographic trade routes, Belcher added.

THE ENIGMATIC INDUS VALLEY WRITING SYSTEM AND SEALS

The Indus Valley writing system has long been a source of great interest, speculation and scholarly work. Scholars first came across the writing system when Cunningham reported finding several seals, or small, square-shaped steatite tablets, at Harappa, on which were inscribed various animal images, such as bulls, elephants and even fanciful creatures. These images were always accompanied with an enigmatic script, made up of circles, crosses, wheel-like signs, parallel lines and numerous other unfathomable designs, which, according to Belcher, has been only partially deciphered. Since Cunningham’s discovery, these steatite seals have been found at various Indus Valley sites.

“We believe the writing system is logosyllabic, meaning that each sign represents a sound,” Belcher said. “This differs from logographic writing where each sign represents a word.”

So far, between 400 and 500 individual signs have been identified, according to Belcher. “The writing probably functioned in much the same way it did in the Near East — for economic purposes and to exhibit ownership, but the structure is completely different [from Near Eastern examples] and it doesn’t appear to have evolved much. It probably contains no complete grammar or literary texts,” he said.

ANCIENT DNA

In 2019, an analysis of skeletal remains that are nearly 5,000 years old marked the first time researchers had acquired ancient DNA from an individual who was a part of the Indus Valley Civilization. The remains, belonging to a woman, were found at the Indus Valley site of Rakhigarhi, northwest of New Delhi, according to a study published in the journal Cell. Scientists sequenced a trace amount of DNA from the woman and compared it with the DNA of modern South Asians. The results revealed that the woman was a genetic ancestor of most modern Indians.

“This finding ties people in South Asia today directly to the Indus Valley Civilization,” study co-researcher David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement at the time.

The skeleton’s genome, however, held at least one surprise; although modern South Asians contain the DNA of Steppe pastoralists who lived in Eurasia, the Indus woman doesn’t have any such DNA. This suggests that the mixing between Eurasian pastoralists and South Asians, a characteristic of Indians today, likely occurred after the downfall of the Indus Valley Civilization. Moreover, this gives credence to the idea that the Indus Valley Civilization likely arose independently of Near Eastern influence, meaning that the civilizations likely developed farming independently.

THE DEMISE OF THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

According to World History Encyclopedia, between 1900 B.C. and 1500 B.C., the Indus Valley cities were steadily abandoned, and the people relocated south. Belcher characterized this as a process of “de-urbanization,” in which the inhabitants of the Indus Valley cities returned to a village-based lifestyle. This development has given rise to much discussion over the decades and has fueled a multitude of theories as to why the culture declined and fell. Some scholars have argued that a decline in trade networks led to this abandonment, while others have suggested that massive flooding played a role in this decline. Another theory posits the idea that the Indus people fell prey to Indo-Aryan invaders from the north who attacked the cities and drove the people south. This theory, once popular, has now been rejected as false, according to World History Encyclopedia.

According to World History Encyclopedia, between 1900 B.C. and 1500 B.C., the Indus Valley cities were steadily abandoned. Belcher characterized this as a process of “de-urbanization”, and the people returned to villages

Modern archaeologists have suggested that a combination of climate change and a change in the course and volume of the rivers — to which the Indus people were largely dependent — likely played the largest roles in the civilization’s collapse, a 2012 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(opens in new tab) found. This climate change manifested in drier and more arid conditions and a significant drought, a phenomenon known as the 4.2-kiloyear event — a still controversial topic that some scholars have suggested led to the demise of several early civilizations, such as the Akkadian Empire and other Mesopotamian cities.

However, the Indus people did not simply disappear. As the DNA evidence attests, the modern populations of India and Pakistan carry the genetics of these ancient people. “One of the things I think is most intriguing is that the Indus Valley Civilization never really ended,” Belcher said.

_______________

Courtesy: Live Science (Published May 31, 2022)

The post What was the Indus Valley Civilization? first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Sanujit

For well over 1,000 years, sacred stories and heroic epics have made up the mythology of Hinduism. Nothing in these complex yet colorful legends is fixed and firm. Pulsing with creation, destruction, love, and war, it shifts and changes. Most myths occur in several different versions, and many characters have multiple roles, identities, and histories. This seeming confusion reflects the richness of a mythology that has expanded and taken on new meanings over the centuries.

Hinduism stood for a wide variety of related religious traditions native to India. Historically, it involved the evolution since the pre-Christian epoch. In turn, it looked back to age-old belief of the Indus Valley Civilization followed by the Vedic religion.

Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization ensued during the Bronze Age (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE). It mostly spread along the Indus and the Punjab region, extending into the Ghaggar-Hakra river valley and the Ganga-Yamuna Doab, surrounding most of what is now Pakistan, the western states of modern-day India, as well as extending into south-eastern Afghanistan, and the easternmost part of Baluchistan, Iran.

The geography of the Indus Valley put the civilizations that arose there in a similar situation to those in Egypt and Peru, with rich agricultural lands being surrounded by highlands, desert, and ocean. Of late, Indus sites had been discovered in Pakistan’s north-western Frontier Province as well. Other smaller isolated colonies were found as far away as Turkmenistan. Coastal settlements extended from Sutkagan Dor in Western Baluchistan to Lothal in Gujarat. An Indus Valley site was located on the Oxus River at Shortughai in northern Afghanistan.

By 2600 BCE, early communities turned into large urban centers. Such inner-city centers included Harappa, Ganeriwala, Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and Dholavira, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Rupar, and Lothal in India. In total, over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the region of the Indus and the tributaries.

Steatite seals had images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of inscriptions, including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley Civilization. A number of gold, terra-cotta and stone figurines of girls in dancing poses showed the presence of some dance form. Also, these terra-cotta figurines included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. Sir John Marshall reacted with surprise when he saw the famous Indus bronze statuette of a slender-limbed dancing girl in Mohenjo-daro:

When I first saw I found it difficult to believe that they were prehistoric; they seemed to completely upset all established ideas about early art, and culture. Modelling such as this was unknown in the ancient world up to the Hellenistic age of Greece, and I thought, therefore, that some mistake must surely have been made; that these figures had found their way into levels some 3000 years older than those to which they properly belonged.

Now, in these statuettes, it was just this anatomical truth which was so startling; that made us wonder whether, in this all-important matter, Greek artistry could possibly have been anticipated by the sculptors of a far-off age on the banks of the Indus.

Buddhism originated in the fifth century BCE and spread throughout the Indian subcontinent in the third century BCE.

It was widely suggested that the Harappan people worshipped a Mother goddess symbolizing fertility. A few Indus valley seals displayed swastika sign which were there in many religions, especially in Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The earliest evidence for elements of Hinduism is before and during the early Harappan period. Phallic symbols close to the Hindu Shiva lingam was located in the Harappan ruins.

Shiva

One famous seal displayed a figure seated in a posture reminiscent of the lotus position, surrounded by animals. It came to be labelled after Pashupati (lord of beasts), an epithet of Shiva. The discoverer of the Shiva seal (M420), Sir John Marshall and others have claimed that this figure is a prototype of Shiva, and have described it as having three faces, seated on a throne in a version of the cross-legged lotus posture of Hatha Yoga. Yogi’s penis is erect, with both testicles prominently visible. The precise placement of both heels under the scrotum is an advanced Tantric Yoga technique known as Bandha, meaning knot or lock. It is normally used to sublimate and redirect sexual energy and can endow the practitioner with spiritual powers.

A large tiger rears upwards by the yogi’s right side, facing him. This is the largest animal on the seal, shown as if warmly connected to the yogi; the stripes on the tiger’s body, also in groups of five, highlight the connection. Three other smaller animals are depicted on the Shiva seal. It is most likely that all the animals on this seal are totemic or heraldic symbols, indicating tribes, people or geographic areas. On the Shiva seal, the tiger, being the largest, represents the yogi’s people, and most likely symbolizes the Himalayan region. The elephant probably represents central and eastern India, the bull or buffalo south India and the rhinoceros the regions west of the Indus River. Heinrich Zimmer agrees that the Pashupati figure shows a figure in a yoga posture.

Pashupati

The people of the Indus Valley also appear to have worshipped a male god. The most important depiction of an imagined Hinduism god is seal number 420. Many other seals have been found depicting the same figure, but not in the same detail as number 420. The deity is wearing a headdress that has horns, the shape being reminiscent of the crescent moon that modern image of Siva shows on his forehead.

What are thought to be linga stones have been dug up. Linga stones in modern Hinduism are used to represent the erect male phallus or the male reproductive power of the god Siva. But again, these stones could be something entirely different from objects of religious worship. Even today, Siva is worshipped in both human form and that of the phallus. The deity sitting in a yoga-like position suggests that yoga may have been a legacy of the very first great culture that occupied India.

Religious Sign of Swastika

The earliest sure use of swastika motifs in the archaeological record goes to the Neolithic epoch. The symbol appears in the “Vinca script” of Neolithic Europe (Balkans, 6th to 5th millennium BCE. Another early attestation is on a pottery bowl found at Samarra, dated to as early as 4000 BCE. Joseph Campbell in an essay on The Neolithic-Palaeolithic Contrast cites an ornament on a Late Palaeolithic (10,000 BCE) mammoth ivory bird figurine found near Kiev as the only known occurrence of such a symbol predating the Neolithic. The swastika appears only very rarely in the archaeology of ancient Mesopotamia.

In Hinduism, the Swastika in two drawings symbolizes two forms of the creator god Brahma.

In Hinduism, the Swastika in two drawings symbolizes two forms of the creator god Brahma. Facing right it signifies the evolution of the universe; facing left it typifies the involution of the universe. The swastika is one of the 108 symbols of the Hindu deity Vishnu and represents the Sun’s rays, upon which life depends. It is also seen as pointing in all four directions (north, east, south and west) and thus implies stability. Its use as a Sun symbol can first be seen in its image of the god Surya. The swastika is used in all Hindu yantras and religious designs.

Buddhism originated in the fifth century BCE and spread throughout the Indian subcontinent in the third century BCE. The swastika symbol (right-hand) was believed to have been stamped on Gautama Buddha’s chest by his initiates after his death. It is known as The Heart’s Seal. With the spread of Buddhism, the Buddhist swastika reached Tibet and China. The symbol was also introduced to Balinese Hinduism by Hindu kings.

Well over 400 distinct Indus symbols, some say 600, have been found on seals, small tablets, or ceramic pots and over a dozen other materials, including a signboard that apparently once hung over the gate of an inner citadel.

A large number of eminent scholars argue that the Indus system did not encode language, but was instead similar to a variety of non-linguistic sign systems used extensively in the Near East and other societies. Others have claimed on occasion that the symbols were exclusively used for economic transactions, but this claim leaves unexplained the appearance of Indus symbols on many ritual objects, many of which were mass-produced in moulds. No parallels to these mass-produced inscriptions are known in any other early ancient civilizations.

Mohenjo-daro

Mohenjo-daro or “heap of the dead” was the largest city excavated of the Indus Valley or Harappan Civilization. Mohenjo-daro was a Sindhi word in the locality meaning ‘mound of the dead’.

The scholars Parpola and Asfaq identified another seal (M 430) found at Mohenjo-daro as the one relating to a unique ritual of equinox. It was a stellar ceremony marking the equinox at the star constellation of Krittika – Alcyon. The legend on the seal cited: the epoch (Kali Yuga – the present epoch we live in) set off at the beginning of the sign of the goat on Wednesday at sunrise at Lanka.

To cut short a fascinating tale of astral importance with religious nuance, it was the city of Lanka which had the place of honor as the prime meridian passed through it in 3102 BCE.

Well over 400 distinct Indus symbols, some say 600, have been found on seals, small tablets, or ceramic pots and over a dozen other materials, including a signboard that apparently once hung over the gate of an inner citadel.

One more narration in this regard was in the travel record of Hwen Tsang in 630-635 CE. He saw a palisade (stupa) of Mauryan times. It was one hundred feet high. Cunningham said of this pillar:

The principality of Middle Sindh, which is generally known as Vichalo or ‘Midland’ is described by Hwen Tsang as only 2,500 li or 417 miles in circuit. The chief city, named ‘O-fan-cha’ was at 700 li or 117 miles from the capital of the upper Sindh, and 50 miles from Pitasala, the capital of lower Sindh. As the former was Alor, and the latter was almost certainly the Pattale of the Greeks or Haiderabad, the recorded distances fix the position of O-fan-cha in the immediate neighborhood vicinity of the ruins of an ancient city called Bambhra-ka-Thul or simply Bambhar. This, according to tradition, was the site of the once famous city of Brahmanwas or Brahmanabad […].

The city can be located because the circumstances are narrated in detail. The king of the city had previously submitted, but the citizens withheld their allegiance, and shut their gates. By a stratagem, they were induced to come out, and a conflict ensued, in which Ptolemy was seriously wounded in the shoulder by a poisoned sword. The mention of Ptolemy’s wound enables us to identify this city with that of Hermetalia, which Diodorus describes as the ‘last town of the Brahmins on the river.

Hermes in Greek is the muted term for Brahma. The Chinese syllable fan is the well-known phrasing of Brahma. Hence, both O-fan-cha and Hermetalia is a direct wording of Bambhra-ka-thul or Brahma-sthal. From all these discussions, it seemed certain that what Hwen Tsang visited was the city of Mohenjo-daro and its real name was Brahma-sthal or Brahmanabad. The meaning of the name Mohenjo-daro is ‘Heap of the Dead’. Such a name seems peculiar for a prosperous city like this.

The Hindi word was mohan jodad.o. This word jodad.o had cognates in many mleccha, meluhha languages. The Sindhi word d.a_r.o meant ‘feast given to relatives in honor of the dead’. A number of scholars made out that meluhha was the Sumerian name for mleccha, meaning non-Vedic, barbarian. It was used by the Aryans much as the ancient Greeks used barbaros, indicating garbled speech of foreigners or native people of the country.

The city flourished between 2600 BCE and 1900 BCE, although the first signs of settlement in the area had been dated to the period of 3500 BCE. Excavation at this level was impossible due to the high water table that made even simple excavations of Mohenjo-daro difficult. The city covered around 200 hectares of land and at its height might have had a population of 85, 000 people. The site was located in the modern Larkana district of Sindh province in Pakistan. Mohenjo-daro was the largest city in the southern portion of the Indus Valley Civilization and important for trade and governance of this area.

The Great Mound, or Citadel, stood out the west end of Mohenjo-daro. The mound rose 40 feet about the plain at present time; it would have been higher at the time Mohenjo-daro was inhabited. There was a gap between the mound and the lower city. Because of the large size and separation from the rest of the city, it was thought the mound might have been used for a religious or administrative purpose. This hypothesis was supported by the architecture found on the top of the mound. The mound at Mohenjo-Daro had two distinct features: the Great Bath and the Granary or Meeting hall. The Great Bath was a sunken tank on the top of the mound; the tank was 12 meters long, 7 meters wide and was sunk 2.4 meters below the depth of the mud bricks that enclosed it. The Great Bath was one of the first aspects of Indus Valley life that could be related to modern Hinduism. The Great Bath might also be linked to the concept of river worship, much like the worship of the River Ganga today.

Emergence of the Mitanni Kingdom

In northern Mesopotamia, a great power arose: the Mitanni kingdom. Whatever we could gather about it is from indirect sources. Those people were called Kharri. Some philologists believed that this term was the same as Arya. According to the Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, compiled by Macdonald and Keith, this was the normal designation in Vedic literature from the Rig-Veda onwards of an Aryan of the three upper classes. The Mitannian invasion of northern Mesopotamia and the Aryan influx into India represented two streams of wandering migrations from a common cultural axis.

In 1906-07 CE at Boghaz Keui (about eighty miles to the south east of Ankara, modern capital of Turkey) Hugo Winkler discovered the great state archive of the Chatti Empire containing more than 10,000 cuneiform tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform. One tablet recorded a peace treaty concluded in about 1400 BCE between the Hittite Monarch Suppiluliumas and Mattiuaza, King of the Mitanni. Four gods were called upon as witness to this treaty in the records: In-da-ra, Uru-w-na, Mi-it-ra and Na-sa-at-ti-ia. These names were nearly identical with the Vedic gods Indra, Varuna, Mitra and Nasatya. According to the eminent Indologist Paul Thieme, during the time of the Boghaz Keui treaty, these gods were brought into Iranian mythology. The Avestan scholars affirmed that many Vedic gods were revived, though they were below the supreme god Ahura Mazda. The Mitannians of the upper Euphrates River worshipped them around this epoch.

When Vedic texts were the oldest surviving evidence of early Indo-European-speaking peoples, it was assumed that these texts preserved aspects of Proto-Indo-European culture with careful accuracy. Many ethnologists hoped to unify Indo-Iranian, Celtic, Norse, Greek and Roman into a Proto-Indo-European religion. Max Muller believed that Indo-Iranian religion began as sun worship. G. Dumézil stressed the tripartite social system of Indo-European religion and society. Later scholarship had moved away from considering all these religions near-identical. Instead, since early in the 20th century CE, following Meillet, Thieme and Kuiper, the social function of the Indo-Iranian Asura/Āditya deities was stressed; they were an innovative group not found in Indo-European religion.

Several scholars held that Indo-Aryans reached Assyria in the west and the Punjab in the east before 1500 BCE. The Hurrite speaking Mitanni rulers, influenced by Indo-Aryan, turned up from 1500 BCE in northern Mesopotamia, and the Gandhara grave culture emerged from 1600 BCE. Shaffer & Lichtenstein (in Erdosy 1995:139) stated that:

This shift by Harappan and, perhaps, other Indus Valley cultural mosaic groups, is the only archaeologically documented west-to-east movement of human populations in South Asia before the first half of the first millennium BC.

This could have been caused by ecological factors, such as the drying-up of the Ghaggar-Hakra River and increased aridity in Rajasthan and other places. The Indus River also began to flow east and flooding occurred.

Iron Age Vedic religion

The religion of the Vedic period (also known as Vedism or Vedic Brahmanism or, in a context of Indian antiquity, simply Brahmanism was a historical predecessor of Hinduism. Many scholars insisted that to call this period Vedic Hinduism was a contradiction in terms since Vedic religion was very different from what we generally called Hindu religion – at least as much as Old Hebrew religion was from medieval and modern Christian religion. However, Vedic religion was treatable as a predecessor of Hinduism.

According to traditional views, the hymns of the Rig-Veda and other Vedic hymns were divinely revealed to the rishis, who were considered to be seers or “hearers” (shruti meant “what was heard”) of the Veda, rather than “authors”. In addition, the Vedas were said to be “apaurashaya”, a Sanskrit word meaning uncreated by man and which further revealed their eternal non-changing status.

Elements of Vedic religion reached back to a Proto-Indo-Iranian religion and an earlier Proto-Indo-European religion. The Vedic period was held to have ended around 500 BCE, Vedic religion with time evolving into the various schools of Hinduism. Vedic religion also influenced Buddhism and Jainism.

Proto-Indo-Iranian religion meant the religion of the Indo-Iranian peoples prior to the earliest Vedic (Indo-Aryan) and Zoroastrian (Iranic) scriptures. These shared a common inheritance of concepts including the universal force *rta (Vedic rta, Avestan asha), the sacred plant and drink *sauma (Vedic Soma, Avestan Haoma) and gods of social order such as *mitra (Vedic Mitra, Avestan and Old Persian Mithra, Miϑra), *bhaga (Vedic Bhaga, Avestan and Old Persian Baga). Proto-Indo-Iranian religion was an archaic offshoot of Indo-European religion.

The Sanskrit word véda “knowledge, wisdom” was derived from the root vid- “to know”. This was reconstructed as being derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *u̯eid-, meaning “see” or “know”.

The documented history of Indian religions began with historical Vedic religion, the religious practices of the early Indo-Aryans, which were collected and later redacted into the Samhitas, four canonical collections of hymns or mantras composed in archaic Sanskrit. These texts were the central shruti (revealed) texts of Hinduism. The period of the composition, redaction and commentary of these texts was known as the Vedic period, which lasted from roughly 1500 to 500 BCE.

The late Vedic period (9th to 6th centuries BCE) marked the beginning of the Upanisadic or Vedantic period. This period heralded the beginning of much of what became classical Hinduism, with the composition of the Upanishads, later the Sanskrit epics, still later followed by the Puranas.

The Sanskrit word véda “knowledge, wisdom” was derived from the root vid- “to know”. This was reconstructed as being derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *u̯eid-, meaning “see” or “know”.

The Rig-Veda was counted among the four canonical sacred texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas. Some of its verses are still recited as Hindu prayers, at religious functions and other occasions, putting these among the world’s oldest religious texts in continued use. The Rig-Veda was full of several mythological and poetical accounts of the origin of the world, hymns praising the gods, and ancient prayers for life, prosperity, etc.

It is one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. Philological and linguistic evidence implies that the Rig-Veda was composed in the north-western region of India, roughly between 1700–1100 BCE (the early Vedic period). There were strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times.

The text is organized in 10 books, known as Mandalas, of varying age and length. The “family books”: mandalas 2-7, were the oldest part of the Rig-Veda and the shortest books; they were arranged by length. Tradition linked a rishi (the composer) with each hymn of the Rig-Veda. In all, 10 families of rishis accounted for more than 95% of the hymns. The compilation by each family went on over a long period of time. Thus, the Rig-Veda was not one book compiled and put together by the sages: each mandala stood out on its own.

The Rig-Vedic hymns were dedicated to various deities, chief of whom being Indra, a heroic god praised for having slain his enemy Vrtra; Agni, the sacrificial fire; and Soma, the sacred potion or the plant it was made from. Equally prominent gods were the Adityas or Asura gods Mitra–Varuna and Ushas (the dawn). Also invoked were Savitr, Vishnu, Rudra, Pushan, Brihaspati or Brahmanaspati, as well as deified natural phenomena such as Dyaus Pita (the shining sky, Father Heaven ), Prithivi (the earth, Mother Earth), Surya (the sun god), Vayu or Vata (the wind), Apas (the waters), Parjanya (the thunder and rain), Vac (the word), many rivers (notably the Sapta Sindhu – the seven rivers starting with the Indus, and the Sarasvati River). The Adityas, Vasus, Rudras, Sadhyas, Ashvins, Maruts, Rbhus, and the Vishvadevas (“all-gods”) as well as the “thirty-three gods” were the groups of deities mentioned.

The priests performed the solemn rituals for the noblemen (Kshsatriya) and some wealthy merchants (Vaishyas). They prayed for abundance of children, rain, cattle (wealth), long life and an afterlife in the heavenly world of the ancestors. This mode of worship had been preserved even now in Hinduism, which needed recitations from the Vedas by a purohita (priest).

The religious practices rested on a priest administering rites that often involved sacrifices. Homa (also known as homam or havan) was a Sanskrit word which referred to any ritual in which making offerings into a consecrated fire was the primary action. At present, the words homa/homam and havan were interchangeable with the word Yagna. Although a consecrated fire was the central element of every homa ritual, the procedure and items offered to the fire varied by what was the occasion of the ceremony, or by the benefit expected from the ritual. Procedures invariably involved the kindling and consecration of the sacrificial fire; the invocation of one or more divinities; and, making of offerings (whether real or visualized) to them with the fire as via media, amid the recitation of prescribed prayers (mantras).

The sacred fire formed the focus of devotion; it was often held on certain types of dung, wood, dried coconut and so on. The fire-altar (vedi or homa/havan kunda) was generally made of brick or stone or a copper vessel, and was almost always built especially for the occasion, being taken apart immediately afterwards. This fire-altar was always built in square shape. While very large vedis were seldom built for major public homas, the usual altar would be as small as 1 x 1 foot square and rarely exceeded 3 x 3 feet square.

In all events, the arrangement was in the middle of a space, which could be either outdoors or indoors. The principal people performing the ceremony and the priests who instructed them through the rituals seated themselves around the altar, while family, friends and other devotees formed a larger ring around that center.

The Vedas

Rig Veda

Sama Veda

Yajur Veda

Atharva Veda

Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called “trayī vidyā”, implying “the triple sacred science” of reciting hymns (RV), chanting (SV) and performing sacrifices (YV).

The Sama-Veda Samhita (from sāman, the term for a melody applied to metrical hymn or song of praise) consisted of 1549 stanzas, taken almost entirely (except for 78 stanzas) from the Rig-Veda.

The Yajur-Veda Samhita had archaic prose mantras and also in part of verses borrowed and adapted from the Rig-Veda. Its purpose was practical, in that each mantra must accompany an action in sacrifice but, unlike the Sama-Veda, it was compiled to apply to all sacrificial rites,

In the Vedic literature, the Veda was one – the Rig-Veda. It was not the Vedas as the foreign scholars cited quite often. From the narration about the composition of the Sama-Veda, it was the chanting of the hymns, taken almost entirely from the Rig-Veda. The Yajur-Veda contained the details of the platform to be made, dedicated to the deity in whose homage the homa was going to be recited. For every deity there were separate chanting and separate platform for the ritual of yagna. The prose hymns here were again taken from the Rig-Veda.

The Atharva-Veda embodied an independent parallel tradition to that of the Rig-Veda and Yajur-Veda. It added in much of early traditions of healing and magic that had parallel in other Indo-European literature.

The Atharva-Veda was less common than other Vedas as it was little used in solemn ritual. Its first part composed chiefly of spells and incantations, concerned with protection against demons and disaster, spells for the healing of diseases, for long life and for various desires or aims in life. The largely silent Brahman priest looked at the procedures of the ritual and mended it with two mantras and pouring of ghee when a mistake occurred. An early text, its status had been ambiguous due to its magical character.

______________________

Courtesy: World History (Published on May 1, 2011)

The post Religious Developments in Ancient India first appeared on Sindh Courier.

UN Academy

Indus valley civilization is primarily symbolized as the ancient civilization of India, where it is depicted that the woman had a respectable position in the society. In the time of the Vedic period, men and women in Harappan civilization respected the Pandora of the goddess for their civilization assumption. As per the basis of Vedic society, women initially participated in tribal assemblies and various types of religious assemblies. In the Vedic period, women initially created an important role in the history of civilized India. As per the basis of historical study, it is scripturally indicated that the Indian women were comparatively gaining high status and more respect during the time of early Vedic period of Indus valley civilization.

Welfare of Women in the Harappan Civilization

Since time immemorial, women have primarily created an important role in shaping Indian history. As per the basis of Indian history, different types of scripture indicate that the Indian woman initially enjoyed high status and comparatively gained more privilege during the time of the early Vedic period. Women from the Indus valley civilization were gaining more surpassing, in comparison to other contemporary civilizations, such as Rome and Greece. In the Indus valley civilization, the actual evidence of the female clay figures initially highlights the cultural and social role of females in the Indus valley civilization. In Harappan civilization, women were primarily worshipped in prakrity, which is considered the mother of the goddess, and occupied the most prestigious position in society.  In context to the social position and welfare of men and women in Harappan civilization, women were not mistreated; rather they were given the freedom to live the life of their free will.

Men and Women in Harappan Civilization

Women played a crucial role in shaping the history of India. In context to the social status of men and women in Harappan civilization, women enjoyed similar status as the men in every aspect. However, the important opportunities such as decision-making and economic participation were also equally conducted by the woman. The above-mentioned accessible way primarily entails the actual concept that both men and women were making their own preferences without any difficulties and limitations. However, in the time of the Vedic period, 50% of the total world’s population was women. However, after the time of the Vedic period, the ratio of women decreased due to the unequal social status of men and women.

In the predominant society of the Indus valley civilization, women were initially expected to work in their own houses. Men of the Indus valley civilization were involved with farming to support their own families. However, men were considered to be the only bread earners of the family while the women of the Harappan civilization were getting an intense level of respect from different types of other societies. In Harappan society, women were gaining the highest amount of respect, which was considered not shown in any other society and culture. Women were most of the time treated as superior to the men because they were in charge of the household work. However, men were in charge of the functionality of a Harappan civilization’s government and society where women too played a vital role.

Women’s Status in the Harappan Civilization

In the Harappan civilization, women were initially getting more respect and high status compared to the other different societies

Women in the Harappan civilization initially were free to develop their abilities and personal choices without any restrictions and boundaries

Historical sculptures discovered from the Indus valley civilization highlighted the significant role played by women during the ancient period

However, women were not considered as property; they were even not on par with their male counterparts

Bull riding was one of the primary transportation means in Gangetic valley, performed by women

What was the religious preference of men and women in Harappan civilization?

Answer: Indus valley people were polytheistic comprising Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Men and women from the Indus valley civilization prioritized nature-worshipping. Women offered their prayers to natural elements, Pashupati and mother goddesses. Men and women in the Harappan civilization worshipped stones, sun, and water.

Indian women initially enjoyed high status and comparatively gained more privilege during the time of the early Vedic period.

Conclusion

In the Indus valley civilization, men and women were getting equal amounts of respect and social position in the society. Hence, it is primarily concluded that, in the Indus valley civilization, women were getting more respect than in any other society in the nation. People from the Indus valley civilization, women were considered the plethora of goddesses, which is considered to be a huge respectable position. Women’s status in hardpan civilization was considered the most prestigious position. Men and women in the Harappan civilization were getting the same amounts of respect, on the basis of social, economic and cultural respect.

_________________

Courtesy: UN Academy

The post Women in the Indus Valley Civilization first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Bahata Ansumali Mukhopadhyay

Ever since the discovery of Indus valley civilization (IVC), scholars have debated the linguistic identities of its people. This study analyzes numerous archaeological, linguistic, archaeogenetic and historical evidences to claim that the words used for elephant (like, ‘pīri’, ‘pīru’) in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, the elephant-word used in the Hurrian part of an Amarna letter of ca. 1400 BC, and the ivory-word (‘pîruš’) recorded in certain sixth century BC Old Persian documents, were all originally borrowed from ‘pīlu’, a Proto-Dravidian elephant-word, which was prevalent in the Indus valley civilization, and was etymologically related to the Proto-Dravidian tooth-word ‘*pal’ and its alternate forms (‘pīl’/‘piḷ’/‘pel’). This paper argues that there is sufficient morphophonemic evidence of an ancient Dravidian ‘*piḷ’/‘pīl’-based root, which meant ‘splitting/crushing’, and was semantically related to the meanings ‘tooth/tusk’. This paper further observes that ‘pīlu’ is among the most ancient and common phytonyms of the toothbrush tree Salvadora persica, which is a characteristic flora of Indus valley, and whose roots and twigs have been widely used as toothbrush in IVC regions since antiquity. This study claims that this phytonym ‘pīlu’ had also originated from the same Proto-Dravidian tooth-word, and argues that since IVC people had named their toothbrush trees and tuskers (elephants) using a Proto-Dravidian tooth-word, and since these names were widely used across IVC regions, a significant population of Indus valley civilization must have used that Proto-Dravidian tooth-word in their daily communication. Since ‘tooth’ belongs to the core non-borrowable ultra-conserved vocabulary of a speech community, its corollary is that a significant population of IVC spoke certain ancestral Dravidian languages. Important insights from recent archaeogenetic studies regarding possible migration of Proto-Dravidian speakers from Indus valley to South India also corroborate the findings of this paper]

Indus valley civilization (IVC) and its linguistic diversity

IVC, stretching across almost one million square kilometers of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the North-Western part of India, was the most expansive of chalcolithic civilizations. Right from the discovery of IVC and its enigmatic script, several scholars have tried to trace the types of languages spoken in IVC. Types of languages presently spoken in the IVC regions are: Indo-Aryan (e.g., Punjabi in Punjab with dialects Siraiki and Lahnda, Sindhi in Sindh, Hindi, Marwari, Gujarati in eastern parts of Greater Indus Valley); Dardic (e.g., Shina, Khowar, Kohistani); Iranian (e.g., Baluchi, Dari, Pashto, and Wakhi in western parts of Greater Indus Valley); Nuristani in northeastern Afghanistan; Dravidian; Brahui (spoken in Baluchistan and Sindh); and Burushaski (a language isolate) spoken in northernmost Pakistan close to the Chinese border.

Since the ancient world was generally more multi-linguistic (12,000–20,000 languages existed before spread of agriculture, compared to some 7000 human languages of present times), ancient IVC too arguably hosted more languages than today. This makes it unlikely that all the languages spoken in its 1,00,0000 square-kilometer expanse belonged to only one linguistic group, whether Proto-Indo-Aryan, Proto-Dravidian or Proto-Austroasiatic. Languages of various groups, including some presently extinct languages, might have coexisted in IVC for ages, influencing and shaping one another.

The perennial puzzle regarding IVC languages: how archaeologists, linguists, historians and genetic anthropologists approach the problem

Arguments from archaeology and linguistics

Incommoded by the absence of any deciphered written record composed in IVC (Indus script is still undeciphered), scholars hold vastly different opinions regarding types of languages spoken in IVC. Once an advocate of the idea of a ‘Para-Munda’ (not ‘Proto-Munda’) speaking IVC, Witzel, presently prefers keeping the question of ‘original’ Indian language(s) ‘open’, till better reconstructions of Dravidian and Munda languages, and investigation of substrate words of ancient indigenous languages present in North-Indian Indo-Aryan languages are done. While many linguists have opposed the Austroasiatic-related hypotheses regarding IVC’s languages, Southworth shares Witzel’s ‘Para-Munda’ theory, despite vigorously advancing the idea of prehistoric Dravidian influence on various languages presently spoken in IVC regions (e.g., Sindh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra). Although some scholars claim that IVC language(s) belonged to some Proto-Indo-Aryan/Early-Indo-European language group, many others defend a Proto-Dravidian speaking IVC. Parpola proposes Proto-Dravidian etymologies of suspect substrate words (e.g., kiyāmbu, śakaṭam, oṁ, kinnara) present in Vedic texts, and certain suspect Indic words found in Mesopotamian texts (the ‘magilum’ boats of Meluhha); suggests that some of the fish-like signs of Indus script represented the Dravidian fish-word ‘mina’, to spell out certain Dravidian theophoric astral names prevalent in IVC; and adduces additional anthropological and ethnographic proofs of Dravidian influence, including Dravidian kinship and cross-cousin marriage rules practiced in the presently Indo-Aryan speaking societies of IVC regions (e.g. Gujarat). Though the prehistoric existence of ‘Language X’, an unknown primordial language not of proto-Indo-Aryan, Proto-Dravidian, or Proto-Munda type, was suggested by Masica’s analysis of various agricultural terms prevalent in some North-Indian languages, Masica has later commented that the Dravidian stock is “a strong but as yet unproven contender for the languages of the Harappans”.

Despite many such scholarly works, very few linguistic evidences, enjoying enough archaeological support to irrefutably identify the language(s) of IVC, have been offered so far. The situation is even more complicated due to several unresolved questions around the prehistoric spatio-temporal expanse of some major linguistic groups of present India (Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, and Austroasiatic), and their influences over one another. Dravidian-group languages, despite being spoken mostly in southern India (e.g., Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam), also have scattered representations in India’s North-Western (Brahui), North-Eastern (Kuṛux, Malto), and Central (e.g., Kolami, Naiki, Parji, Ollari, Gadaba) parts, indicating that Dravidian speakers possibly had much greater pre-historic presence in Northern India, including IVC regions. Moreover, Mathematical linguistic studies confirm that Proto-Dravidian existed in the time of IVC. Similarly, though Austroasiatic languages (e.g., Mundari, Santali, Khasi) are currently spoken mostly in North-Eastern India, presence of the isolated Austroasiatic language Korku amidst Dravidian-speaking Gondis and other Indo-Aryan speakers in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, indicates the possibility of a wider Austroasiatic presence in pre-historic India. Such uncertainties about spatio-temporal expanse assail even Indo-Aryan languages, the most dominant language-group of present North India, which has provided us with Ṛgveda and Atharvaveda, the oldest Indian texts composed in Sanskrit. Whether Indo-Aryan languages entered India from outside after IVC’s decline, or were present in India since or from before the IVC era and were spoken in IVC, are questions that have enjoyed almost 200 years of scholarly attention, along with innumerable amateurish attempts, often motivated by identity-politics.

Arguments from archaeogenetics

Parallel to archaeology and linguistics, archaeogenetics can immensely help us reconstruct the linguistic pre-history of a region. For example, a recent cross-disciplinary archaeogenetic study, not only infers “a likely genetic signature for people of the IVC”, but also suggests interesting theories regarding Proto-Dravidian’s spread. This study postulates that having different proportions of Iranian-farmer-related ancestry and Ancient-Ancestral-South-Indian-related ancestry “was a characteristic feature of many IVC people”. It states that after “IVC’s decline, this population mixed with northwestern groups with Steppe ancestry, to form ‘Ancestral North Indians’ (ANI), and also mixed with southeastern groups to form ‘Ancestral South Indians’ (ASI), whose direct descendants today live in tribal groups in southern India”. It argues that “[mixtures of these two post-IVC groups—the ANI and ASI—drive the main gradient of genetic variation in South Asia today”.

Most relevantly, this archaeogenetic study states that quite possibly “Proto-Dravidian was spread by peoples of IVC along with the Indus Periphery Cline ancestry component of the ASI [Ancestral-South-Indian]”. [Here Indus Periphery Cline refers to the ethnicity of IVC-era individuals whose remains were recovered from burials of two sites in cultural contact with IVC. These individuals are conjectured to be migrants from IVC, as their genomes do not fit the genomes of the core population found in their burial-sites, but fit well with genomes of 86 Post-IVC (1200–800 BC) people living near the headwaters of river Indus, and also genomes of diverse present-day South-Asians]. However, Narasimhan et al. do not deny the alternative possibility that “Proto-Dravidian was spread by the half of the ASI’s ancestry that was not from the Indus Periphery Cline and instead derived from the south and the east (peninsular South Asia)”.

Another related genomic study (Shinde et al., 2019) analyzes the genome of one IVC-era individual from Rakhigarhi, a longstanding Indus settlement, and discusses how that individual shared the same Iranian-farmer-related ancestry as of Indus Periphery Cline individuals, but little if any Steppe pastoralist-derived ancestry, and how this Iranian-farmer-related ancestry had diverged from the western Iranian people since at least 8000 BC.

Genetic ancestries and languages not being always linearly correlated, these studies, although quite helpful, do not suffice for a sure call regarding the dominant linguistic group(s) extant in IVC. For, they do not tell us which language(s) were spoken by the IVC’s ancestors, after their ancestors, and predecessors of western Iranian people had split around 8000 BC. Nor can the genetic data surely say if Dravidian languages originated in IVC or in the southern Indian peninsula.

Click here for Full Research Paper

________________

Courtesy: Nature

The post Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Riya

The Indus Valley Civilization declined around 1800 BCE due to certain factors that include Aryan Invasion, Climate Change and Migration. The Civilization eventually disappeared along with its two great cities, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa who lend their name to the Indus Valley people because they were civilization’s first cities to be discovered by modern archaeologists.

Archaeological evidence indicates that trade with Mesopotamia, located largely in modern Iraq seemed to have ended. The advanced drainage system and baths of the great cities were built over or blocked. Writing began to disappear and the standardized weights and measures used for trade and taxation fell out of use.

Scholars have put forth differing theories to explain the disappearance of the Indus Valley Civilization, including an Aryan Invasion Theory and Climate Change marked by overwhelming monsoons.

The Aryan Invasion Theory (c. 1800-1500 BC)

The Indus Valley Civilization may have met its demise due to invasion. According to one theory by British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler, a nomadic, Indo-European tribe, called the Aryans, suddenly overwhelmed and conquered the Indus River Valley.

Wheeler, who was Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1944 to 1948, posited that many unburied corpses found in the top levels of the Mohenjo-Daro archaeological site were victims of war. The theory suggested that by using horses and more advanced weapons against the peaceful Indus Civilization people, the Aryans may have easily defeated them.

Yet shortly after Wheeler proposed his theory, other scholars dismissed it by explaining that the skeletons were not victims of invasion massacres, but rather the remains of hasty burials. Wheeler himself eventually admitted that the theory could not be proven and the skeletons indicated only a final phase of human occupation, with the decay of the city structures likely a result of it becoming uninhabited.

Various elements of the Indus Civilization are found in later cultures, suggesting the Civilization did not disappear suddenly due to an invasion. Many scholars came to believe in an Indo-Aryan Migration theory stating that the Harappan culture was assimilated during a migration of the Aryan people into northwest India.

The Climate Change Theory (c. 1800-1500 BC)

Other scholars suggest the collapse of Harappan society resulted from climate change. Some experts believe the drying of the Saraswati River, which began around 1900 BCE, was the main cause of climate change, while others conclude that a great flood struck the area.

Any major environmental change, such as deforestation, flooding or droughts due to a river changing course, could have had disastrous effects on Indus Valley society, such as crop failures, starvation, and disease. Skeletal evidence suggests many people died from malaria, which is most often spread by mosquitoes. This also would have caused a breakdown in the economy and civic order within the urban areas.

Another disastrous change in the Harappan climate might have been eastward-moving monsoons or winds that bring heavy rains. Monsoons can be both helpful and detrimental to a climate, depending on whether they support or destroy vegetation and agriculture. The monsoons that came to the Indus River Valley aided the growth of agricultural surpluses, which supported the development of cities, such as Harappa. The population came to rely on seasonal monsoons rather than irrigation, and as the monsoons shifted eastward, the water supply would have dried up.

By 1800 BCE, the Indus Valley climate grew cooler and drier, and a tectonic event may have diverted the Ghaggar Hakra river system toward the Ganges Plain. The Harappans may have migrated toward the Ganges basin in the east, where they established villages and isolated farms.

These small communities could not produce the same agricultural surpluses to support large cities. With the reduced production of goods, there was a decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia. By around 1700 BCE, most of the Indus Valley Civilization cities had been abandoned.

[Excerpts from a blog on Indus Valley Civilization]

_________________

Riya is currently an undergraduate who completed her BA honors in Pol science from the University of Delhi.

Courtesy: Drishti – The Vision Foundation

The post Did Climate Change Cause The Decline Of Indus Civilization? first appeared on Sindh Courier.