Indus Valley Civilization

Fig. 38 Dholavira, Gujarat, India
Courtesy - Lalit Gajjer, CC BY-SA  via Wikimedia Commons

Introduction

Much has been written about the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) since their ruins were first excavated in present day Pakistan. Some artifacts were noticed and removed in the 19th century but it was not until the 1920s and the 1930s that large scale excavations uncovered a large, historic, long lost civilization.  In 1924, John Marshall, the director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India, wrote, "Not often has it been given to archaeologists ... to light upon the remains of a long forgotten civilization. It looks, however, at this moment, as if we were on the threshold of such a discovery in the plains of the Indus." 

In the third and second millennium BCE, the IVC, Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations were the dominant civilizations in the world. It is estimated that the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations had an area of 500,000 and 1,000,000 square kms. The IVC is estimated to have had an area of 1,260,000 square kms. They all had a population of millions with the Egyptian and the IVC having up to 5 million people.

There is one aspect of the IVC that has made it harder to understand their culture when compared to the Mesopotamian or Egyptian civilization. The Cuneiform script used by the Mesopotamians and the Hieroglyphics of the Egyptian civilization have both been deciphered. The Egyptian hieroglyphics was deciphered thanks to the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799 by Napoleon's army. The stone had an inscription in hieroglyphics, a demotic script and the Greek translation. Cuneiform script was also deciphered in 19th century thanks to the Bisotun Inscription in Iran. The inscription  was written in 3 languages - Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian. 

The inability to completely decipher the IVC script means that the study of the IVC has to focus on archaeology, linguistics and radiocarbon dating. In the recent past, the analysis of ancient DNA has done much to improve our understanding. In 2019,  genetic analysis of a human fossil in Rakhigarhi in Haryana stated that the person had a mix of ancient Iranian and AASI ancestry. It had no Steppe ancestry. This paper has been discussed in the chapter on Mehrgarh. 

The rest of this chapter will focus on the important aspects of the IVC and re-examine the Out of Africa and the Aryan Migration theories.

Background

The IVC has been chronologically classified into the Early Harappan (which were situated in Mehrgarh and Nousharo), the mature Harappan, the Late Harappan and post Harappan phases.  Mehrgarh was discussed in the previous chapter. The mature Harappan was an urban civilization with the major sites including Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and Ganeriwala in present day Pakistan, and Lothal, Dholavira and Rakhigarhi in present day India.  The mature Harappan phase lasted from 2600 - 1900 BCE. 

Urban civilization in the Mature Harappan phase

This was an urban civilization that shows sophisticated town planning.  Most houses had separate areas for bathing and toilets. Waste water was directed to covered drains that lined the streets. In addition there were public baths and wells that might have been for traders and visitors.  Houses were made of clay or mud bricks and had wells. The bricks had an uniform height to width to length ratio of 1:2:4. A standardized set of weights were used. Considering the vastness of the IVC (about 1/3 the size of India), such uniformity speaks to advanced urban planning. Dockyards, granaries and warehouses have been excavated. Cities like Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa had a citadel which was built at an elevation and protected by thick walls. It is thought that the citadel was an administrative center but could have been used for ceremonial purposes or as a granary.  Most of the people lived in the lower town.

Trade

There is evidence of trade between the IVC and the Mesopotamian empire. There are Mesopotamian seals that show water buffaloes that are not native to the empire but were present in the IVC. There is evidence of elephants, rhinos and peacocks reaching Mesopotamia. There was trade in plants as well. It is believed that sesame came to Mesopotamia from the IVC. Sculptures of men in both civilizations show them wearing their upper robe in a similar manner - drawn over their left shoulder and under their right arm. 

There are differences between the IVC and the other two civilizations. The Mesopotamians built ziggurats to house their gods and goddesses. The Egyptians built pyramids for their dead pharaohs. There is no evidence of such structures in the IVC. There is  no evidence in the  archaeological remains that suggest a palace or a temple but it it is possible that their places of worship had a low profile.  The citadels might have been places of worship.

In the IVC, the burial of people was simpler than the other two civilization. They were buried with food for the afterlife and personal belongings. In the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations, royals were buried with precious jewelry and, in the case of the Pharaohs, with a gold mask. 

It appears that the Harappan civilization focused on public infrastructure rather than on lavish buildings and tombs for the rulers. 

Seals

Thousands of seals have been excavated from the IVC.  Since the IVC script has not been completely deciphered, the seals are interpreted based on what they show rather than on the script inlaid into them. Some experts believe that the seals encode a language while others believe that they are non-linguistic. About 60% of the excavated seals show a Unicorn. This could be a symbol of the civilization. There are some seals that show a deity in a peepul tree with a worshipper kneeling in front of it. This could be a religious seal as well. 

Language

The inability to decode the IVC script means that there is no way to determine the language of the IVC. Some experts like Asko Parpola and Iravathan Mahadevan have theorized that the language of the Harappan civilization was proto-Dravidian. (Dravidian languages are those that are spoken in South India. It includes Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam). In his convocation address at the Dravidian University in 2015, Dr.Mahadevan makes some interesting observations. 

• He uses the term Aryan and Dravidian in a linguistic sense and not on racial or ethnic lines. This is in line with the genetic evidence that shows North Indians and South Indians with a similar genetic profile (except for the small number of Brahmins with Steppe ancestry)

• The Indus civilization was pre-Aryan. This is based on the following evidence 

  • The Harappan civilization was urban. The early Vedic civilization was pastoral. There is no mention of cities in the early Vedas. 

  • There is no indication of the horse in any of the seals discovered in the IVC's ruins. This is an important topic and will be discussed later in this chapter

  • The tiger is shown in IVC seals but is not mentioned in the RV

• Dr.Mahadevan's conclusion that the script of the IVC was proto-Dravidian is based  on linguistics and archaeological evidence

  • A polished stone axe that was discovered in the Kaveri delta in Tamil Nadu has Indus signs on it

  • A terracotta dish found in Sulur in Tamil Nadu  has Indus-like symbols

  • Using the concept of rebus writing, Dr.Mahadevan has identified specific symbols that translate to currently used Tamil words. These are some examples -

    • Several signs have an arrow at the end. This suggests a grammatical marker of some kind. The most common word for the arrow in Dravidian languages is ampu. In old Telugu, ampu is the non-masculine singular suffix

    • Similar suggestions have been made for the jar symbol and the 4 stroke modifier

Dr.Mahadevan has also used the interpretation of hieroglyphics to decode some of the other signs.

He has this to say about the late Harappan phase - "According to my view the Vedic people were the descendants of both Sanskrit speaking Aryans and Dravidian speaking Harappans who had merged into a composite Indian society centuries before the Rig Veda was composed."

Dr.Parpola has studied the Indus script extensively.  He has also used rebus writing to decipher the symbols.  For example, the fish symbol represents a star since the word min in Tamil can be used for fish or for a star.  The symbol of a man stands for the word al. In Tamil al can mean a man or a servant. 

His paper titled "A Dravidian solution to the Indus script problem" presented at the World Classical Tamil Conference in 2010 can be found here.

There is some evidence that the script was written from right to left. The symbols are crowded on the left (as if the writer is running out of space on the left). Impressions are on the right side  of seals. The curved starting symbols are also on the right side. 

The proposed ancient Indus script dictionary has details.

The following figures are from Dr.Mahadevan's address to the Dravidian University in 2015

Late Harappan phase and decline

 In the late Harappan phase that began around 1900 BCE, the IVC started to decline.  Several reasons have been advanced for the decline. It is thought that the Ghaggar-Hakra river, which was a monsoon fed river and on whose banks several Harappan settlements existed, dried up due to a poor monsoon over several years. This resulted in a change in the crops grown  in the region.  According to a paper in Nature, investigation at a place called Farmana showed that the crops changed from barley and wheat to rice and millets.  The civilization changed from a urban setting to a rural setting. The paper states that rice and millet  "... generally have much lower yield, the organized large storage system of mature Harappan period was abandoned giving rise to smaller more individual household based crop processing and storage system and could act as catalyst for the de-urbanisation of the Harappan civilization." In addition the people of the IVC migrated out of the area to the more fertile Gangetic plain fed by the perennial Ganges and to the south of India as evidenced by the research on the IVC script and the excavations in Keeladi  in Tamil Nadu.

Rice became an important crop. This was a transition from wheat and barley which was the main crop in the mature Harappan phase. According to historian Upinder Singh,  "the general picture presented by the late Harappan phase is one of a breakdown of urban networks and an expansion of rural ones."

Other cultures developed in the late Harappan phase such as the Cemetery H culture dated from 1900 - 1300 BCE.   The culture was named after a cemetery found in "area H" at  Harappa. Among the practices of the Cemetery H culture was the practice of cremation and placing the bones in decorated urns. This is in contrast to the practice in IVC which buried the dead in wooden coffins.  In the Rig Veda,  there is a reference to forefathers who were cremated (अ॑ग्निद॒ग्धा  - Agnidagdha) and those that were not (अन॑ग्निदग्धा॒  - Anaghnidagdha).  Agni is the god of fire in Hinduism. 

ये अ॑ग्निद॒ग्धा ये अन॑ग्निदग्धा॒ मध्ये॑ दि॒वः स्व॒धया॑ मा॒दय॑न्ते । तेभि॑: स्व॒राळसु॑नीतिमे॒तां य॑थाव॒शं त॒न्वं॑ कल्पयस्व ॥

May those who are cremated by fire and those not cremated by fire are pleased with their sacrifice in the midst of heaven. May you create this body as you wish, endowed with the essence of  breath

Note: The Rig Veda is divided into 10 Mandalas (or books). A mandala has sections called Anuvakas. A Anuvaka has hymns called Suktas and a Sukta has verses called rik. The above reference to those that were cremated and those that were not cremated is in Rig Veda 10.15.14 - Mandala 10, Sukta -15, Rik - 15.  The notation will be RV 10.15.14

Keeladi

Keeladi or (Keezhadi) is a location 13km east of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Excavations have been carried out in Keeladi from 2014 and has unearthed over 5000 antiquities.  These include gold ornaments, copper objects, ornaments, terracotta figurines etc. Brick structures, ring wells and other structures point to an urban civilization. Over 50 broken ceramic pieces with Tamil-Brahmi writing have been uncovered. 

In order to ensure scientific accuracy and prevent bias, the samples were sent to various labs in and outside India.  Carbon samples were sent to Beta Analytic lab in  the US for dating.  Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating has placed these artifacts in the 6th century BCE.  

Faunal remains were analyzed by the Deccan College in Pune.  Remains of cow/ox, buffalo, sheep, goat, blackbuck, wild boar and peacock were identified of which ox, cow and buffalo constituted about 55% pointing to an agrarian society. 

Building materials were analyzed at the Vellore Institute of Technology. Bricks and roof tiles contained 80% silica and 7% lime (used for plastering). 

Pottery samples were sent Universita Di Pisa in Italy. Black and red ware pottery remains were analyzed. The black color was due to the use of carbon material and the red color was due to the presence of hematite, which is an iron ore. Creating pots with these materials requires a high temperature of over 1000 degrees centigrade.

Glass beads, dice, pendants, plates, terracotta figurines and iron objects such as nails and knives have been identified pointing to a robust crafts and tool making industry.

Of relevance to this discussion is the discovery of Tamil-Brahmi scripts engraved on the outer portion of the black-and-red pottery. There is similarity between the graffiti found in Keeladi and the Indus scripts adding weight to the theory that Keeladi could have been populated by people from the IVC who brought cultural influences from the IVC.

However, there is more than a 1000 year gap between the artifacts found in Keeladi (6th century BCE) and the decline of the IVC. It is possible that further excavation might fill the gap and unearth artifacts closer to the 2nd millennium BCE. 

References

1. Interpreting the Indus Script: The Dravidian Solution 

2. A Dravidian solution to the Indus script problem  

3. Deciphering the Indus script

4. Oxygen isotope in archaeological bioapatites from India: Implications to climate change and decline of Bronze Age Harappan civilization

5. On the identity and chronology of the Rgvedic river Saraswati

6. Why old Ghaggar cannot be the Rigvedic river Sarasvati? 

See Also

• Proposed Ancient Indus Script Dictionary

• Indus  Valley Civilization

• Indus Script

• Ghaggar-Hakra River

• Keeladi, Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu

• Keeladi Museum - YouTube

• The Contribution of Corpora and Concordances to the Field of Indus Script Research 

• Human Y chromosome haplogroup L1-M22 traces Neolithic expansion in West Asia and supports the Elamite and Dravidian connection

• Interview with Iravathan Mahadevan

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