Towards the Sindhu–Sarasvatī civilisation

In Grade 6 you studied the great cities of the Sindhu–Sarasvatī (Harappan) civilisation. This lesson asks: how did those cities come to be? The answer is a long, slow build-up.

Neolithic life that began at Mehrgarh (about 7000 BCE) spread through the middle and upper Indus valley and further east. Around 4000 BCE, some settlements learnt to get copper out of its ore. They became the earliest Chalcolithic sites in the subcontinent, the start of the road to the Bronze Age.

Copper tools on the fertile plains of the Indus and Ghaggar-Sarasvatī rivers made farming more productive, so communities became more prosperous. Pottery was made on a large scale, in different regional styles.

"How old are the earliest stages?" Radio-carbon dates from sites in the dried-up belt of the Sarasvatī, such as Bhirrana and Kunal, suggest a Pre-Harappan phase between 7000 and 5500 BCE.

The timeline (Fig. 4.18): Early Harappan, then Mature Harappan (the age of the great cities, about 2600 to 1900 BCE), then Late Harappan (to about 1300 BCE). Over time, the regional styles grew into the standard features of the civilisation by about 2500 BCE.

The Early Harappan stage shows continuity (things carried on): pottery traditions, stone beads, shell bangles, terracotta (baked clay) objects and copper work. Some features of the later cities probably began here too: walls round settlements, seals, and even the script. Scratches (graffiti) on pots, and simple seals with geometric and animal designs from Harappa, Rehman Dheri and Kunal, may be early forms of the script.

The Harappans were not only farmers. Crafts boosted their economy: pottery, copper work, shell work, and beads of semi-precious stone. Early bead-making has been found at Harappa (Pakistan), Kunal (Haryana) and Datrana (Gujarat).

A 5,000-year-old field. At Kalibangan, the Early Harappans left a ploughed field with furrows running both across and along (Fig. 4.19). This suggests two crops grown together, like the rabi and kharif seasons farmers still follow today.

Fair weights. The Harappans used standard cubical stone weights. Small weights went up by doubling: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16. Large ones went up in multiples of ten. "Why does that matter?" Imagine trading beads in a far-off town where every merchant uses a different weight. Standard weights made long-distance trade fair and fast.

Water skills. In the foothills of Baluchistan, Early Harappans built small check dams called gabarbands across streams to irrigate fields. Later, at Dholavira in Kachchh, dams and canals carried water from two streams into a series of deep tanks of stone and mud brick, some cut into the bedrock. And at Lothal, a huge dockyard was built entirely of burnt bricks.