Indus Valley Civilisation
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Sindhu Sarasvati
Civilisation or Harappan Civilisation,[1] was a Bronze Age civilisation (3300–
1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) mainly in the northwestern regions of
South Asia, extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and
northwest India.[2] Along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three
early cradles of civilisations of the Old World, and of the three, the most
widespread.[3][note 1]
Aridification of this region during the 3rd millennium BCE may have been the initial
spur for the urbanisation associated with the civilisation, but eventually also reduced
the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise, and to scatter its
population eastward.[4][5][6][7][note 2]
At its peak, the Indus Civilisation may have had a population of over five million.[8]
Inhabitants of the ancient Indus River valley developed new techniques in handicraft
(carnelian products, seal carving) and metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin). The
Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate
drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential
buildings.[9] Children's toys were found in the cities, with few weapons of war,
suggesting peace and prosperity.[10] Their trade seals, decorated with animals
and mythical beings, indicate they conducted thriving trade with lands as far
away as Sumer in southern Mesopotamia.[10]
The Indus Valley Civilisation is also named the Harappan civilisation after
Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated in the 1920s, in what was then the
Punjab province of British India.[11] The discovery of Harappa, and soon
afterwards Mohenjo-daro, was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with
the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj.[12]
Excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important
breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999.[13] This Harappan civilisation is
sometimes called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from the
cultures immediately preceding and following it. Of these, the earlier is often
called the Early Harappan culture, while the later one may be referred to as the Late Harappan, both of which existed in the same area
as the Mature Harappan Civilisation. The early Harappan cultures were preceded by local Neolithic agricultural villages, from which
the river plains were populated.[14][15] A total of 1,022 cities and settlements had been found by 2008,[1] mainly in the general region
of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers, and their tributaries; of which 406 sites are in Pakistan and 616 sites in India;[1] of these 96
have been excavated.[1] Among the settlements were the major urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro (UNESCO World Heritage
Site), Dholavira, Ganeriwala and Rakhigarhi.[16]
The Harappan language is not directly attested, and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered. A
relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars[1. 7][18]
Name
Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro, Sindh
province, Pakistan, showing the Great
Bath in the foreground. Mohenjo-daro,
on the right bank of the Indus River, is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, the first
site in South Asia to be so declared.
Contents
Extent
Discovery and history of excavation
Chronology
Pre-Harappan - Mehrgarh
Early Harappan
Mature Harappan
Cities
Authority and governance
Technology
Arts and crafts
Trade and transportation
Agriculture
Language
Possible writing system
Religion
Late Harappan
"Aryan invasion"
Climate change and drought
Continuity
Post-Harappan
Historical context
Near East
Dasyu
Munda
See also
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
The Indus Valley Civilisation is named after the Indus Valley, where the first remains were found. The Indus Valley Civilisation is
also named the Harappan civilisation after Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated in the 1920s, in what was then the Punjab
province of British India.[19]
The Indus Valley Civilisation has also been called by some the "Sarasvati culture", the "Sarasvati Civilisation", the "Indus-Sarasvati
Civilisation" or the "Sindhu-Saraswati Civilisation", as theG haggar-Hakra river is identified by some with the mythologicalS arasvati
river,[1][20][21] suggesting that the Indus Valley Civilisation was the Vedic civilisation as perceived by traditional Hindu
beliefs.[22][23][24][note 3]
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) encompassed much of Pakistan, western India, and northeastern Afghanistan; extending from
Pakistani Balochistan in the west to Uttar Pradesh in the east, northeastern Afghanistan in the north and Maharashtra in the south.[27]
Shortugai to the north is on the Oxus River, the Afghan border with Tajikistan, and in the west Sutkagan Dor is close to the Iranian
border. The Kulli culture of Balochistan, of which more than 100 settlement sites are known, can be regarded as a local variant of the
IVC, or a related culture.
Name
Extent
The geography of the Indus Valley put the civilisations that arose there in a highly
similar situation to those in Egypt and Peru, with rich agricultural lands being
surrounded by highlands, desert, and ocean. Recently, Indus sites have been
discovered in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well. Other IVC colonies can be
found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be found as far away as
Turkmenistan and in Maharashtra. The largest number of colonies are in the Punjab,
Sindh, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Gujarat belt Coastal settlements extended from
Sutkagan Dor[28] in Western Baluchistan to Lothal[29] in Gujarat. An Indus Valley
site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortughai in northern Afghanistan,[30] in
the Gomal River valley in northwestern Pakistan,[31] at Manda, Jammu on the Beas
River near Jammu,[32] India, and at Alamgirpur on the Hindon River, only 28 km
from Delhi.[33] Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on
the ancient seacoast,[34] for example, Balakot,[35] and on islands, for example,
Dholavira.[36]
It flourished along a system of monsoon-fed perennial rivers in the basins of the
Ghaggar-Hakra River in northwest India, and the Indus River flowing through the
length of Pakistan.[37][38][6][note 4] There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with
the Ghaggar River in India and Hakra channel in Pakistan.
616 sites have been discovered along the dried up river beds of the Ghaggar-Hakra
River and its tributaries,[1] while 406 sites have been found along the Indus and its
tributaries.[1] According to Shereen Ratnagar the Ghaggar-Hakra desert area has more
remaining sites than the alluvium of the Indus Valley, since the Ghaggar-Hakra desert
area has been left untouched by settlements and agriculture since the end of the Indus
Valley Civilisation.[39]
The ruins of Harappa were described in 1842 by Charles Masson in his Narrative of
Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab, where locals talked of an
ancient city extending "thirteen cosses" (about 25 miles or 41 km).[note 5]
In 1856, Alexander Cunningham, later director-general of the archaeological survey of
northern India, visited Harappa where the British engineers John and William Brunton
were laying the East Indian Railway Company line connecting the cities of Karachi and
Lahore. John wrote, "I was much exercised in my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway". They were told of an
ancient ruined city near the lines, called Harappa. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-burnt bricks, and, "convinced that
there was a grand quarry for the ballast I wanted", the city of Harappa was reduced to ballast.[41] A few months later, further north,
John's brother William Brunton's "section of the line ran near another ruined city, bricks from which had already been used by
villagers in the nearby village of Harappa at the same site. These bricks now provided ballast along 93 miles (150 km) of the railroad
track running from Karachi to Lahore"[.41]
In 1872–75, Cunningham published the first Harappan seal (with an erroneous identification as Brahmi letters).[42] More Harappan
seals were discovered in 1912 by John Faithfull Fleet, prompting an archaeological campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall.
Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats began excavating Harappa in 1921, finding buildings and artefacts
indicative of an ancient civilisation. These were soon complemented by discoveries at Mohenjo-daro by Rakhal Das Banerjee, Ernest
J. H. Mackay, and Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir
Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites
before the independence in 1947 wereA hmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein.[43]
Locations of IVC-sites
Diorama reconstruction of
everyday life in Indus Valley
Civilisation (National Science
Centre, Delhi, India)
Discovery and history of excavation
Following independence, the bulk of the archaeological finds were inherited by
Pakistan where most of the IVC was based, with new discoveries India now has 50%
more sites than Pakistan. Outposts of the Indus Valley civilisation were excavated as
far west as Sutkagan Dor in Pakistani Balochistan, as far north as at Shortugai on the
Amu Darya (the river's ancient name was Oxus) in current Afghanistan, as far east
as at Alamgirpur, Uttar Pradesh, India and as far south as at Malwan, in modern-day
Surat, Gujarat, India.[1]
In 2010, heavy floods hit Haryana in India and damaged the archaeological site of
Jognakhera, where ancient copper smelting furnaces were found dating back almost
5,000 years. The Indus Valley Civilisation site was hit by almost 10 feet of water as
the Sutlej Yamuna link canal overflowed.[44]
The cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation had "social hierarchies, their writing
system, their large planned cities and their long-distance trade [which] mark them to
archaeologists as a full-fledged 'civilisation.'"[45] The mature phase of the Harappan
civilisation lasted from c. 2600 to 1900 BCE. With the inclusion of the predecessor
and successor cultures — Early Harappan and Late Harappan, respectively — the
entire Indus Valley Civilisation may be taken to have lasted from the 33rd to the
14th centuries BCE. It is part of the Indus Valley Tradition, which also includes the
pre-Harappan occupation of Mehrgarh, the earliest farming site of the Indus
Valley.[15][46]
Several periodisations are employed for the periodisation of the IVC.[15][46] The
most commonly used classifies the Indus Valley Civilisation into Early, Mature and
Late Harappan Phase.[47] An alternative approach by Shaffer divides the broader
Indus Valley Tradition into four eras, the pre-Harappan "Early Food Producing Era,"
and the Regionalisation, Integration, and Localisation eras, which correspond
roughly with the Early Harappan, Mature Harappan, and Late Harappan phase[s1.4][48]
According to Rao, Hakra Ware has been found at Bhirrana, and is pre-Harappan, dating to the 8th-7th millennium BCE.[49][50][51]
Hakra Ware culture is a material culture which is contemporaneous with the early Harappan Ravi phase culture (3300-2800 BCE) of
the Indus Valley.[52][53] According to Dikshit and Rami, the estimation for the antiquity of Bhirrana as pre-Harappan is based on two
calculations of charcoal samples, giving two dates of respectively 7570-7180 BCE, and 6689-6201 BC[E49.][50]
Indus Valley pottery, 2500–1900 BCE
Archaeological ruins at Mohenjodaro,
Sindh, Pakistan
Chronology
Dates Main Phase Mehrgarh
phases
Harappan
phases Other phases Era
7000–
5500
BCE
Pre-Harappan
Mehrgarh
I
(aceramic
Neolithic)
Early Food
Producing Era
5500–
3300
BCE
Pre-Harappan/Early
Harappan[54]
Mehrgarh
II-VI
(ceramic
Neolithic)
Regionalisation Era
c.4000-2500/2300 BCE
(Shaffer)[55]
c.5000-3200 BCE
(Coningham & Young)[56]
3300–
2800
BCE
Early Harappan[54]
c.3300-2800 BCE
(Mughal)[57][54][58]
c.5000-2800 BCE
(Kenoyer)[54]
Harappan 1
(Ravi
Phase;
Hakra
Ware)
2800–
2600
BCE
Mehrgarh
VII
Harappan 2
(Kot Diji
Phase,
Nausharo I)
2600–
2450
BCE
Mature Harappan
(Indus Valley
Civilisation)
Harappan
3A
(Nausharo
II)
2450– Integration Era
2200
BCE
Harappan
3B
2200–
1900
BCE
Harappan
3C
1900–
1700
BCE
Late Harappan
Harappan 4
Cemetery H[59]
Ochre Coloured Pottery[59] Localisation Era
1700–
1300
BCE
Harappan 5
1300–
600
BCE
Post-Harappan
Iron Age India
Painted Grey Ware (1200-
600 BCE)
Vedic period (c.1500-500
BCE)
Regionalisation
c.1200-300 BCE
(Kenoyer)[54]
c.1500[60]-600 BCE
(Coningham &
Young)[61]
600-
300
BCE
Northern Black Polished
Ware (Iron Age)(700-200
BCE)
Second urbanisation
(c.500-200 BCE)
Integration[61]
Mehrgarh is a Neolithic (7000 BCE to c. 2500 BCE) site to the west of the Indus River valley, near the capital of the Kachi District in
Pakistan, on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan, near the Bolan Pass.[63] According to Ahmad Hasan Dani, professor emeritus at Quaide-
Azam University, Islamabad, the discovery of Mehrgarh "changed the entire concept of the Indus civilisation […] There we have
the whole sequence, right from the beginning of settled village life[.4"5] Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming
and herding in South Asia.[64][65][note 7] According to Parpola, the culture migrated into the Indus Valley and became the Indus
Valley Civilisation.[75]
Pre-Harappan - Mehrgarh
Mehrgarh was influenced by the Near Eastern Neolithic,[76] with similarities
between "domesticated wheat varieties, early phases of farming, pottery, other
archaeological artefacts, some domesticated plants and herd animals."[77] Gallego
Romero et al. (2011) notice that "[t]he earliest evidence of cattle herding in south
Asia comes from the Indus River Valley site of Mehrgarh and is dated to 7,000
YBP."[78][note 8]
Lukacs and Hemphill suggest an initial local development of Mehrgarh, with a
continuity in cultural development but a change in population. According to Lukacs
and Hemphill, while there is a strong continuity between the neolithic and
chalcolithic (Copper Age) cultures of Mehrgarh, dental evidence shows that the
chalcolithic population did not descend from the neolithic population of
Mehrgarh,[80] which "suggests moderate levels of gene flow."[80][note 9]
Masacernhas et al. (2015) note that "new, possibly West Asian, body types are
reported from the graves of Mehrgarh beginning in the Togau phase (3800
BCE)."[81]
The Early Harappan Ravi Phase, named after the nearby Ravi River, lasted from
c. 3300 BCE until 2800 BCE. It is related to the Hakra Phase, identified in the
Ghaggar-Hakra River Valley to the west, and predates the Kot Diji Phase (2800–
2600 BCE, Harappan 2), named after a site in northern Sindh, Pakistan, near
Mohenjo-daro. The earliest examples of the Indus script date to the 3rd millennium
BCE.[82][83]
The mature phase of earlier village cultures is represented by Rehman Dheri and
Amri in Pakistan.[84] Kot Diji represents the phase leading up to Mature Harappan,
with the citadel representing centralised authority and an increasingly urban quality
of life. Another town of this stage was found at Kalibangan in India on the Hakra
River.[85]
Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw materials, including lapis lazuli and other
materials for bead-making. By this time, villagers had domesticated numerous crops, including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton,
as well as animals, including the water buffalo. Early Harappan communities turned to large urban centres by 2600 BCE, from where
the mature Harappan phase started. The latest research shows that Indus aVlley people migrated from villages to cities[.86][87]
The final stages of the Early Harappan period are characterised by the building of large walled settlements, the expansion of trade
networks, and the increasing integration of regional communities into a "relatively uniform" material culture in terms of pottery
styles, ornaments, and stamp seals with Indus script, leading into the transition to the Mature Harappan phase[8.8]
According to Giosan et al. (2012), the slow southward migration of the monsoons across Asia initially allowed the Indus Valley
villages to develop by taming the floods of the Indus and its tributaries. Flood-supported farming led to large agricultural surpluses,
which in turn supported the development of cities. The IVC residents did not develop irrigation capabilities, relying mainly on the
seasonal monsoons leading to summer floods.[6] Brooke further notes that the development of advanced cities coincides with a
reduction in rainfall, which may have triggered a reogranisation into larger urban centers.[7][note 2]
According to J. G. Shaffer and D. A. Lichtenstein,[89] the Mature Harappan Civilisation was "a fusion of the Bagor, Hakra, and Kot
Diji traditions or 'ethnic groups' in the Ghagga-rHakra valley on the borders of India and Pakistan"[9. 0]
Haplogroup L-M20 has a high
frequency in the Indus Valley.
McElreavy & Quintana-Murci (2005)
note that "both the frequency
distribution and estimated expansion
time (~7,000 YBP) of this lineage
suggest that its spread in the Indus
Valley may be associated with the
expansion of local farming groups
during the Neolithic period."[62][note 6]
Early Harappan
Early Harappan Period, c. 3300–
2600 BCE
Mature Harappan
By 2600 BCE, the Early Harappan communities turned into large urban centres.
Such urban centres include Harappa, Ganeriwala, Mohenjo-daro in modern-day
Pakistan, and Dholavira, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Rupar, and Lothal in modern-day
India.[91] In total, more than 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in
the general region of the Indus Rivers and their tributaries.
A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus
Valley Civilisation making them the first urban centre in the region. The quality of
municipal town planning suggests the knowledge of urban planning and efficient
municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene, or, alternatively,
accessibility to the means of religious ritual.
As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently partially excavated Rakhigarhi,
this urban plan included the world's first known urban sanitation systems: see
hydraulic engineering of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Within the city, individual
homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to
have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which
lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes.
The house-building in some villages in the region still resembles in some respects
the house-building of the Harappans[.92]
The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage that were developed and used
in cities throughout the Indus region were far more advanced than any found in
contemporary urban sites in the Middle East and even more efficient than those in
many areas of Pakistan and India today. The advanced architecture of the Harappans
is shown by their impressive dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms, and
protective walls. The massive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the
Harappans from floods and may have dissuaded military conflict[s9.3]
The purpose of the citadel remains debated. In sharp contrast to this civilisation's
contemporaries, Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, no large monumental structures
were built. There is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples—or of kings,
armies, or priests. Some structures are thought to have been granaries. Found at one
city is an enormous well-built bath (the "Great Bath"), which may have been a
public bath. Although the citadels were walled, it is far from clear that these
structures were defensive. They may have been built to divert flood waters.
Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans, who lived with others
pursuing the same occupation in well-defined neighbourhoods. Materials from
distant regions were used in the cities for constructing seals, beads and other objects.
Among the artefacts discovered were beautiful glazed faïence beads. Steatite seals
have images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of inscriptions,
including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods and most probably had
other uses as well.
Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civilisation cities were remarkable for their apparent, if relative, egalitarianism.
All the houses had access to water and drainage facilities. This gives the impression of a society with relatively low wealth
concentration, though clear social levelling is seen in personal adornments.
Mature Harappan Period, c. 2600–
1900 BCE
Mohenjo-daro
View of Granary and Great Hall on
Mound F in Harappa
Cities
Computer-aided reconstruction of
coastal Harappan settlement at
Sokhta Koh near Pasni, Pakistan
Toilets that used water were used in the Indus Valley Civilisation. The cities of
Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had a flush toilet in almost every house, attached to a
sophisticated sewage system.[94]
Archaeological records provide no immediate answers for a centre of power or for
depictions of people in power in Harappan society. But, there are indications of
complex decisions being taken and implemented. For instance, the majority of the
cities were constructed in a highly uniform and well-planned grid pattern, suggesting
they were planned by a central authority; extraordinary uniformity of Harappan
artefacts as evident in pottery, seals, weights and bricks; presence of public facilities
and monumental architecture; heterogeneity in the mortuary symbolism and in grave
goods (items included in burials).
These are the major theories:
There was a single state, given the similarity in artefacts, the evidence
for planned settlements, the standardised ratio of brick size, and the
establishment of settlements near sources of raw material.
There was no single ruler but several cities like Mohenjo-daro had a
separate ruler, Harappa another, and so forth.
Harappan society had no rulers, and everybody enjoyed equal status
and hence some type of Democracy.
The people of the Indus Civilisation achieved great accuracy in measuring length,
mass, and time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights
and measures. A comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation
across the Indus territories. Their smallest division, which is marked on an ivory
scale found in Lothal in Gujarat, was approximately 1.704 mm, the smallest division
ever recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age. Harappan engineers followed the
decimal division of measurement for all practical purposes, including the
measurement of mass as revealed by theirh exahedron weights.[95]
These chert weights were in a ratio of 5:2:1 with weights of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2,
5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 units, with each unit weighing approximately
28 grams, similar to the English Imperial ounce or Greek uncia, and smaller objects
were weighed in similar ratios with the units of 0.871. However, as in other cultures,
actual weights were not uniform throughout the area. The weights and measures
later used in Kautilya's Arthashastra (4th century BCE) are the same as those used
in Lothal.[96]
Harappans evolved some new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper,
bronze, lead, and tin. The engineering skill of the Harappans was remarkable, especially in building dock[s9.7]
In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh, Pakistan, discovered that the people of the Indus Valley
Civilisation, from the early Harappan periods, had knowledge of proto-dentistry. Later, in April 2006, it was announced in the
scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo (i.e., in a living
person) was found in Mehrgarh. Eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults were discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Mehrgarh
that dates from 7,500–9,000 years ago. According to the authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in the early
farming cultures of that region.[98]
So-called "Priest King" statue,
Mohenjo-daro, late Mature Harappan
period, National Museum, Karachi,
Pakistan
Dholavira Sophisticated Water
Reservoir, evidence for hydraulic
sewage systems in the ancient Indus
Valley Civilisation
Authority and governance
Technology
Unicorn seal of Indus Valley, Indian
Museum
A touchstone bearing gold streaks was found in Banawali, which was probably used
for testing the purity of gold (such a technique is still used in some parts of
India).[90]
Various sculptures, seals, bronze vessels pottery, gold jewellery, and anatomically
detailed figurines in terracotta, bronze, and steatite have been found at excavation
sites.[99]
A number of gold, terracotta and stone figurines of girls in dancing poses reveal the
presence of some dance form. These terracotta figurines included cows, bears,
monkeys, and dogs. The animal depicted on a majority of seals at sites of the mature
period has not been clearly identified. Part bull, part zebra, with a majestic horn, it
has been a source of speculation. As yet, there is insufficient evidence to substantiate
claims that the image had religious or cultic significance, but the prevalence of the
image raises the question of whether or not the animals in images of the IVC are
religious symbols.[100]
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 them I found it difficult to believe that they were
prehistoric; they seemed to completely upset all established ideas about early
art, and culture. Modeling 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 is just this anatomical truth which is so startling; that makes 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".[101]
Many crafts including, "shell working, ceramics, and agate and glazed steatite bead making"
were practised and the pieces were used in the making of necklaces, bangles, and other
ornaments from all phases of Harappan culture. Some of these crafts are still practised in the
subcontinent today.[102] Some make-up and toiletry items (a special kind of combs (kakai),
the use of collyrium and a special three-in-one toiletry gadget) that were found in Harappan
contexts still have similar counterparts in modern India.[103] Terracotta female figurines were
found (ca. 2800–2600 BCE) which had red colour applied to the "manga" (line of partition of the hai[r1)0.3]
Seals have been found at Mohenjo-daro depicting a figure standing on its head, and another sitting cross-legged in what some call a
yoga-like pose (see image, the so-called Pashupati, below). This figure, sometimes known as a Pashupati, has been variously
identified. Sir John Marshall identified a resemblance to the Hindu god, Shiva.[104] If this can be validated, it would be evidence that
some aspects of Hinduism predate the earliest texts, the Veda.
A harp-like instrument depicted on an Indus seal and two shell objects found at Lothal indicate the use of stringed musical
instruments. The Harappans also made various toys and games, among them cubical dice (with one to six holes on the faces), which
were found in sites like Mohenjo-Daro[.105]
Elephant seal of Indus Valley, Indian
Museum
Indus Valley seals, British Museum
Arts and crafts
The "dancing girl of
Mohenjo-daro" (replica)
The Indus civilisation's economy appears to have depended significantly on trade,
which was facilitated by major advances in transport technology. The IVC may have
been the first civilisation to use wheeled transport.[106] These advances may have
included bullock carts that are identical to those seen throughout South Asia today,
as well as boats. Most of these boats were probably small, flat-bottomed craft,
perhaps driven by sail, similar to those one can see on the Indus River today;
however, there is secondary evidence of sea-going craft. Archaeologists have
discovered a massive, dredged canal and what they regard as a docking facility at the
coastal city of Lothal in western India (Gujarat state). An extensive canal network,
used for irrigation, has however also been discovered by H.-.P Francfort.[107]
During 4300–3200 BCE of the chalcolithic period (copper age), the Indus Valley
Civilisation area shows ceramic similarities with southern Turkmenistan and
northern Iran which suggest considerable mobility and trade. During the Early
Harappan period (about 3200–2600 BCE), similarities in pottery, seals, figurines,
ornaments, etc. document intensive caravan trade with Central Asia and the Iranian
plateau.[108]
Judging from the dispersal of Indus civilisation artefacts, the
trade networks, economically, integrated a huge area, including
portions of Afghanistan, the coastal regions of Persia, northern
and western India, and Mesopotamia. Studies of tooth enamel
from individuals buried at Harappa suggest that some residents
had migrated to the city from beyond the Indus Valley.[109]
There is some evidence that trade contacts extended toC rete and
possibly to Egypt.[110]
There was an extensive maritime trade network operating
between the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilisations as early
as the middle Harappan Phase, with much commerce being
handled by "middlemen merchants from Dilmun" (modern
Bahrain and Failaka located in the Persian Gulf).[111] Such
long-distance sea trade became feasible with the development of plank-built watercraft, equipped with a single central mast
supporting a sail of woven rushes or cloth[.112]
Several coastal settlements like Sotkagen-dor (astride Dasht River, north of Jiwani), Sokhta Koh (astride Shadi River, north of Pasni),
and Balakot (near Sonmiani) in Pakistan along with Lothal in western India, testify to their role as Harappan trading outposts.
Shallow harbours located at the estuaries of rivers opening into the sea allowed brisk maritime trade with Mesopotamian cities.
"It is generally assumed that most trade between the Indus Valley (ancient Meluhha?) and western neighbors
proceeded up the Persian Gulf rather than overland. Although there is no incontrovertible proof that this was indeed
the case, the distribution of Indus-type artifacts on the Oman peninsula, on Bahrain and in southern Mesopotamia
makes it plausible that a series of maritime stages linked the Indus Valley and the Gulf region."[113]
In the 1980s, important archaeological discoveries were made at Ras al-Jinz (Oman), demonstrating maritime Indus Valley
connections with the Arabian Peninsula.[112][114][115]
Chanhudaro. Fragment of Large
Deep Vessel, circa 2500 BCE. Red
pottery with red and black slippainted
decoration, 415/16×6⅛ in.
(12.5×15.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum
Trade and transportation
The docks of ancient Lothal as they are today (2006)
Agriculture
According to Gangal et al. (2014), there is strong archeological and geographical evidence that neolithic farming spread from the
Near East into north-west India, but there is also "good evidence for the local domestication of barley and the zebu cattle at
Mehrgarh."[76][note 10]
According to Jean-Francois Jarrige, farming had an independent origin at Mehrgarh, despite the similarities which he notes between
Neolithic sites from eastern Mesopotamia and the western Indus valley, which are evidence of a "cultural continuum" between those
sites. Nevertheless, Jarrige concludes that Mehrgarh has an earlier local background," and is not a "'backwater' of the Neolithic
culture of the Near East."[116] Archaeologist Jim G. Shaffer writes that the Mehrgarh site "demonstrates that food production was an
indigenous South Asian phenomenon" and that the data support interpretation of "the prehistoric urbanisation and complex social
organisation in South Asia as based on indigenous, but not isolated, cultural developments"[.117]
Jarrige notes that the people of Mehrgarh used domesticated wheats and barley,[118] while Shaffer and Liechtenstein note that the
major cultivated cereal crop was naked six-row barley, a crop derived from two-row barley.[119] Gangal agrees that "Neolithic
domesticated crops in Mehrgarh include more than 90% barley," noting that "there is good evidence for the local domestication of
barley." Yet, Gangal also notes that the crop also included "a small amount of wheat," which "are suggested to be of Near-Eastern
origin, as the modern distribution of wild varieties of wheat is limited to Northern Levant and Southernu Trkey.[76][note 11]"
The cattle that is often portrayed on Indus seals are humped Indian aurochs, that is
similar to Zebu cattle. Zebu cattle is still common in India, and in Africa. It is
different from the European cattle, and had been originally domesticated on the
Indian subcontinent, probably in theB aluchistan region of Pakistan.[120][76][note 10]
It has often been suggested that the bearers of the IVC corresponded to proto-
Dravidians linguistically, the break-up of proto-Dravidian corresponding to the
break-up of the Late Harappan culture.[121] Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola
concludes that the uniformity of the Indus inscriptions precludes any possibility of
widely different languages being used, and that an early form of Dravidian language
must have been the language of the Indus people.[122] Today, the Dravidian
language family is concentrated mostly in southern India and northern and eastern
Sri Lanka, but pockets of it still remain throughout the rest of India and Pakistan (the
Brahui language), which lends credence to the theory.
According to Heggarty and Renfrew, Dravidian languages may have spread into the
Indian subcontinent with the spread of farming.[123] According to David McAlpin,
the Dravidian languages were brought to India by immigration into India from
Elam.[note 12] In earlier publications, Renfrew also stated that proto-Dravidian was
brought to India by farmers from the Iranian part of the Fertile
Crescent,[124][125][126][note 13] but more recently Heggarty and Renfrew note that
"a great deal remains to be done in elucidating the prehistory of Dravidian." They
also note that "McAlpin's analysis of the language data, and thus his claims, remain
far from orthodoxy."[123] Heggarty and Renfrew conclude that several scenarios are compatible with the data, and that "the linguistic
jury is still very much out."[123][note 15]
Between 400 and as many as 600 distinct Indus symbols[131] have been found on seals, small tablets, ceramic pots and more than a
dozen other materials, including a "signboard" that apparently once hung over the gate of the inner citadel of the Indus city of
Dholavira.
Zebu cattle in Pune, India
Indus Valley seals with a Zebu Bull,
Elephant, and Rhinoceros, 2500–
1900 BCE
Language
Possible writing system
Typical Indus inscriptions are no more than four or five characters in length, most of
which (aside from the Dholavira "signboard") are tiny; the longest on a single surface,
which is less than 1 inch (2.54 cm) square, is 17 signs long; the longest on any object
(found on three different faces of a mass-produced object) has a length of 26 symbols.
While the Indus Valley Civilisation is generally characterised as a literate society on the
evidence of these inscriptions, this description has been challenged by Farmer, Sproat,
and Witzel (2004)[132] who 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, to symbolise
families, clans, gods, and religious concepts. 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 massproduced
in moulds. No parallels to these mass-produced inscriptions are known in any other early ancient civilisation[1s3. 3]
In a 2009 study by P. N. Rao et al. published in Science, computer scientists, comparing the pattern of symbols to various linguistic
scripts and non-linguistic systems, including DNA and a computer programming language, found that the Indus script's pattern is
closer to that of spoken words, supporting the hypothesis that it codes for an as-yet-unknown languag[1e3.4][135]
Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel have disputed this finding, pointing out that Rao et al. did not actually compare the Indus signs with "realworld
non-linguistic systems" but rather with "two wholly artificial systems invented by the authors, one consisting of 200,000
randomly ordered signs and another of 200,000 fully ordered signs, that they spuriously claim represent the structures of all realworld
non-linguistic sign systems".[136] Farmer et al. have also demonstrated that a comparison of a non-linguistic system like
medieval heraldic signs with natural languages yields results similar to those that Rao et al. obtained with Indus signs. They conclude
that the method used by Rao et al. cannot distinguish linguistic systems from non-linguistic one[1s3. 7]
The messages on the seals have proved to be too short to be decoded by a computer. Each seal has a distinctive combination of
symbols and there are too few examples of each sequence to provide a sufficient context. The symbols that accompany the images
vary from seal to seal, making it impossible to derive a meaning for the symbols from the images. There have, nonetheless, been a
number of interpretations offered for the meaning of the seals. These interpretations have been marked by ambiguity and
subjectivity.[137]:69
Photos of many of the thousands of extant inscriptions are published in the Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions (1987, 1991,
2010), edited by Asko Parpola and his colleagues. The final, third, volume, republished photos taken in the 1920s and 1930s of
hundreds of lost or stolen inscriptions, along with many discovered in the last few decades. Formerly, researchers had to supplement
the materials in the Corpus by study of the tiny photos in the excavation reports of Marshall (1931), MacKay (1938, 1943), Wheeler
(1947), or reproductions in more recent scattered sources.
Edakkal caves in Wayanad district of Kerala contain drawings that range over periods from as early as 5000 BCE to 1000 BCE. The
youngest group of paintings have been in the news for a possible connection to the Indusa Vlley Civilisation.
The religion and belief system of the Indus Valley people have received considerable attention, especially from the view of
identifying precursors to deities and religious practices of Indian religions that later developed in the area. However, due to the
sparsity of evidence, which is open to varying interpretations, and the fact that the Indus script remains undeciphered, the conclusions
are partly speculative and largely based on a retrospective view from a much later Hindu perspective.[138][139] An early and
influential work in the area that set the trend for Hindu interpretations of archaeological evidence from the Harappan sites[140] was
that of John Marshall, who in 1931 identified the following as prominent features of the Indus religion: a Great Male God and a
Mother Goddess; deification or veneration of animals and plants; symbolic representation of the phallulsi n(ga) and vulva (yoni); and,
use of baths and water in religious practice. Marshall's interpretations have been much debated, and sometimes disputed over the
following decades.[141][142]
Ten Indus Signs, dubbed the
Dholavira Signboard
Religion
One Indus Valley seal shows a seated figure with a horned headdress, possibly
tricephalic and possibly ithyphallic, surrounded by animals. Marshall identified the
figure as an early form of the Hindu god Shiva (or Rudra), who is associated with
asceticism, yoga, and linga; regarded as a lord of animals; and often depicted as
having three eyes. The seal has hence come to be known as the Pashupati Seal, after
Pashupati (lord of all animals), an epithet of Shiva.[141][143] While Marshall's work
has earned some support, many critics and even supporters have raised several
objections. Doris Srinivasan has argued that the figure does not have three faces, or
yogic posture, and that in Vedic literature Rudra was not a protector of wild
animals.[144][145] Herbert Sullivan and Alf Hiltebeitel also rejected Marshall's
conclusions, with the former claiming that the figure was female, while the latter
associated the figure with Mahisha, the Buffalo God and the surrounding animals
with vahanas (vehicles) of deities for the four cardinal directions.[146][147] Writing
in 2002, Gregory L. Possehl concluded that while it would be appropriate to
recognise the figure as a deity, its association with the water buffalo, and its posture
as one of ritual discipline, regarding it as a proto-Shiva would be going too far.[143]
Despite the criticisms of Marshall's association of the seal with a proto-Shiva icon, it
has been interpreted as the Tirthankara Rishabhanatha by Jains and Vilas
Sangave[148] or an early Buddha by Buddhists.[140] Historians such as Heinrich
Zimmer and Thomas McEvilley believe that there is a connection between first Jain
Tirthankara Rishabhanatha and the Indus Valley civilisation.[149][150]
Marshall hypothesised the existence of a cult of Mother Goddess worship based
upon excavation of several female figurines, and thought that this was a precursor of
the Hindu sect of Shaktism. However the function of the female figurines in the life
of Indus Valley people remains unclear, and Possehl does not regard the evidence for
Marshall's hypothesis to be "terribly robust".[151] Some of the baetyls interpreted by
Marshall to be sacred phallic representations are now thought to have been used as
pestles or game counters instead, while the ring stones that were thought to
symbolise yoni were determined to be architectural features used to stand pillars,
although the possibility of their religious symbolism cannot be eliminated.[152]
Many Indus Valley seals show animals, with some depicting them being carried in
processions, while others show chimeric creations. One seal from Mohenjo-daro
shows a half-human, half-buffalo monster attacking a tiger, which may be a
reference to the Sumerian myth of such a monster created by goddess Aruru to fight
Gilgamesh.[153]
In contrast to contemporary Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations, Indus Valley
lacks any monumental palaces, even though excavated cities indicate that the society
possessed the requisite engineering knowledge.[154][155] This may suggest that
religious ceremonies, if any, may have been largely confined to individual homes,
small temples, or the open air. Several sites have been proposed by Marshall and
later scholars as possibly devoted to religious purpose, but at present only the Great
Bath at Mohenjo-daro is widely thought to have been so used, as a place for ritual
purification.[151][156] The funerary practices of the Harappan civilisation are marked
by their diversity, with evidence of supine burial, fractional burial (in which the body is reduced to skeletal remains by exposure to
the elements before final interment), and even cremation[1.57][158]
Female figure, possibly a fertility
goddess, Harappan Phase, 2500–
1900 BCE
The Pashupati seal, showing a
seated and possibly tricephalic
figure, surrounded by animals
Swastika seals of Indus Valley
Civilisation in British Museum
Late Harappan
Around 1900 BCE signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around 1700
BCE most of the cities had been abandoned. Recent examination of human skeletons
from the site of Harappa has demonstrated that the end of the Indus civilisation saw
an increase in inter-personal violence and in infectious diseases like leprosy and
tuberculosis.[159][160]
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."[161]
During the period of approximately 1900 to 1700 BCE, multiple regional cultures
emerged within the area of the Indus civilisation. The Cemetery H culture was in
Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh, the Jhukar culture was in Sindh, and
the Rangpur culture (characterised by Lustrous Red Ware pottery) was in
Gujarat.[162][163][164] Other sites associated with the Late phase of the Harappan
culture are Pirak in Balochistan, Pakistan, and Daimabad in Maharashtra, India.[88]
The largest Late Harappan sites are Kudwala in Cholistan, Bet Dwarka in Gujarat,
and Daimabad in Maharashtra, which can be considered as urban, but they are
smaller and few in number compared with the Mature Harappan cities. Bet Dwarka
was fortified and continued to have contacts with the Persian Gulf region, but there
was a general decrease of long-distance trade.[165] On the other hand, the period
also saw a diversification of the agricultural base, with a diversity of crops and the
advent of double-cropping, as well as a shift of rural settlement towards the east and
the south.[166]
The pottery of the Late Harappan period is described as "showing some continuity with mature Harappan pottery traditions," but also
distinctive differences.[167] Many sites continued to be occupied for some centuries, although their urban features declined and
disappeared. Formerly typical artifacts such as stone weights and female figurines became rare. There are some circular stamp seals
with geometric designs, but lacking the Indus script which characterized the mature phase of the civilisation. Script is rare and
confined to potsherd inscriptions.[167] There was also a decline in long-distance trade, although the local cultures show new
innovations in faience and glass making, and carving of stone beads.[168] Urban amenities such as drains and the public bath were no
longer maintained, and newer buildings were "poorly constructed". Stone sculptures were deliberately vandalised, valuables were
sometimes concealed in hoards, suggesting unrest, and the corpses of animals and even humans were left unburied in the streets and
in abandoned buildings.[169]
During the later half of the 2nd millennium BCE, most of the post-urban Late Harappan settlements were abandoned altogether.
Subsequent material culture was typically characterised by temporary occupation, "the campsites of a population which was nomadic
and mainly pastoralist" and which used "crude handmade pottery."[170] However, there is greater continuity and overlap between
Late Harappan and subsequent cultural phases at sites in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, primarily small rural
settlements.[166][171]
In 1953 Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposed that the invasion of an Indo-European tribe from Central Asia, the "Aryans", caused the
decline of the Indus Civilisation. As evidence, he cited a group of 37 skeletons found in various parts of Mohenjo-daro, and passages
in the Vedas referring to battles and forts. However, scholars soon started to reject Wheeler's theory, since the skeletons belonged to a
period after the city's abandonment and none were found near the citadel. Subsequent examinations of the skeletons by Kenneth
Kennedy in 1994 showed that the marks on the skulls were caused by erosion, and not by violenc[e1.72]
Late Harappan Period, c. 1900–1300
BCE
Late Harappa figures from a hoard at
Daimabad, 2000 BCE
"Aryan invasion"
In the Cemetery H culture (the late Harappan phase in the Punjab region), some of
the designs painted on the funerary urns have been interpreted through the lens of
Vedic literature: for instance, peacocks with hollow bodies and a small human form
inside, which has been interpreted as the souls of the dead, and a hound that can be
seen as the hound of Yama, the god of death.[173][174] This may indicate the
introduction of new religious beliefs during this period, but the archaeological
evidence does not support the hypothesis that the Cemetery H people were the
destroyers of the Harappan cities.[175]
Suggested contributory causes for the localisation of the IVC include changes in the course of the river,[176] and climate change that
is also signalled for the neighbouring areas of the Middle East.[177][178] As of 2016 many scholars believe that drought and a decline
in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia caused the collapse of the Indus Civilisatio[n1.79]
The Ghaggar-Hakra system] was rain-fed,[6][note 4][180][note 16][181][note 17] and water-supply depended on the monsoons. The
Indus Valley climate grew significantly cooler and drier from about 1800 BCE, linked to a general weakening of the monsoon at that
time.[6] The Indian monsoon declined and aridity increased, with the Ghaggar-Hakra retracting its reach towards the foothills of the
Himalaya,[6][182][183] leading to erratic and less extensive floods that made inundation agriculture less sustainable.
Aridification reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise, and to scatter its population eastward.[4][5][7][note 2]
According to Giosan et al. (2012), the IVC residents did not develop irrigation capabilities, relying mainly on the seasonal monsoons
leading to summer floods. As the monsoons kept shifting south, the floods grew too erratic for sustainable agricultural activities. The
residents then migrated towards the Ganges basin in the east, where they established smaller villages and isolated farms. The small
surplus produced in these small communities did not allow development of trade, and the cities died o[u1t8.4]
Archaeological excavations indicate that the decline of Harappa drove people eastward.[185] According to Possehl, after 1900 BCE
the number of sites in today's India increased from 218 to 853. According to Andrew Lawler, "excavations along the Gangetic plain
show that cities began to arise there starting about 1200 BCE, just a few centuries after Harappa was deserted and much earlier than
once suspected."[179][note 18] According to Jim Shaffer there was a continuous series of cultural developments, just as in most areas
of the world. These link "the so-called two major phases of urbanisation in South Asia["1.87]
At sites such as Bhagwanpura (in Haryana), archaeological excavations have discovered an overlap between the final phase of Late
Harappan pottery and the earliest phase of Painted Grey Ware pottery, the latter being associated with the Vedic Culture and dating
from around 1200 BCE. This site provides evidence of multiple social groups occupying the same village but using different pottery
and living in different types of houses: "over time the Late Harappan pottery was gradually replaced by Painted Grey ware pottery,"
and other cultural changes indicated by archaeology include the introduction of the horse, iron tools, and new religious practic[e8s8.]
There is also a Harappan site called Rojdi in Rajkot district of Saurashtra. Its excavation started under an archaeological team from
Gujarat State Department of Archaeology and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in 1982–83. In their report on
archaeological excavations at Rojdi, Gregory Possehl and M.H. Raval write that although there are "obvious signs of cultural
continuity" between the Harappan Civilisation and later South Asian cultures, many aspects of the Harappan "sociocultural system"
and "integrated civilization" were "lost forever," while the Second Urbanisation of India (beginning with the Northern Black Polished
Ware culture, c. 600 BCE) "lies well outside this sociocultural environment["1.88]
Painted pottery urns from Harappa
(Cemetery H period)
Climate change and drought
Continuity
Post-Harappan
Previously, scholars believed that the decline of the Harappan civilisation led to an interruption of urban life in the Indian
subcontinent. However, the Indus Valley Civilisation did not disappear suddenly, and many elements of the Indus Civilisation appear
in later cultures. The Cemetery H culture may be the manifestation of the Late Harappan over a large area in the region of Punjab,
Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, and the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture its successor. David Gordon White cites three other
mainstream scholars who "have emphatically demonstrated" that Vedic religion derives partially from the Indus Valley
Civilisations.[189]
As of 2016, archaeological data suggests that the material culture classified as Late Harappan may have persisted until at least c.
1000–900 BCE and was partially contemporaneous with the Painted Grey Ware culture.[187] Harvard archaeologist Richard Meadow
points to the late Harappan settlement of Pirak, which thrived continuously from 1800 BCE to the time of the invasion of Alexander
the Great in 325 BCE.[179]
In the aftermath of the Indus Civilisation's localisation, regional cultures emerged, to varying degrees showing the influence of the
Indus Civilisation. In the formerly great city of Harappa, burials have been found that correspond to a regional culture called the
Cemetery H culture. At the same time, the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture expanded from Rajasthan into the Gangetic Plain. The
Cemetery H culture has the earliest evidence forc remation; a practice dominant in Hinduism today.
The mature (Harappan) phase of the IVC is contemporary to the Early and Middle Bronze Age in the Ancient Near East, in particular
the Old Elamite period, Early Dynastic to Ur III Mesopotamia, Prepalatial Minoan Crete and Old Kingdom to First Intermediate
Period Egypt.
The IVC has been compared in particular with the civilisations of Elam (also in the context of the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis) and
with Minoan Crete (because of isolated cultural parallels such as the ubiquitous goddess worship and depictions of bull-leaping).[190]
The IVC has been tentatively identified with the toponym Meluhha known from Sumerian records; the Sumerians called them
Meluhhaites.[191]
Shahr-i-Sokhta, located in southeastern Iran shows trade route with Mesopotamia.[192][193] A number of seals with Indus script have
been also found in Mesopotamian sites[.193][194][195]
After the discovery of the IVC in the 1920s, it was immediately associated with the indigenous Dasyu inimical to the Rigvedic tribes
in numerous hymns of the Rigveda. Mortimer Wheeler interpreted the presence of many unburied corpses found in the top levels of
Mohenjo-daro as the victims of a warlike conquest, and famously stated that "Indra stands accused" of the destruction of the IVC.
The association of the IVC with the city-dwelling Dasyus remains alluring because the assumed timeframe of the first Indo-Aryan
migration into India corresponds neatly with the period of decline of the IVC seen in the archaeological record. The discovery of the
advanced, urban IVC however changed the 19th-century view of early Indo-Aryan migration as an "invasion" of an advanced culture
at the expense of a "primitive" aboriginal population to a gradual acculturation of nomadic "barbarians" on an advanced urban
civilisation, comparable to the Germanic migrations after the Fall of Rome, or the Kassite invasion of Babylonia. This move away
from simplistic "invasionist" scenarios parallels similar developments in thinking about language transfer and population movement
in general, such as in the case of the migration of the proto-Greek speakers into Greece, or the Indo-Europeanisation of Western
Europe.
Historical context
Near East
Dasyu
Munda
Proto-Munda (or Para-Munda) and a "lost phylum" (perhaps related or ancestral to the Nihali language)[196] have been proposed as
other candidates for the language of the IVC. Michael Witzel suggests an underlying, prefixing language that is similar to
Austroasiatic, notably Khasi; he argues that the Rigveda shows signs of this hypothetical Harappan influence in the earliest historic
level, and Dravidian only in later levels, suggesting that speakers of Austroasiatic were the original inhabitants of Punjab and that the
Indo-Aryans encountered speakers of Dravidian only in later time[s1.97]
