THE INDUS OR HARAPPAN CIVILISATION
An Archaeological History of India
Chapter – 5
Table of Contents
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- The inscribed seals of the Indus civilization were known before their discovery, but their significance was not understood until excavations at Harappa began in 1920–21, led by Pandit Daya Ram Sahni.
- In the following year, Mohenjodaro in Larkana district of Sindh was excavated by Rakhal Das Banerji.
- The discovery of these sites revealed a new civilization comparable in antiquity to the civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and south-west Iran or Elam, as announced in the Illustrated London News in 1924.
- Harappa is located in the upper Indus valley, and Mohenjodaro in the lower Indus valley, leading to the civilization being called the ‘Indus civilization’.
- The term ‘Indus civilization’ was used in the first definitive volume on the results of the excavations at Mohenjodaro.
- The current extent of the civilization includes areas far beyond the Indus river valley, with the most significant cluster of sites in the Cholistan section of the Hakra plain in Pakistan.
- Since the Hakra is identified with the Sarasvati river mentioned in early Indian literature, some scholars now call it the ‘Indus-Sarasvati civilization’.
- The term ‘Sarasvati’ does not combine well with the originally Greek term ‘Indus’, and therefore it is suggested to use ‘Indus-Hakra’ or ‘Sindhu-Sarasvati’ (with Sindhu being the Sanskrit name for the Indus).
- The term ‘Indus-Hakra’ or ‘Sindhu-Sarasvati’ reflects the core area of the civilization in the Hakra plain, but this does not reflect its vast extent, which covered regions like Baluchistan, Gujarat, and parts of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab.
- The most logical term for this civilization is ‘the Harappan civilization’, following the model of naming archaeological cultures after the sites where they are first identified.
- Both ‘Indus civilization’ and ‘Harappan civilization’ are used in the text.
