History of India - An Overlook, Indus Valley Civilization

>KALIBANGAN

>Excavation
1960 by Amlanand Ghosh

>Location
Hanumangarh, Rajasthan

>River
Ghaggar

>Key features/findings

>INDUSTRIAL SITE

Black bangle

Bones of camel

Evidences of surgery/operation

Fire altar

Couple burial

>Exceptional findings

Use of mud bricks

Use of wooden drainage system

What is the consensus of the ethnicity of the Harrapans ? Are they Dravidian tamils ?

Very, very interesting... this is how Veeky Forums threads should look like

Didn't they also find some chalk writings on a blackboard in a building at Lothal?

One of the best evidence for the IVC script being writing

Thanks

Dravidians

Thank you, not sure about the chalk writings

>DHOLAVIRA

>Excavation
1967 - 1968 by Jagpati Joshi

>Location
Kutch, Gujarat

>River
Luni (Inland river, dries up before reaching any sea)

>Key features/findings

Stadium

10 letter script (Signboard, blackboard like Shineboard)

>Didn't they also find some chalk writings on a blackboard in a building at Lothal?
>
>One of the best evidence for the IVC script being writing
That was found in Dholavira

what exactly was the Indus valley civilization

A culture with comprised many urban sites, some of which spanning several hectares and hosting tens of thousands of people, which, for the bronze age was a lot

The culture covered an area which comprised all of modern day Pakistan, much of western India and parts of Afghanistan

The urban sites were planned with wide streets, a sewerage system and often public baths, they used a script, often found on seals in many sites all over South Asia, it probably conveyed a written language

They had direct trading relationship with Mesopotamian cities as attested both by loads of material finds such as pottery and objects, and by written Mesopotamian texts

>SCRIPT
NO ONE HAS YET BEEN ABLE TO DECIPHER THE INDUS VALLEY SCRIPT

SOCIAL LIFE OF INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

>Matriarchal Society

>Peace loving society

>Voluntary Sati System
(Sati was a practice where a widow was cremated or buried with her deceased husband)

>No veil system
Women could wear anything they want

>Slave system

>Mixed economy
Agricultural, trade and pastoral

>Religion
Hinduism

Worshipping Mother goddess (Most worshipped), Shiva, Fire, Water, Swastika, Snake

Animal worship (Unicorn, humped bull)

It was previously believed that the Indus people were unaware of cows as no cow remains or stamps/idols have been excavated but after the findings of Humped bull stamps, bullock cart toys it is now believe they knew about the existence of cows (As you know, bulls and oxes don't fall from skies)

Bird Worship - Dove

Tree Worship - Peeple, Neem and Babul

>Decline -
Urban phase due to economical imbalance

Different causes of different sites

DETAILED SUMMARY - 1

>INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION (2500 BC - 1750 BC)

>Names

Indus Civilization - Oldest

Harappan Civilization - Most appropriate, Harappa first site that was excavated

Indus Saraswati Civilization - Geographical point of view

>Most accepted period

2500BC - 1750BC (by Carbon - 14 dating)

John Marshall - First scholar to use term Indus Civilization

>Belongs to Proto-Historic Period (Chalcolithic Age/Bronze Age)

>Spread over Pakistan, Western India and some parts of Afghanistan

>Heartland of civilization
Harappa-Ghaggar-Mohenjodaro axis

>Capital cities
Harappa
Mohenjodaro

>Port cities
Lothal
Sutkagendor
Allahdino
Balakot
Kuntasi

wow that's a lot more than i learned in school. did they have any contact with Egypt since they were burgeoning along with Mesopotamia (I think)

They had contacts with mesopotamian and some neighbouring semi urbanized cultures like Jiroft in Iran and MBAC in Central Asia, I don't think they even found evidence of Indus valley civ. people in Egypt or viceversa

that's fascinating thank you. this just got brushed over in-school

DETAILED SUMMARY - 2

>pic related

Oldest name is Melukhkha, which is what the Sumerians called it and which is related to the modern Indian term for Dravidians, Mleccha.

Mesopotamian and Iranian seals have been found in Indus cities and vice-versa. There is no evidence of Egyptian and Indus Civilization of having contact with each other

The Sumerian texts refers to the trade relations with 'Meluha' which was the name given to Indus region.

It's actually Meluha not Melukha in Sumerian texts and yeah your point is valid too.

Well in my school I don't even think Indus valley civilization was mentioned.

Same. I never even knew it existed until fairly recently.

Indian history is grossly skipped outside India but don't worry, If you wanna know more about it you will just need to look for my threads daily on Veeky Forums

Poo in loo lmao

Another way more obscure civilization

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilmun

They were conquered by Sargon of Akkad and it comprised Katar and Quwait, didn't knwo they had civilization so long ago there

DETAILED SUMMARY - 3

>Mohenjodaro
Largest site of Indus civilization

>Rakhigarhi
Largest Indian site of Indus civilization

>COMMON FEATURES OF MAJOR CITIES

Systematic town planning on the lines of grid system

Use of burnt bricks in constructions

Underground drainage system (Giant water reservoirs in Dholavira)

Fortified citadel (Exception - Chanhudaro)

>Surkotada, Kutch, Gujarat, India
Only Indian site where the remains of a horse have actually been found

>Main crops
Wheat and Barley; Evidence of cultivation of rice in Lothal and Rangpur (Gujarat, India) only.
Other crops:
Dates, mustard, sesamum, cotton etc.

>INDUS PEOPLE WERE THE FIRST TO PRODUCE COTTON IN THE WORLD

>Animals
Sheep, goat, humped and humpless bull, buffalo, boar, dog, cat, pig, fowl, deer, tortoise, elephant, camel, rhinoceros, tiger etc.

Lion was not known to Indus people.

From Amari a single instance of Indian rhinoceros has been reported

DETAILED SUMMARY - 4

>TRADE

There was extensive inland and foreign trade. Foreign trade with Mesopotamia or Sumeria (Modern Iraq), Bahrain etc. flourished

>IMPORTS
Pic related

>EXPORTS
Agricultural products, cotton goods, terracotta figurines, pottery, certain beads (From Chanhudaro), conch-shell (From Lothal), Ivory products, copper etc. etc.

Iron was not known to the people of this civilization

The Sumerian texts refer to trade relations with 'Meluha' which was the name given to the Indus region.

Shatughai and Mundigaq were the Indus sites found in Afghanistan

The Sumerian texts also refer to two intermediate stations - Dilmun (Bahrain) and Makan (Makran coast).

Susa and Ur are Mesopotamian places where Harappan seals were found.

The Harappans were the earliest people to produce cotton (It was called 'Sindori' by the Greeks)

No evidence of coins, barter is assumed to have been the normal method of exchange of goods

Lothal was ancient port of Indus civilization

>Hinduism
I have a question, when you say Hinduism is it similar to the modern religion or is it in the sense of the catch all term of "Indian Religion" like when Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, etc. are considered "Hinduism" or does it have another meaning altogether?

You can say Proto-Hinduism, as Hinduism was well defined after the Vedas (Vedic age)

Worshiping the Mother goddess and Proto-Shiva/Pashupati (One of the earliest worshiped form of Hindu God Shiva, in the form of a humped bull).

Use of Swastikas to worship sun, gives an idea that the Indus people were practicing the earliest form of Hinduism.

Interesting

>Be Pajeet in 2020 live in a comfy New Delhi condo, 300 m2
>Get a call on my Indian-engineered cell phone
>It's uncle Poojet calling from the biggest Mars colony, built by the indian space program
>we basically transported all the shit from Mumbai on Mars and terraformed it. The scent repelled the dirty westerners and we were left alone on our new planet
>I adjust my stock portfolio according to insiders informations delivered by uncle Poojetz and I call my London broker
>I hear the noise of hundreds low paid British workers working in the crowded call center.
>Insult my broker and mock his disgusting British accent
>meanwhile my 16 y/o blue eyed, blonde haired white wife come to give me a succ under the desk
>she's grateful I haven't burnt her face with acid this month although she's a racist
>I decide to reward her with a glorious indian ass-to-mouth
>she's delected by her poo but it's nothing compared to the brown sperm I unload in her mouth
>the curry burn on her tongue is too much for her to handle and she faints in a puddle of shit and curry sperm
>decide to divorce her and revoke her immigration documents because I notice she refuse to bleach her disgusting asshole
>burn her face once again with vitriol before I send her back to USA

this will be true in less than 3 years
INDIA SUPERPOWER BY 2020
WE HAVE A SPACE PROGRAM
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Killself

DETAILED SUMMARY - 5

>RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Indus civilization was primarily Urban

No evidence of nature of polity, but it seems that the ruling authority of Indus civilization was a class of merchants

The Harappan people didn't worship their gods in temple. No temple in fact has been unearthed. An idea of their religion is formed from the statues and figurines found.

Most commonly found figurine is of Mother-Goddess (Maitridevi or shakti). There is evidence of prevalence of Yoni (female sex organ) worship

Chief diety was the 'Pashupati Mahadeva' i.e. the lord of Animals (Proto-Shiva) represented in seals as sitting in yogic posture, he is surrounded by four animals (elephant, tiger, rhino and buffalo) and two deer appear at its feet. There was the prevalence of Phallic (lingam) worship.

Thus Shiva-Shakti worship, the oldest form of worship in Hinduism, appears to have been part of religious belief of Harappan people (esp. humped bull) The remains and relics also reveal that zoolatry i.e. animal worship and tree worship (esp. peepal) were in vogue those days

>LANGUAGE

There is evidence of pictographic script, found mainly on seals. The script has not been deciphered so far, but overlap of letters on some of the potsherds from Kalibanga show that writing was boustrophedon or from right to left and from left to right in alternate lines. It has been referred as Proto-Dravidian

>NOTE : - The oldest script in Indian subcontinent is the Harappan script, but the oldest deciphered script is Brahmi script known from about 5th Century BC. Most later Indian script developed from Brahmi

Steatite was mainly used in the manufacture of seals

Humpless bull is represented in most of the Indus seals

Inhumation or complete burial was the most common method of disposal of the dead

The origin of Swastika symbol can be traced back to Indus Valley Civilization

Is it just me or do the houses of the Indus Valley civ look better than common houses in Mughal times?

DETAILED SUMMARY - 6

>Decline

Indra is accused of causing the decline of Indus Civilization according to M. Wheeler

The Rigveda speaks of a battle at a place name 'Hariyumpia' which has been indentified with Harappa

>Who were the Indus people
The majority of scholars believe that the makers of this civilization were Dravidians

>Contemporary civilizations
Mesopotamia
Egypt
China

Depends on your social and economic status in Mughal period.

Absolute shit for 90% of the people if I am not mistaken.

>China

Barely, Minoans were more contemporary to them

This concludes our brief introduction of Indus Valley Civilization. In next thread we will be learning about the Vedic Age. Since it will be long, we will be discussing it into parts. The first part will be learning about the Vedas. What they are, how many they are and what is in them.

Also, Diwali is on 19th, which means we are having our 5 day festive season from tomorrow, in short its like Christmas but 5 days long so, I will be pretty busy so, there is an uncertainty that I will be posting a thread tomorrow or during these 5 days but I will try my best.

Didn't the Xia exist back then or am I being retarded?

If you are talking about the size of houses then well off people from Mughal period will win which means about 50-60% people.

If you are talking about the Amenities available to residents in their homes and in their cities then the Indus Civilization is even better than all modern Indian cities.

Chinese civilization came into existence after the fall of Indus civilization but since it was much more geographically close, it is called contemporary.

Indus - 2500 BC - 1750 BC

China - 1600 BC - 1046 BC

In b4 China was the cradle of civilization and sheit

I mean would it be wrong if you said it was the cradle for that part of the world?

Minoan 2100-1450 bc

>China - 1600 BC - 1046 BC
Erlitou culture- 1900BC ~ 1500 BC
Xia dynasty- 2070 BC~1600 BC
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlitou_culture
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xia_dynasty

>In b4 China was the cradle of civilization and sheit
It is one of the cradles of civilization, genius.
Deny harder.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_civilization
ancienthistorylists.com/ancient-civilizations/10-oldest-ancient-civilizations-ever-existed/

I almost wished the world was more isolated just to see how these civilizations would develop independently to modern day.

>no Minoa

Sad!

>culture
Culture or civ?

How rich was your average person in Mughal era?

IIRC 25 percent of the Empire's GDP went towards the Emperor and his 700 highest courtiers and nobles.

700 out of 120 million souls.

Modern economic research into the period and sources from the period all indicate that the majority consisted of underclass people who in terms of wealth were little richer than 5th century Anglo-Saxons.

The tiny upper class and small middle class had it somewhat better and because India was so full of people they could easily afford multiple servants and wives.

>were little richer than 5th century Anglo-Saxons.
Proof? According to Angus Maddison in the Mughal India it was between $500 to $600. Of course this already accounts for inflation.

That's roughly the GDP per capita of 10th century England, perhaps a little bit less. But Anglo-Saxon England had a lot more income equality than India so while GDP per capita was more or less the same real wages in Mughal India were quite a bit lower.

From archaeological reports I have seen Anglo-Saxon hovels were built a tiny bit better than those in India and the possession of metal objects seems a bit more common.

I've read the account of Francisco Pelsaert and he paints quite the picture of income inequality.

The difference between the two things is very loose and arbitrary, they had cities so I guess calling them a civilization wouldn't be controversial

The last 3 pretty much did though.

I think the states that managed to escape the mughals relatively did better. Mysore for example, had better wages than Britain until the 19th century.

Bump

>Dravidians
I'm not doubting you, but why is it so difficult to find studies of Harappan DNA? Those must have been done by now, surely?

Your answer lies here my friend

google.co.in/amp/indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/the-mystery-of-mound-4/lite/

Bump

bump