Indus Valley Civilisation: Sites, Features, Script, Decline

The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also called Harappan Civilisation, is one of the oldest urban civilisations in the world. It flourished from approximately 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE along the Indus River system. This topic carries 2-4 marks in Kerala PSC exams consistently.

1. Timeline

Phase	Period (approx.)	Key Feature
Early Harappan	3300–2600 BCE	Village settlements, early farming
Mature Harappan	2600–1900 BCE	Urban phase, town planning, trade
Late Harappan	1900–1300 BCE	Decline, de-urbanisation

2. Major Sites

Site	Location (Modern)	River/Water Body	Key Discovery
Harappa	Montgomery, Punjab (Pakistan)	Ravi	First discovered site (1921), granaries, coffin burial
Mohenjo-daro	Larkana, Sindh (Pakistan)	Indus	Great Bath, Great Granary, bronze Dancing Girl
Lothal	Gujarat, India	Bhogava (near Gulf of Khambhat)	Dockyard (world’s earliest), bead-making factory, rice husk
Dholavira	Kutch, Gujarat, India	Between Mansar and Manhar rivulets	Signboard with Indus script, three-part division of town, water reservoirs
Kalibangan	Rajasthan, India	Ghaggar (dried Saraswati)	Fire altars, earliest ploughed field
Rakhigarhi	Hisar, Haryana, India	Ghaggar-Hakra	Largest IVC site in India
Chanhudaro	Sindh, Pakistan	Indus	Bead-making, only site without a citadel
Banawali	Hisar, Haryana, India	Ghaggar-Hakra	Oval-shaped settlement, toy plough
Surkotada	Kutch, Gujarat, India	—	Horse bones (debated)
Ropar (Rupnagar)	Punjab, India	Sutlej	First IVC site excavated in independent India

3. Key Discoverers

Person	Role
Daya Ram Sahni	Excavated Harappa (1921)
R.D. Banerji	Excavated Mohenjo-daro (1922)
S.R. Rao	Excavated Lothal (1954)
R.S. Bisht	Excavated Dholavira (1990)
John Marshall	Director General of ASI, announced discovery to the world

4. Town Planning Features

The IVC is famous for its advanced urban planning:

Feature	Details
Grid pattern	Streets intersected at right angles
Citadel and Lower Town	Two-part city division (Dholavira had three parts)
Drainage system	Covered drains along streets, soak pits, manholes
Standardised bricks	Ratio 4:2:1 (length:breadth:height)
Wells	Nearly every house had a private well
No temples	No monumental temple structures found
Granaries	Large storage structures (Harappa, Mohenjo-daro)

5. Economy and Trade

Aspect	Details
Agriculture	Wheat, barley, peas, sesame, mustard, cotton, rice (Lothal, Rangpur)
Animals domesticated	Cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig, dog, cat, fowl
Trade partners	Mesopotamia (called ‘Meluha’ in Mesopotamian texts)
Weights and measures	16-based system (16, 32, 64…), cubical chert stones
Craft specialisation	Bead-making, shell-working, metallurgy (copper, bronze, gold, silver)
Transport	Bullock carts, boats

6. Script

• The Indus script remains undeciphered to this day
• Written mostly right to left (in longer texts, boustrophedon — alternating directions)
• About 400-450 distinct signs identified
• Found mainly on seals, pottery, and copper tablets
• Longest inscription: about 26 signs
• Iravatham Mahadevan and Asko Parpola are notable scholars who attempted decipherment

7. Religion and Culture

Aspect	Evidence
Proto-Shiva (Pashupati)	Seal showing a horned figure seated in yogic posture, surrounded by animals
Mother Goddess	Numerous terracotta female figurines
Animal worship	Unicorn bull most common on seals; also humped bull, elephant, tiger
Tree worship	Pipal tree depicted on seals
Fire altars	Found at Kalibangan and Lothal
No weapons of war	Very few military weapons found, suggesting peaceful society
Burial practices	Extended burial (most common), pot burial, coffin burial (Harappa)

8. Art and Craft

Artefact	Found at	Significance
Bronze Dancing Girl	Mohenjo-daro	Shows lost-wax (cire perdue) technique
Priest-King bust	Mohenjo-daro	Steatite sculpture with trefoil-patterned shawl
Pashupati Seal	Mohenjo-daro	Most famous seal
Unicorn Seal	Multiple sites	Most common seal type
Terracotta toys	Multiple sites	Carts, animals, whistles — show daily life

9. Decline Theories

Theory	Proposed by	Explanation
Aryan Invasion	Mortimer Wheeler	Destruction by invading Aryans
Floods	M.R. Sahni, Raikes	Repeated flooding of Indus
Tectonic shifts	M.R. Sahni	Earthquakes altered river courses
Climate change / Drought	D.P. Agrawal	Drying of Ghaggar-Hakra (Saraswati)
Epidemic	K.U.R. Kennedy	Disease wiped out population
Ecological degradation	Fairservis	Overuse of resources, deforestation

Most modern scholars favour a combination of factors — especially climate change and river drying — rather than any single cause.

10. Important Connections for PSC

Question Pattern	Answer
Father of Indian Archaeology	Alexander Cunningham
Largest site of IVC	Rakhigarhi (India); Mohenjo-daro (overall)
UNESCO World Heritage (2021)	Dholavira
IVC and iron	Iron was NOT known to IVC people
Script deciphered?	No, still undeciphered
IVC belongs to which age?	Bronze Age (Chalcolithic)
Modern countries with IVC sites	India, Pakistan, Afghanistan

Key Points to Remember

• The civilisation is called Harappan because Harappa was discovered first
• Mohenjo-daro means “Mound of the Dead” in Sindhi
• Lothal means “Mound of the Dead” in Gujarati
• The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro measured approximately 12m x 7m x 2.4m
• Cotton was first cultivated in the IVC (Greeks called it “sindon” — from Sindh)
• No iron, no horse (except debated Surkotada find), no lion in IVC