Harappan civilisation, 3300 to 1300 BCE

The civilisation is known mainly from archaeology: town plans, bricks, drains, seals, weights, pottery, figurines and burials.
Its script survives only in short inscriptions and remains undeciphered, so no political or religious reading of the civilisation can be made directly.
The script was probably used in administrative or commercial contexts, though its short inscriptions cannot yet be read.
Mesopotamian references to Meluhha, often identified with the Harappan region, are the one outside voice that speaks about the civilisation.
Harappan is a better name than Indus Valley Civilisation, because the civilisation was not limited to the Indus valley alone.

What each kind of remain tells us

Remain	What it tells us
Seals	Trade, identification, administration, and symbolic or ritual purposes
Weights	Standardisation
Drains	Civic order: urban sanitation and organised planning
Burials	Belief in some form of afterlife or ritual respect for the dead
Pottery	Chronology and diet

With the script unread, each class of object answers a different question about Harappan life.Source: Theme 2 handout; the pottery row from the history atlas plan

No ruler's name is known, because the script is unread; the people of this theme are the archaeologists who found the civilisation.

Alexander Cunningham
archaeologist
An early figure in Indian archaeology and the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India; noticed Harappa in the 19th century, though its significance was not then understood.
Daya Ram Sahni
archaeologist
Credited with the excavation of Harappa in 1921, a major turning point.
R. D. Banerji
archaeologist; also Rakhaldas Banerji
Excavated Mohenjodaro in 1922, confirming that Harappa was not an isolated settlement.
John Marshall
archaeologist
Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India who played a major role in announcing the discovery to the world.
B. B. Lal
archaeologist
Among the Indian archaeologists who worked on the civilisation after independence.
B. K. Thapar
archaeologist
Among the Indian archaeologists who worked on the civilisation after independence.
S. R. Rao
archaeologist
Among the Indian archaeologists who worked on the civilisation after independence.

The Harappans left no readable historical text, so their political system is not known directly and must be inferred from archaeology.
Uniform planning, weights, seals, script and brick ratio across a vast area are striking evidence of shared norms among the Harappan cities.
Yet no palace, royal tomb or kingly monument has been found, and the three theories of who ruled are set out under Debates.

Cities were planned on a grid pattern, with streets cutting each other at right angles, division into sectors and a standard layout in many places.
Many cities had a raised, often fortified citadel and a larger residential lower town below it.
Unlike Mesopotamia or Egypt, the Harappan cities show no clear palace or temple complex at their centre.
Kalibangan, Dholavira and Harappa had fortified sectors, showing that fortification was a feature of several major sites.
Builders used burnt and mud bricks in a standard ratio, often 1:2:4, showing common building norms across widely separated regions.
Covered and street drains connected to houses, with soak pits and in some cases inspection holes, show a concern for civic cleanliness.
Many settlements had a large number of wells, and Dholavira is a notable example of this attention to water supply.
Brick houses often had a central courtyard, a bathing area and access to water, and some houses also had stairs.
House doors often opened on lanes rather than main streets, and some sites have large structures interpreted as granaries or storage buildings.
The Great Bath at Mohenjodaro is a rectangular brick tank waterproofed with bitumen, with steps leading down, usually taken to be for ritual bathing.
Dholavira had three divisions, citadel, middle town and lower town, with elaborate fortification, water reservoirs and a signboard like inscription.

A Harappan cityTap to enlarge

The citadel stood on a raised, often fortified area apart from the larger lower town, laid out in streets crossing at right angles, with covered drains, soak pits, wells and courtyard houses.Source: Theme 2 handout

The Great Bath in sectionTap to enlarge

A rectangular tank of brick masonry, waterproofed with bitumen and entered by steps leading down, usually understood as a place of ritual bathing.Source: Theme 2 handout

Mohenjodaro and Dholavira

	Mohenjodaro	Dholavira
Town plan	Planned streets and a drainage system	Three parts: citadel, middle town and lower town
Citadel fortification	A walled citadel mound	Massive fortification
Water	The Great Bath, wells and drains	Water reservoirs and a water management system
Famous finds	Priest King statue, Dancing Girl bronze, seals, a structure read as a granary	A signboard like inscription and a structure read as a stadium

Mohenjodaro is the classic planned city; Dholavira shows the most evolved town plan and water engineering.Source: Theme 2 handout; Mohenjodaro's walled citadel from Abhishek, 25 September 2026

Agriculture was the base, with wheat, barley, pulses, sesame, mustard, dates and cotton, and rice in some later or regional contexts.
Kalibangan has evidence of a ploughed field, direct proof of the farming on which the Harappan economy rested.
Animals known include the humped bull, buffalo, sheep, goat, pig, dog, the elephant and the camel in some regions.
Horse remains at Harappan sites are doubtful and debated, so the horse cannot be counted among the known animals with confidence.
Crafts included bead making at Chanhudaro and Lothal, wheel made pottery, shell and ivory work, stone carving, seal making and textiles.
Metals used were copper, bronze, gold, silver and lead, but iron was not known to the Harappans.
Trade ran within Harappan regions and abroad, with Mesopotamia, Oman, Bahrain (Dilmun) and possibly Iran and Central Asia.
The evidence for trade includes Harappan seals found in Mesopotamia, references to Meluhha, marine shells, lapis lazuli and carnelian beads.
The dockyard at Lothal is further evidence of trade, and standardised cubical stone weights and a standard measurement system were in use.
Transport used bullock carts, boats, rivers and the sea in coastal zones, known from terracotta cart models, depictions and the Lothal dockyard.

Raw material to export

Raw materials
Lapis lazuli from near Shortughai; carnelian from Gujarat
Craft centres
Bead making at Chanhudaro and Lothal
Marked and weighed
Seals and standard weights
Shipped
From Lothal and the Makran coast
Markets
Dilmun and Mesopotamia

Harappan trade linked distant raw materials, specialised craft centres and markets across the sea.Source: History atlas plan; Theme 2 handout

The evidence is terracotta female figurines, seals including the so called Pashupati seal, fire altars at some sites, the Great Bath, amulets and burials.
Animal motifs, trees and symbolic forms add to this evidence, while the script remains undeciphered.
Many terracotta female figurines have been read as mother goddesses linked to fertility worship, one of the commonest interpretations of Harappan religion.
A seal shows a horned seated figure surrounded by animals, read by some scholars as a proto form of Shiva as Pashupati, a speculative reading.
Tree, animal and fertility worship, seen in pipal motifs, bull figures and animal seals, is a reasonable inference from the surviving art.
Structures at Kalibangan and Lothal are interpreted as fire altars, suggesting fire rituals at some Harappan sites.
Ritual use of water, suggested by the Great Bath, is one of the strongest inferences that can be made about Harappan religion.
Burials, some with goods, suggest belief in an afterlife, though royal tombs are absent from Harappan sites.
The accepted view sees fertility symbols, reverence for animals and trees, ritual use of water and possibly cultic practices, with no definite reconstruction while the script is undeciphered.

Seals, mostly of steatite and often square, carry animal motifs such as the unicorn, bull, elephant, rhinoceros, tiger and buffalo, often with script.
Seals may have served trade, identification, administration or ritual, and their exact purpose remains uncertain while the script is unread.
Harappan sculpture includes the Priest King, a bearded male figure in stone from Mohenjodaro.
The Dancing Girl, also from Mohenjodaro, is a bronze figurine made by the lost wax process, alongside male torsos and other small sculptures.
Harappan terracotta art includes toys, carts, figurines, animals and female figures, alongside the seals, sculpture and pottery.
Pottery was usually wheel made, well fired and often red with black designs, carrying geometric and painted motifs and animal forms.
Ornaments include carnelian beads, shell and gold ornaments and faience beads, showing skilled craft in several materials.
The script survives in short inscriptions, is undeciphered and was probably used in administrative or commercial contexts.

Harappan art forms

Form	Material or make	Examples
Seals	Mostly steatite, often square	Unicorn, bull, elephant, rhinoceros, tiger and buffalo motifs, often with script
Sculpture	Stone and bronze	The Priest King in stone and the Dancing Girl in bronze, both from Mohenjodaro
Terracotta	Terracotta	Toys, carts, figurines, animals and female figures
Pottery	Wheel made, well fired, often red with black designs	Geometric and painted motifs and animal forms
Ornaments	Carnelian, shell, gold and faience	Carnelian beads, shell and gold ornaments, faience beads

Harappan craftsmen worked in steatite, stone, bronze, terracotta and beads.Source: Theme 2 handout

The priest king
The so called priest king statue from Mohenjodaro, a bearded male figure in stone.
Ganesh Mohan T, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Dancing Girl
The Dancing Girl from Mohenjodaro, a bronze figurine made by the lost wax process.
Gary Todd, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
A unicorn seal
Seals, made mostly of steatite, carry animal motifs and often script; the unicorn is among the animals shown.
Ismoon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Pashupati seal
A seal showing a horned seated figure surrounded by animals, read by some as a proto Shiva; the reading is speculative.
Unknown seal maker, Mohenjodaro, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Great Bath
The Great Bath at Mohenjodaro: a rectangular tank of brick masonry, waterproofed with bitumen, with steps leading down.
Saqib Qayyum, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro
The World Heritage listing of Mohenjodaro, the city of the Great Bath and the priest king.
See it at UNESCO World Heritage Centre
A reservoir at Dholavira
Dholavira, in Kutch, had a citadel, a middle town and a lower town, elaborate fortification and water reservoirs.
Bhajish Bharathan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The dockyard at Lothal
Lothal, in Gujarat, gives evidence of bead making and trade, and a structure interpreted as a dockyard.
Jashjashjash, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The citadel mound at Kalibangan
Kalibangan, in Rajasthan, is famous for evidence of a ploughed field, and had a fortified sector.
Kk himalaya, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The granary at Harappa
At some sites archaeologists have identified large structures interpreted as granaries or storage buildings.
Muhammad Bin Naveed, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Protohistory: A period for which writing exists but is not fully understood or deciphered, such as the Harappan civilisation.
Citadel: The raised, often fortified part of a Harappan city, which may have held public buildings, ritual or storage structures, or elite functions.
Lower town: The larger residential part of a Harappan city.
Meluhha: A name in Mesopotamian records, often identified with the Harappan region.
Dilmun: Bahrain, one of the Harappans' trading partners.
Steatite: A soft, easily carved stone, also called soapstone, which hardens when fired, used by the Harappans for seals and beads.
Faience: An artificial paste of ground quartz, glazed and fired to a glassy blue or green finish, used for beads, bangles and small figurines; not a natural stone.
Lost wax casting: A method of casting metal in which a wax model is coated in clay, the wax melted out and molten metal poured into the hollow left behind, used for the bronze Dancing Girl.
Soak pit: A covered pit into which household waste water drained and soaked away into the ground, part of the Harappan drainage arrangement.
Carnelian: A hard reddish orange semiprecious stone, worked at Harappan sites into beads that reached Mesopotamia.
Lapis lazuli: A deep blue semiprecious stone, obtained from Afghanistan, whose presence at Harappan sites is evidence of long distance trade.

Who ruled the Harappan cities?

A strong centralised state

Wide standardisation, planned cities and common weights, seals, script and brick ratio suggest a central authority ruling the Harappan world.
The uniformity across a vast area is striking, but no clear palace, royal tomb or kingly monument has been found to confirm it.

Priest kings

Some early scholars thought religious elites ruled, influenced by the so called Priest King statue from Mohenjodaro, the Great Bath and ritual looking features.
The theory is now considered weak, because the evidence is limited and one statue is not enough to prove priestly rule.

Decentralised but integrated centres

Strong cultural uniformity need not mean a single empire, since several regional centres may have shared a common civilisation.
Sites vary in size and layout, regional diversity exists and no single capital has been established, which makes this among the more balanced views.

Why did the civilisation decline?

Large urban centres disappeared, long distance trade shrank and standardised weights and seals declined across the Harappan world.
Town planning deteriorated and settlements were abandoned in some areas as the cities declined.

Aryan invasion

Older scholars argued that invading Aryans destroyed the civilisation, a theory now largely rejected as the main explanation.
Archaeology shows no large scale violent destruction and no widespread destruction pattern across Harappan sites.

Floods

Some sites, especially Mohenjodaro, show flood deposits, but floods cannot explain the decline of the whole civilisation.

River shift and ecological change

Changes in river systems, especially in the Ghaggar Hakra and Saraswati related zones, may have dried or shifted rivers and reduced water access.
The result would have been ecological stress and agricultural decline, and this is one of the strong explanations of the decline.

Climate change and aridity

Increasing dryness and a weakening monsoon may have reduced agricultural support for the Harappan cities.
This would have caused food stress, movement of settlements and weakening of urban life, and it is also a strong theory.

The most accepted view is a gradual process of ecological change, river shifts, climatic stress and weakening networks, leading to de urbanisation and regionalisation.

Theories of decline

Theory	Evidence for	Evidence against
Aryan invasion	Argued by older scholars	No large scale violent destruction and no widespread destruction pattern
Floods	Flood deposits at some sites, especially Mohenjodaro	Cannot explain the decline of the whole civilisation
River shift	Changes in the Ghaggar Hakra and Saraswati related river systems	The handout names none; it rates this a strong explanation
Climate and aridity	Increasing dryness and a weakening monsoon	The handout names none; it rates this a strong theory

The single cause theories fall away, and the accepted view combines ecology, rivers and climate.Source: Theme 2 handout

Prelims

Try each before opening the answer; every question is also on the Prelims PYQs pages.

2026 · Q8

Consider the following statements about the archaeological findings in Harappan towns:

I.There is wide occurrence of spindle-whorls in the houses but absence of spinning wheels.
II.Weights and measurement scales, complete with graduations have been discovered.
III.There are houses built in large part with baked bricks, around relatively spacious courtyards, with their own wells, bathing platforms, and large rooms.

Which of the following inferences can be drawn from the above statements?

1.Statement I suggests that spinning was a laborious activity done at home.
2.Statement II suggests the extent of the scientific knowledge that the Harappans possessed.
3.Statement III suggests the emergence of a common property system.

(a)1 and 2 onlyUPSC key
(b)2 and 3 only
(c)1 and 3 only
(d)1, 2 and 3

Show answer and explanation

Inference 1 is valid. A spindle-whorl is a hand held weight used with a drop spindle, and the absence of the spinning wheel means yarn had to be twisted by hand, thread by thread, which is slow work, while the recovery of whorls inside dwellings rather than in a dedicated workshop quarter places that work in the home. Inference 2 is valid, because graduated scales and a standardised binary and decimal weight series in chert cubes imply working knowledge of units, ratios and calibration, which is the sense in which scientific knowledge is meant here. Inference 3 is invalid and is the eliminator. Houses with their own wells, their own bathing platforms and enclosed private courtyards point precisely the other way, to individually held property and differentiated household wealth, not to common property. Hence only 1 and 2 follow and (a) is correct. (b) and (d) accept the unsupported third inference, and (c) discards the sound second one.

Moderate · Static · Ancient and Medieval History · Prehistory, Harappan and Vedic India

2021 · Q32

Which one of the following ancient towns is well-known for its elaborate system of water harvesting and management by building a series of dams and channelizing water into connected reservoirs?

(a)DholaviraUPSC key
(b)Kalibangan
(c)Rakhigarhi
(d)Ropar

Show answer and explanation

Dholavira, on Khadir Bet island in the Rann of Kachchh, is defined by its water engineering. Located between the seasonal Manhar and Mansar streams in an arid zone with no perennial river, it survived by damming those streams and channelling the water into a cascade of at least sixteen rock cut reservoirs ringing the settlement, which is unmatched at any other Harappan site.

Option (b) Kalibangan is known for the ploughed field and fire altars.
Option (c) Rakhigarhi is the largest Harappan site by area and yielded the well known ancient DNA sample.
Option (d) Ropar is noted as the first site excavated after independence and for a human burial with a dog. Hence (a). The environmental logic is the memory hook: extreme aridity forced the hydraulic ingenuity.

Easy · Static · Ancient and Medieval History · Prehistory, Harappan and Vedic India

2019 · Q7

Which one of the following is not a Harappan site?

(a)Chanhudaro
(b)Kot Diji
(c)SohgauraUPSC key
(d)Desalpur

Show answer and explanation

Chanhudaro, in Sindh in present day Pakistan, is a well known Harappan site excavated by Mackay and noted for bead making, shell working and copper working, so (a) is a Harappan site. Kot Diji, also in Sindh and opposite Mohenjodaro across the Indus, is a pre Harappan and early Harappan site that gives its name to the Kot Dijian phase, so (b) is a Harappan site. Desalpur, in the Kutch region of Gujarat, is a fortified Harappan settlement, so (d) is a Harappan site. Sohgaura, in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh, is not Harappan at all. It is the findspot of the Sohgaura copper plate inscription, a Mauryan period record dealing with famine relief and storehouses, so (c) is the answer. The governing principle is geographical. The Harappan zone lies in the Indus system and its Gujarat and Haryana extensions, so a site in the middle Gangetic plain is prima facie not Harappan, and this single test resolves the question without knowing the other three.

Moderate · Static · Ancient and Medieval History · Prehistory, Harappan and Vedic India

2017 · Q2

With reference to the difference between the culture of Rigvedic Aryans and Indus Valley people, which of the following statements is/are correct?

1.Rigvedic Aryans used the coat of mail and helmet in warfare whereas the people of Indus Valley Civilization did not leave any evidence of using them.
2.Rigvedic Aryans knew gold, silver and copper whereas Indus Valley people knew only copper and iron.
3.Rigvedic Aryans had domesticated the horse whereas there is no evidence of Indus Valley people having been aware of this animal.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a)1 only
(b)2 and 3 only
(c)1 and 3 onlyUPSC key
(d)1, 2 and 3

Show answer and explanation

Statement 1 is correct. The Rigveda refers to varman, body armour, and to sipra, a helmet or head covering, in its battle hymns, while no armour or helmet has been recovered from Harappan sites.
Statement 2 is incorrect on both halves. The Harappans worked gold and silver extensively, as the Mohenjodaro and Allahdino hoards and the jewellery from Harappa show, so the claim that they knew only copper and iron understates them; and iron was unknown to the Harappans altogether, the Indian Iron Age beginning around 1200 BCE, well after the mature Harappan phase. A single statement that is wrong in two independent directions is the eliminating statement here.
Statement 3 is correct. The horse is prominent in the Rigveda, in the ashva hymns and in the horse sacrifice, whereas the Harappan animal repertoire on seals shows the humped bull, buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros and tiger but no horse, and the contested Surkotada bones are not accepted as settling the question. Rejecting statement 2 alone eliminates (b) and (d) and leaves (a) against (c), which is then decided by statement 3. The official answer (c) follows.

Moderate · Static · Ancient and Medieval History · Prehistory, Harappan and Vedic India

2013 · Q45

Which of the following characterizes/characterize the people of Indus Civilization?

1.They possessed great palaces and temples.
2.They worshipped both male and female deities.
3.They employed horse-drawn chariots in warfare.

Select the correct statement/statements using the codes given below.

(a)1 and 2 only
(b)2 onlyUPSC key
(c)1, 2 and 3
(d)None of the statements given above is correct

Show answer and explanation

Statement 1 is incorrect. No structure at any Harappan site has been securely identified as a palace or a temple, and the absence of monumental religious and royal architecture is one of the defining and most discussed features of the civilisation, standing in deliberate contrast with contemporaneous Egypt and Mesopotamia. The large buildings that do survive, the Great Bath and the granary at Mohenjodaro and the warehouse at Lothal, are read as civic, ritual or storage structures, and the identification remains contested.
Statement 2 is correct. The seal from Mohenjodaro showing a horned figure seated in a yogic posture surrounded by animals, conventionally called Pashupati, and the numerous terracotta female figurines conventionally called mother goddesses, together support the worship of both male and female divinities, alongside the evidence for tree, animal and phallic worship.
Statement 3 is incorrect. The horse is absent from the Harappan faunal record at every mature phase site with the disputed exception of Surkotada, and the spoked wheel and the light war chariot are Vedic, appearing in the Rigveda and in the archaeology of a later horizon. The Harappan terracotta models show solid wheeled bullock carts. The official answer (b), two only, follows. The horse is the single most useful discriminator in the whole of this material, since its absence from the Harappan record and its centrality to the Vedic one is the standard basis for separating the two cultures.

Moderate · Static · Ancient and Medieval History · Prehistory, Harappan and Vedic India

Mains

General Studies Paper 1; every question is also on the Mains PYQs pages.

2025 · Q110 marks150 words
Discuss the salient features of the Harappan architecture.