Skip to main content

Chapter 1- Brief insight of Harappa/Indus Valley civilization.

 Harappa/Indus Valley civilization.



  • John Marshall was the first scholar to use the term, ‘Indus Civilization’.
  • The most characteristic feature of the Harappan Civilization was its urbanization.
  • Besides sheep and goats, dogs, humped cattle buffalo and elephant was certainly domesticated.
  • The heartland of the Indus Civilization was Harappa-Ghaggar-Mohenjodaro axis.
  • Capital cities- Harappa, Mohenjodaro.
  • Port cities- Lothal, Sutkagendor, Allahdino, Balakot, Kuntasi.


Sites of Indus Civilization:


Social features:


  • First urbanization in India.
  • Town planning
  • Grid pattern
  • Drainage system
  • Equality in society

Economic features:


  • Based on agriculture
  • Trade/commerce.
  • Export/import
  • Weight/measures
  • Production of cotton

Religious Features:


  • Mother goddess – Matridevi  or Shakti
  • Sex organ (Yoni) worship.
  • Pashupati Mahadeva – lord of Animals – Yogic position structiure.
  • Nature worship.
  • Animal worship – Unicorn, ox.
  • Tree worship – Peepal.
  • Fire worship- Havan Kund.

Cultural features:


  • Pottery
  • Use of stamps/seals.
  • Beads used ornaments.
  • Sculptures.

Harappa Trade:

The Harappan people traded with the people of Sumer and with the towns lying along the Persian Gulf. Harappan seals and other small objects used by the merchants and traders for stamping their goods have been found in Mesopotamia. The merchandise was shipped from Lothal and incoming goods were received here. Weights and measures which were very accurately graded point to a very high degree of exchange.

Agriculture:

The Harappans cultivated wheat and barley the two main food crops. Peas and dates were also grown. In addition sesame and mustard were grown and used for oil. However the people cultivated rice as early as 1800 BC in Lothal. The Harappans were the earliest people to grow cotton. Irrigation depended on the irregular flooding of the rivers of Punjab and Sind.

Striking Features:

Surkotada is the only Indus site where the remains of a horse have actually been found.
A small pot was discovered at Chanhudaro which was probably an inkpot. Harappan pottery is bright or dark red and is uniformly sturdy and well baked.
It was chiefly made and consists of both plain and painted ware and plain variety being more common.
Harappan people used different types of pottery such as galzed, polychrome, incised perforated and knobbed.
Main types of seals are the square type with a carved animal and inscription and rectangular type with inscription only.
Terracotta seals found at Mehargarh were the earliest precursors of the Harappan seals.
Evidence of sea and river transport by ships and boats in several seals and terracotta models have been found apart from the dockyard at Lothal. Representations of ships are found on seals found at Harappa and Mohenjodaro.
Apart from Lothal in Gujarat, the three Harappan sites on the Makran coast - Sutkagendor, Sotkako and Khairia kot have been generally considered to have been posts in the maritime links with the Gulf and Mesopotamia.
At Kalibangan the lanes and roads of the city were built in a definite proportion. Lanes were 1.8 mts wide and the roads were 3.6, 5.4 and 7.2 mts wide.
The Mohenjodaro, the length of the Great Bath was 12 mtrs, breadth was 7mtrs and depth was 2.5 mtrs.
In the south-west of Mohenjodaro there was a granary which covers 55 x 37 mtrs area. It is surrounded by verandas on four sides. There were 27 blocks of solid blocks of solid bricks in granary. It was divided into 3 parts.
In Harappa the Granary was outside the Fort. In the Lothal port, there was a dockyard which was 216 mtrs in length and 37 mtrs in breadth.
Leg bone of elephant was found at Kalibangan.
Copper rhino, copper chariot and copper elephant found at Daimabad.
Harappan city with three divisions namely-citadel, middle town and lower town was at Dholavira.
Ragi was not known to the Indus people.



Popular posts from this blog

Easy way to understand Direct and Indirect speech rules

Introduction. There two ways to convey a message of a person, or the words spoken by a person to other person. 1.       Direct speech 2.       Indirect speech Suppose your friend whose name is Vipul tells you in College , “I will give you a pen”. You come to home and you want to tell your brother what your friend told you. There are two ways to tell him. Direct speech:   Vipul said, “I will give you a pen”. Indirect Speech:  Vipul said that he would give me a pen. In direct speech   the original words of person are narrated (no change is made) and are enclosed in quotation mark. While in indirect speech some changes are made in original words of the person because these words have been spoken in past so the tense will change accordingly and pronoun may also be changed accordingly. In indirect speech  the statement of the person is not enclosed in quotation marks, the word “ that ” may be used before the statement to show that it is indirect sp

English Error Spotting - Previous Year Questions of SSC CGL

Competition Zenith brings you a post on Error Spotting to boost your English for competitive exams. We are providing you the specifically chosen questions from previous year papers of SSC CGL with the best possible explanation in simplest of the language. Below are some questions with explanation: Questions 1. Have trust on(a)/God and everything(b) /will be right.(c) /(d) No error 2. The cattles (a) /are grazing (b) /in the fields.(c) /(d) No error 3. He is one of (a)/ the best novelists (b) /that has ever lived. Do you agree? (c)/no error (d) 4. On a rainy day (a) /I enjoy to watch TV (b) / with a hot cup of tea.(c ) /no error(d) 5. No sooner did (a)/I reach (b)/ Patna railway station than the train departed(c)/no error (d) 6. There is no agreement (a) / between you and I (b) /so we are free to go our way(c) /no error (d) 7. A variety of books (a) / is available in the market (b) / to help the students qualify the competitive examinations.(c) /no error 8.

Spotting Error Quiz IV - With Explanation For SSC Exam 2015

  Hello Readers, As you know that Spotting Error types question is an important part of competitive examinations and seldom any book provide you the detailed solution. So we have decided to provide you the previous year questions of  spotting error along with the Explanation . If you like it let us know, you can also ask for detailed solutions of questions that are bothering you. 1.     I found (a)/ the two first chapters of the book (b)/ particularly interesting. (c)/ No error (d) Answer    (b) Explanation : It should be   ‘the first two chapters’ . 2.     Bacon, the father of the English easy (a) / had a thirst (b) / of knowledge (c) / No error (d) Answer    (a) Explanation : The English means the citizen of England.   Article is not used before language