Decline and Survival of Indus Valley Civilisation

Decline and Survival of the Indus Valley Civilisation

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• Decline had set in at Mohenjodaro by 2200 BCE, and the settlement had come to an end by 2000 BCE. In some places, the civilisation continued until 1800 BCE.
• Apart from the dates, the pace of decline also varied: Mohenjodaro and Dholavira give a picture of gradual decline, while at Kalibangan and Banawali, city life ended all of a sudden.

The Archaeological Evidence

• Cities like Harappa and Mohenjodaro experienced a gradual decline in urban planning and construction.
  • Houses made of old, dilapidated bricks, and shoddy construction, encroached upon the roads and streets of the towns.
  • Flimsy partitions sub-divided the courtyards of houses. The cities were fast turning into slums.
• The study of the architecture of Mohenjodaro shows that many entry points to the “Great Bath” were blocked; sometime later, the Great Bath and the “Granary” fell into total disuse.
  • At the same time, the late levels (later habitations) at Mohenjodaro showed a distinct reduction in the number of sculptures, figurines, beads, bangles, and inlay works.
  • Towards the end, the city of Mohenjodaro shrank to a small settlement of three hectares, from its original eighty-five hectares.
• Before its abandonment, Harappa seems to have witnessed the arrival of a group of people known to us through their burial practices.
  • They used a pottery different from that of the Harappans; their culture is known as the “Cemetery H” culture.
• Processes of decline are also evident at places like Kalibangan and Chanhudaro — buildings associated with power and ideology were decaying, and goods related to displays of prestige and splendour were becoming increasingly scarce.
  • Later on, cities like Harappa and Mohenjodaro were abandoned altogether.
• A study of the settlement pattern of Harappan and Late Harappan sites in the Bahawalpur area also indicates a trend of decay.
  • Along the banks of the Hakra river, the number of settlements came down to 50 in the Late Harappan period, from 174 in the Mature Harappan period.
  • In the last two to three hundred years of their life, settlements in the core region of the Harappan civilisation were declining, and the population seems to have either perished or moved away to other areas.
• Whereas the number of sites in the triangle of Harappa, Bahawalpur, and Mohenjodaro declined, the number of settlements in the outlying areas of Gujarat, East Punjab, Haryana, and the upper Doab increased.
  • This indicates a phenomenal increase in population in these areas, which can be explained by the emigration of people from the core regions of Harappa.
• In the outlying regions of the Harappan civilisation — Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Punjab — people continued to live, but life had changed for them.
  • Some of the important features associated with the Harappan civilisation — writing, uniform weights, Harappan pottery, and architectural style — had disappeared.
• The abandonment of the cities of the Indus is roughly dated to about 1800 BC.
  • This date is supported by the fact that Mesopotamian literature stops referring to Meluhha by the end of 1900 BC.
  • However, even now, the chronology of the end of Harappan cities remains tentative. We do not yet know whether the major settlements were abandoned at one and the same time, or at different periods.
  • But the abandonment of the major cities, and the de-urbanisation of other settlements, does indicate the decline of the Harappan civilisation.

Theories of Decline

Scholars have given different answers to the question of why the civilisation ended. Some, believing in a dramatic collapse, have looked for evidence of a calamity of catastrophic proportions that wiped out the urban communities. Among the more plausible theories for the decline of the Harappan civilisation are:

• that it was destroyed by massive floods;
• that decline occurred because of a shift in the course of rivers, and the gradual drying up of the Ghaggar-Hakra river system;
• that barbarian Aryan invaders destroyed the cities;
• that the growing demands of the urban centres disturbed the ecology of the region, which could no longer support them.

(1) The Theory of Aryan Invasions

• The idea that the civilisation was destroyed by Aryan invaders was first put forward by Ramaprasad Chanda — who later changed his mind — and was elaborated on by Mortimer Wheeler.
• Wheeler believed that the Harappan civilisation was destroyed by Aryan invaders.
  • He pointed to certain human skeletal remains found in the late phases of occupation at Mohenjodaro as proof of an Aryan massacre.
• Evidence from the Rig Veda:
  • Wheeler argued that references in the Rig Veda to various kinds of forts, attacks on walled cities, and the epithet purandara (“fort destroyer”) given to the god Indra, reflect an Aryan invasion of the Harappan cities.
  • The Rig Veda refers to the fortresses of the Dasas and Dasyus; the Vedic god Indra is called “Purandara,” meaning “the destroyer of forts.”
  • The geographical area of habitation of the Rig Vedic Aryans included the Punjab and the Ghaggar-Hakra region. Since there are no remains of other cultural groups possessing forts in this area during this historical phase, Wheeler believed that it was the Harappan cities being described in the Rig Veda.
  • He identified a place called Hariyupiya in the Rig Veda with Harappa. This place was located on the bank of the river Ravi, where the Aryans are said to have fought a battle — and the name of the place sounds very similar to that of Harappa.
  • These pieces of evidence led Wheeler to conclude that it was Aryan invaders who destroyed the cities of Harappa.
• Wheeler subsequently modified his hypothesis, acknowledging that other factors, such as floods, a decline in trade, and the over-utilisation of natural resources, may also have played a role.
  • But he insisted that the ultimate blow was given by an Aryan invasion, and suggested that the Cemetery-H culture represented the culture of the Aryan invaders.

Criticism:

• Many scholars, such as P.V. Kane, George Dales, and B.B. Lal, have refuted the invasion theory.
  • The evidence from the Rig Veda — a religious text of uncertain date — is far from conclusive.
  • Moreover, if there had been an invasion, it should have left some trace in the archaeological record. There is no evidence of any kind of military assault or conflict at any Harappan site.
  • The 37 groups of skeletal remains found at Mohenjodaro do not belong to the same cultural phase, and therefore cannot be connected to a single event.
    • Not one of these skeletons was found on the citadel mound, where we would have expected a major battle to have taken place — this could instead have been caused by raids by bandits from the surrounding hilly tracts.
  • The fact that there is a sterile layer between the mature Harappan and Cemetery-H levels goes against Wheeler’s hypothesis that the latter represents the settlement of Aryan invaders.
  • Moreover, K.A.R. Kennedy’s analysis of the skeletal remains does not show any discontinuity in the skeletal record of the north-west at this point in time, making it clear that there was no major influx of new settlers with a different physiognomy.
  • Scholars also point out that the provisional date for the decline of the Harappan civilisation is believed to be 1800 BC, while the Aryans are believed to have arrived no earlier than around 1500 BC — so the Harappans and the Aryans are unlikely to have ever met.

(2) Natural Disaster: Floods and Earthquakes

• Natural disasters, not necessarily sudden or single, may have played a role.
• At several Indus cities — Mohenjodaro, Chanhudaro, and Lothal — silt debris intervening between phases of occupation underlines the possibility of damage caused by the inundations of swollen rivers.
  • Several layers of silt at Mohenjodaro give evidence of the city being affected by repeated episodes of Indus floods, contributing to the decline of the Harappan civilisation.
  • It appears that at Mohenjodaro, various periods of occupation were separated by evidence of deep flooding — the houses and streets were covered with silty clay and collapsed building material multiple times, apparently left by flood waters that had submerged the streets and houses.
  • The people of Mohenjodaro rebuilt houses and streets on top of the debris of previous buildings after the floods receded — this kind of catastrophic flooding and rebuilding seems to have happened at least three times.
  • Many occupation deposits were divided by silt deposits, with thick silt noticed at points as high as 80 feet above the present-day ground level.
  • Many scholars believe these are indicative of abnormal floods at Mohenjodaro, which led to the temporary desertion and reoccupation of the city throughout its history.
  • The Harappans at Mohenjodaro seem to have tired themselves out trying to outpace the recurring floods — until a stage came when the impoverished Harappans could take it no longer, and simply abandoned the settlement.

Catastrophic flooding due to tectonic movement:

• M.R. Sahni, and later Robert L. Raikes and George F. Dales, argued that the floods at Mohenjodaro resulted from tectonic movements.
  • The theory holds that the Indus area is a disturbed seismic zone, and tectonic movements led to the creation of a gigantic natural dam that prevented the Indus from flowing towards the sea — turning the area around Mohenjodaro into a huge lake, and causing prolonged submergence of the cities located on the riverbank.
  • They argued that flooding capable of drowning buildings 30 feet above ground level could not have been the result of normal river flooding.
• It has been pointed out that sites like Sutkagedor and Sutkakoh on the Makran Coast, and Balakot near Karachi, were seaports of the Harappans — yet today, they are located far away from the sea-coast, likely because of the uplift of land along the coast, caused by violent tectonic movements.
  • Some scholars believe these tectonic uplifts took place sometime in the second millennium BC.
  • Such violent earthquakes, damming of rivers, and destruction of towns, are argued to have destroyed the Harappan civilisation, disrupting the commercial life based on river and coastal communication.

Criticism:

• The theory of repeated episodes of flooding induced by tectonic movements is not convincing.
• H.T. Lambrick points out that the idea of a river being dammed in such a manner, even by tectonic uplift, is incorrect, for two reasons:
  • Even if an earthquake artificially raised a bund downstream, the large volume of water in the Indus would easily breach it.
  • Silt deposition would parallel the rising surface of water in the hypothetical lake, and would take place along the bottom of the former river course — thus, the silt of Mohenjodaro might not be the product of a flood at all.
• Another criticism of this theory is that it fails to explain the decline of settlements outside the Indus system.

(3) The Shifting Away of the Indus

• Lambrick believes that changes in the course of the river Indus could be the cause of the destruction of Mohenjodaro.
  • The Indus is an unstable river system, which keeps shifting its bed; apparently, the river shifted about thirty miles away from Mohenjodaro.
  • The people of the city, and the surrounding food-producing villages, deserted the area because they were starved of water — this may have happened many times in the history of Mohenjodaro.
  • The silt observed in the city, according to this theory, is actually the product of wind action, blowing in sand and silt, which, combined with disintegrating mud, mud-brick, and baked-brick structures, produced what has been mistaken for flood-deposited silt.

Criticism:

• This theory too cannot explain the decline of the Harappan civilisation in its totality — at best, it can explain the desertion of Mohenjodaro alone.
• If the people of Mohenjodaro were familiar with such shifts in the river’s course, why could they not simply shift and establish another city, as they had done before?
• H.T. Lambrick’s hypothesis is not entirely convincing, as it is based on what he himself describes as purely circumstantial evidence.

(4) Ecological Imbalance: Over-Exploitation of the Environment

• Scholars like Fairservis tried to explain the decay of the Harappan civilisation in terms of the problems of ecology.
  • Making estimates of population, land, food, and fodder requirements on the basis of modern data, Fairservis suggests that the civilisation declined because its growing population of people and cattle could no longer be supported by resources within the Harappan culture zone.
  • The delicate ecological balance of these semi-arid areas was disturbed, as the human and cattle population fast depleted the scanty forests, food, and fuel resources.
  • The Harappans were over-exploiting the environment through over-cultivation, overgrazing, and excessive tree-cutting for fuel and farming.
  • The combined needs of Harappan townsmen, peasants, and pastoralists exceeded the limited production capacities of these areas — a growing population of men and animals, confronted by scanty resources, wore out the landscape.
  • This would have resulted in the gradual disappearance of forests and grass cover, decreasing soil fertility, floods, droughts, and increasing soil salinity — this depletion of the subsistence base caused strain on the entire economy of the civilisation.
• There seems to have been a gradual movement away to areas offering better subsistence possibilities — this is why Harappan communities moved towards Gujarat and the eastern areas, away from the Indus.
  • Fairservis’s theory seems to be the most plausible one of those proposed.
  • Probably, the gradual deterioration in town planning and living standards was a reflection of the depleting subsistence base of the Harappans — a process of decline that was completed by the raids and attacks of surrounding communities.

Criticism:

• The theory of environmental disaster also has certain problems.
  • The enduring fertility of the soils of the Indian subcontinent over subsequent millennia disproves the hypothesis of soil exhaustion in this area.
  • The computation of the needs of the Harappan population is based on scanty information, and much more data would be needed to accurately calculate their subsistence needs.
• The emergence of the Harappan civilisation involved a delicate balance of relations between cities, towns, and villages, and between rulers, peasants, and nomads.
  • It also implies a fragile but important relationship with communities in neighbouring areas, who possessed minerals crucial for trade, and the maintenance of contact with contemporary civilisations and cultures.
  • Apart from this, the ecological factor of humanity’s relationship with nature must also be taken into account. Any breakdown in these chains of relationships could have led to the decline of the cities.

(5) Gradual Desiccation and Climate Change

Increased aridity and the drying up of the Ghaggar:

• While Mohenjodaro may have been worn out by repeated episodes of naturally occurring floods, Harappan sites in the Ghaggar-Hakra valley were affected by gradual desiccation.
• D.P. Agarwal and Sood believe that the Harappan civilisation declined because of increasing aridity in this area, and the drying up of the river Ghaggar-Hakra.
  • They have shown that there was an increase in arid conditions by the middle of the second millennium BC.
  • In semi-arid regions like those of the Harappan zone, even a minor reduction in moisture and water availability could spell disaster, affecting agricultural production and putting city economies under stress.
• The Ghaggar-Hakra area represented one of the core regions of the Harappan civilisation. The Ghaggar was once a mighty stream, flowing through Punjab, Rajasthan, and the Rann of Kutch, before debouching into the sea, with the rivers Sutlej and Yamuna as its tributaries.
  • Because of certain tectonic disturbances, the Sutlej stream was captured by the Indus river, and the Yamuna shifted east to join the Ganges.
  • This change in the river regime, which left the Ghaggar waterless, would have had catastrophic implications for the towns located in this area.
  • Apparently, the ecological disturbances brought about by increased aridity and the shift in drainage pattern led to the decline of the Harappan civilisation.
  • M.R. Mughal’s study of settlements in this region shows a drastic reduction in the number of sites as the river dried up.

Criticism:

• The theory about the onset of arid conditions has not been fully worked out, and more information is needed. Similarly, the drying up of the Ghaggar has not yet been properly dated.
• A sudden rise in the Arabian Sea coastline of west Pakistan could have caused floods and a rise in soil salinity — such an uplift along the coast, and in the lower Indus valley, could also have seriously disrupted the coastal communications and trade of the Harappans.
• On the basis of his study of pollen from Rajasthan lakes, Gurdip Singh suggests a connection between the onset of a drier climate and the decline of the Harappan civilisation.
  • However, a study of the sediments of the Lunkaransar lake indicates that the onset of drier conditions in this area may have happened well before the emergence of the Harappan civilisation.
  • Whether climatic change played a role in the decline of the Harappan civilisation, therefore, remains unclear.

The Monsoon Link Theory (2012):

• Presented by Ronojoy Adhikari, Liviu Giosan, and others, this theory holds climate change responsible for the decline of the Harappan civilisation.
  • According to this theory, around 4000 BCE, there existed an extreme monsoon climate, unfavourable for the rise of civilisation; but with the weakening of the monsoon, the climate became favourable for the rise of the mighty Harappan civilisation — and with the further weakening of the monsoon, the climate again became unfavourable, leading to the decline of the civilisation.
  • An example of this further weakening is the disappearance of the Saraswati river, which was rain-fed, not glacier-fed.
  • This theory is based on the latest archaeological evidence and research, and tries to explain the decline of the Harappan civilisation on the basis of ecological degradation.

Shifting of the Monsoon:

• Climate change, in the form of the eastward migration of the monsoons, is also held to have led to the decline of the IVC.
  • According to this theory, the slow eastward migration of the monsoons across Asia initially allowed the civilisation to develop — monsoon-supported farming led to large agricultural surpluses, which in turn supported the development of cities.
  • The IVC residents did not develop irrigation capabilities, relying mainly on the seasonal monsoons. As the monsoons kept shifting eastward, the water supply for agricultural activities dried up.
  • Residents then migrated towards the Ganges basin in the east, establishing smaller villages and isolated farms — the small surplus produced by these small communities did not allow the development of trade, and the cities died out.

Recent Study: IIT Kharagpur, ASI, and PRL (2020):

• The decline of the Harappan city of Dholavira was caused by the drying up of a river like the Saraswati, and by the Meghalayan drought.
  • Researchers have, for the first time, connected the decline of Dholavira to the disappearance of a Himalayan snow-fed river, which once flowed in the Rann of Kutch, resembling the Himalayan river Saraswati.
  • Prolific mangroves grew around the Rann, and distributaries of the Indus, or other palaeochannels, dumped water into the Rann near the southern margin of the Thar Desert — the first direct evidence of glacial-fed rivers, quite like the supposedly mythological Saraswati, in the vicinity of the Rann.
  • Researchers dated carbonates from human bangles, fish otoliths, and molluscan shells, and found that the site was occupied from the pre-Harappan period to about 3,800 years before present — that is, the Late Harappan period.
  • The Dholavirans were probably the original inhabitants of the region, and had a fairly advanced level of culture even at its earliest stage. They built a spectacular city and survived for nearly 1,700 years, by adopting water conservation.

Study of Undersea Fossil Evidence and Marine DNA (2018):

• Climate change was the primary factor that drove the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation away from the floodplains of the Indus.
  • The study, conducted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), used under-sea fossil evidence and marine DNA, which allowed researchers to pinpoint that climate change — in the form of an increase in the winter monsoon — resulted in the migration of people, leading to the decline of the ancient civilisation.
  • Beginning roughly around 2,500 BCE, a shift in temperature and weather patterns over the Indus Valley caused summer monsoon rains to gradually dry up, making agriculture difficult or impossible near Harappan cities.
  • While fickle summer monsoons made agriculture difficult along the Indus, in the foothills, moisture and rain would come more routinely.
  • Evidence for this shift in seasonal rainfall — and the resultant switch away from Indus floods towards foothill rains for irrigating crops — came from sediments on the ocean floor off Pakistan’s coast.
    • The seafloor near the mouth of the Indus is a very low-oxygen environment, so whatever grows and dies in the water is very well preserved in the sediment.
    • During winter monsoons, strong winds brought nutrients from the deeper ocean to the surface, feeding a surge in plant and animal life; weaker winds at other times of year provided fewer nutrients, causing slightly less productivity offshore.
  • Based on this evidence, it was found that winter monsoons became stronger and summer monsoons became weaker in the later years of the Harappan civilisation — resulting in a move away from cities to villages.

(6) Decline in the Lapis Lazuli Trade with Mesopotamia

• Shereen Ratnagar has argued that the decline in the lapis lazuli trade with Mesopotamia was a factor in the decline of the Harappan civilisation.
  • Whether this trade was particularly important for the Harappans is, however, debatable — and consequently, this could not have been a decisive factor in the decline.

Archaeological evidence does not give us direct access to the possible social and political dimensions of the decline of the Harappan civilisation. What it does indicate very clearly is that Harappan culture underwent a gradual process of de-urbanisation — the mature Harappan phase was followed by a post-urban phase, known as the late Harappan phase.

The Tradition Survives: The Late Harappan Phase

• Scholars working on the Indus civilisation no longer focus solely on the causes of its decline.
  • This is because scholars who studied the Harappan civilisation right up to the 1960s believed that its collapse was sudden. They concentrated their work on studies of cities, town planning, and large structures — issues such as the relationship of Harappan cities with contemporary villages, and the continuity of various elements of the civilisation, were largely ignored, and the debate on the causes of decline became increasingly abstract.
• It was towards the end of the 1960s that scholars like Malik and Possehl focused their attention on various aspects of the continuity of the Harappan tradition.
  • It is true that Harappa and Mohenjodaro were abandoned, and the urban phase came to an end. However, taking a perspective covering the entire geographical spread of the civilisation, a few things seem to have continued in the old style.
  • Some settlements were abandoned, but most others remained in occupation; however, the tradition of uniform writing, seals, weights, and pottery was lost, along with the objects showing intensive interaction among far-flung settlements.
  • In other words, it was the activities associated with city-centred economies that were given up — the changes that occurred simply indicated the end of the urban phase.
• Small villages and towns continued to exist, and archaeological finds from these sites show many elements of the Harappan tradition.
  • In most sites in Sindh, it is difficult to observe any change in the pottery tradition.
  • In the areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Haryana, vibrant agricultural communities emerged in large numbers in the succeeding period.
  • Thus, from a regional perspective, the period succeeding the urban phase can be treated as one of flourishing agricultural villages, which actually outnumbered those of the urban phase.
  • This is why scholars now discuss issues like cultural change, regional migration, and modifications in the system of settlement and subsistence.

The Five Geographical Zones of the Late Harappan Phase

1. Sindh.
2. West Punjab and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley.
3. Eastern Punjab and Haryana.
4. The Ganga-Yamuna doab.
5. Kutch and Saurashtra.

Sindh:

• The late Harappan phase in Sindh is represented by the Jhukar culture, at sites such as Jhukar, Chanhudaro, and Amri.
• The transition from the mature to the late Harappan phase in this region does not show any sudden discontinuity.
  • There were gradual changes in the seals, a decrease in the frequency of cubical weights, and writing came to be confined only to pottery.
  • People still lived in brick houses, but gave up the planned layout, and used a slightly different pottery called Jhukar pottery — a buff ware, with a red slip, painted in black.
  • This pottery evolved from “Mature Harappan” pottery, and need not, therefore, be considered something entirely new.
  • The evidence of pottery suggests reciprocal contacts between the Jhukar culture of Sindh and the late Harappan culture at Lothal and Rangpur.
• Certain distinctive metal objects found at Jhukar might indicate trade links with Iran, or the influx of a migrant population with Iranian or Central Asian influences.
  • Circular stamp seals of stone or faience, and a bronze cosmetic jar, are also indicative of contacts with cultures to the west of the Indus.

Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan:

• Several settlements have been reported in these areas where people continued to live in the same old way after the decline of the cities.
  • However, Harappan influence on the pottery tradition gradually declined, and local pottery traditions — always present alongside Harappan pottery — gradually replaced it altogether.
  • Thus, the decline of urbanism was reflected in the reassertion of regional traditions in these areas.
• In the Punjab province of Pakistan (western Punjab) and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley, the late Harappan phase is represented by the Cemetery-H culture.
  • There is a decline in the number of settlements, from 174 in the mature Harappan phase to 50 in the late Harappan phase.
• In east Punjab, Haryana, and north Rajasthan, the late Harappan settlements were small, compared to the mature Harappan ones.
  • The sites of Mitathal, Bara, Ropar, and Siswal are well known; brick houses have been reported from Bara and Siswal.

Ganga-Yamuna Doab:

• In the Ganga-Yamuna doab, compared to 31 mature Harappan sites, there are 130 late Harappan sites.
  • The settlements were small, houses were generally made of wattle and daub, but the agricultural base was very diverse.

Kutch and Saurashtra:

• In Kutch and Saurashtra, the end of the urban phase is clearly documented at places like Rangapur and Somnath.
  • Even during the urban phase, these areas had a local ceramic tradition co-existing with Harappan pottery — a tradition that continued into later phases.
  • Some sites, like Rangapur, seem to have become more prosperous in the succeeding period, using a pottery called the Lustrous Red Ware.
  • However, the people stopped using Indus weights, script, and tools imported from distant areas — instead, they used stone tools made of locally available stones.
• In the “Mature Harappan” phase, there were 13 settlements in Gujarat. In the subsequent “Late Harappan” phase, dated to about 2100 BC, the number of settlements rose to 200 or more.
  • This increase in population cannot be explained by biological factors alone — in pre-modern societies, population could not increase so much within a few generations that 13 settlements would multiply into more than 200.
  • There is thus a distinct possibility that people inhabiting these new settlements came from other areas.
• Late Harappan settlements have also been reported from Maharashtra, where their culture merged into those of emerging agricultural communities.
• While there was abandonment or severe reduction in population in Sindh and Cholistan, the increase in the number of settlements in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, northern Rajasthan, and Gujarat shows that this was not the case everywhere.
  • In fact, at around the time people were abandoning Mohenjodaro, the people of Rojdi in Saurashtra were expanding and rebuilding their settlement.
  • The data thus suggests an eastward and southward shift of settlements and people.

Continuity and Change: The Evidence from Mature and Late Harappan Sites

Pottery:

• Compared to mature Harappan pottery, the slip of late Harappan pottery is less bright, and the pots tend to be thicker and sturdier.
• Some classic Harappan shapes — the beaker, goblet, perforated jar, S-shaped jar, and pyriform jar — disappear. Other shapes — jars of different shapes, and the dish-on-stand — continue.

Urbanism and Its Elements:

• Various elements of Harappan urbanism — cities, script, seals, specialised crafts, and long-distance trade — declined in the late Harappan phase, but did not completely disappear.
  • Some late Harappan sites, such as Kudwala in Cholistan, Bet Dwarka in Gujarat, and Daimabad in the upper Godavari valley, can be described as urban, but they are few and far between — and certainly, no city matches the grandeur and monumentality of Mohenjodaro and the great Harappan cities.
  • Nonetheless, baked bricks and drains are present in the Cemetery H occupation at Harappa, while at Sanghol, there was a solid mud platform on which mud houses stood.
• Writing is occasionally encountered, but remains generally confined to a few potsherds.
  • Graffiti on pottery occurs in Saurashtra and northern Gujarat, as well as in the eastern regions.
  • Four potsherds with Harappan script were found at late Harappan levels at Daimabad.
• Seals became rare:
  • Some circular seals occur at Daimabad and Jhukar, not rectangular like the typical Indus specimens.
  • Rectangular seals without motifs were found at Dholavira.
  • A rectangular conch shell seal, with the motif of a three-headed animal similar to that found on seals of the Persian Gulf, was found at Bet Dwarka — suggesting that contact with the Persian Gulf continued into the late Harappan phase, at least in the Gujarat region.
  • The relatively sparse evidence of inter-regional procurement of raw materials indicates a reduction in the scale of trade.

Craft Traditions:

• A few craft traditions survived the urban collapse, and are found within the late/post-Harappan mosaic.
  • Faience (glazed earthenware, decorated with opaque colours) was one such craft — ornaments fashioned from this synthetic stone are commonly found in the post-Harappan period.
  • The late Harappan phase at Bhagwanpura shows flourishing specialised craft activity, with 2 clay tablets and 19 sherds with graffiti, which could represent a script.
• Continuity can also be seen in the character of metal technology, although there was a general decrease in the use of copper.
  • The bronzes from Daimabad in Maharashtra, made by the “lost wax” process, and the replication of a marine shell in copper at Rojdi in Gujarat, underline the continuation of the technical excellence of the Indus copper and copper-alloy traditions.
  • In Punjab and Haryana, there are faience ornaments, beads of semi-precious stones, terracotta cart frames, kilns, and fire altars.
• There was no cultural cohesion, or artefactual uniformity, of the kind that had been a hallmark of the mature civilisation. Instead of a single civilisation, there were now distinct cultures, each with its own regional identity — sometimes described as the “Localisation Era.”

Agricultural Diversification:

• A notable development of the late Harappan phase was the diversification of agriculture:
  • At Pirak in Baluchistan, there was the beginning of double cropping — wheat and barley were grown as winter crops, and rice (with irrigation), millet, and sorghum as summer crops.
  • In the Kachi plain, there were fairly large settlements, growing a variety of crops, supplemented by irrigation.
  • Rice and millets were found at late Harappan levels at Harappa.
• The general picture presented by the late Harappan phase is one of a breakdown of urban networks, and an expansion of rural ones.
• There is an overlap between the late Harappan and Painted Grey Ware (PGW) culture at sites such as Bhagwanpura and Dadheri in Haryana, and Katpalon and Nagar in Punjab.
  • Also significant is the overlap between late Harappan and Ochre Coloured Pottery (OCP) levels in western Uttar Pradesh, at sites such as Bargaon and Ambakheri. The evidence from this area, Gujarat, and north Maharashtra suggests an eastward and southward migration of the Harappans.

Note: The Cemetery H Culture

• The Cemetery H culture developed out of the northern part of the Indus Valley Civilisation around 1700 BCE, in and around the western Punjab region. It is named after a cemetery found in “Area H” at Harappa.
• Together with the Gandhara grave culture and the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture, it is considered a nucleus of Vedic civilisation.
• The distinguishing features of this culture include:
  • The use of cremation of human remains — the bones were stored in painted pottery burial urns, completely different from the Indus civilisation practice of burying bodies in wooden coffins.
  • Reddish pottery, painted in black with antelopes, peacocks, and sun or star motifs, with different surface treatments than the earlier period.
  • Expansion of settlements towards the east.
  • Rice became a main crop.
  • An apparent breakdown of the widespread trade of the Indus civilisation, with materials such as marine shells no longer used.
  • Continued use of mud brick for building.

Transmission and Survival of the Harappan Tradition

• The end of the cities did not mean the end of the Harappan tradition.
  • The Harappan communities merged into the surrounding agricultural groups; however, the centralised decision-making in the polity and economy had come to an end.
  • The Harappan communities that continued after the urban phase would certainly have retained their older traditions.
• It is likely that Harappan peasants retained their forms of worship.
  • The priests of the Harappan urban centres were part of a highly organised, literate tradition. Even if literacy itself ended, they are likely to have preserved their religious practices.
  • The dominant community of the subsequent early historic period called itself “the Aryans.” These people do not seem to have possessed a literary tradition of their own — possibly, the priestly groups of the Harappans merged into the ruling groups of the Aryans.
  • As such, the Harappan religious tradition would have been transmitted to historical India.
• Folk communities also retained traditions of craftsmanship, as is evident from pottery and tool-making traditions.
  • Once again, when literate urban culture re-emerged in early India, it absorbed elements of these folk cultures — providing a more effective channel for the transmission of the Harappan tradition.
• Many elements of the Harappan civilisation survived in subsequent historical tradition:
  • The cults of Pashupati (Shiva), of the mother goddess, and of phallic worship seem to have come down to us from the Harappan tradition.
  • The cult of sacred places, rivers, or trees, and of sacred animals, shows a distinct continuity in the subsequent historical civilisation of India.
  • The evidence of fire worship and sacrifice at Kalibangan and Lothal is significant, since these were among the most significant elements of the Vedic religion.
  • Many aspects of domestic life — such as house plans, the disposition of water supply, and attention to bathing — survived in the settlements of subsequent periods.
  • The traditional weight and currency system of India, based on a ratio of sixteen as the basic unit, was already present in the Harappan civilisation.
  • The techniques of making the potter’s wheel in modern India are similar to those used by the Harappans.
  • Bullock carts and boats, used in modern India, were already present in Harappan cities.

Conclusion

The decline of the Indus Valley Civilisation, no less than its rise, resists any single, tidy explanation — floods, tectonic disturbance, shifting rivers, ecological overexploitation, climatic desiccation, declining Mesopotamian trade, and the older, now largely discredited theory of Aryan invasion have all been proposed, each illuminating a piece of the puzzle while facing serious criticism on its own. What the archaeological record shows most clearly is not a sudden catastrophe but a gradual, uneven process of de-urbanisation, in which the great cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa declined and were abandoned even as populations shifted eastward and southward into Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, and the Ganga-Yamuna doab, sustaining flourishing agricultural communities that carried forward many elements of Harappan material culture. Crucially, the end of Harappan urbanism was not the end of the Harappan world: its craft traditions, weight systems, religious cults, and everyday domestic practices persisted and were eventually absorbed into the historical civilisation of India, making the story of the Indus Valley Civilisation’s “decline” ultimately inseparable from the story of its long, quiet survival.