Harappan Trade

Harappan Trade

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1. An urban economy is characterised by a vast network of relationships that transcend its physical space. The Harappans were in active interaction with other cities and towns, located at distances of hundreds of miles from Harappa itself.
2. In urban centres, an important part of the population was engaged in non-food-producing activities — administrative, religious, trading, and manufacturing functions. At the same time, if they were not producing their own food, someone else had to do it for them — this is why towns depended on the surrounding countryside for food supplies.
3. The relationship between the city and the village was fundamentally unequal.
   • By developing as centres of administration or religion, cities attracted the wealth of the entire surrounding country. This wealth was siphoned off from the hinterland in the form of taxes, tributes, gifts, or purchases of goods.
   • In Harappan society, this wealth was controlled by the most powerful section of urban society, and the rich and well-off led a luxurious life — their social superiority reflected in the buildings they constructed, and in the acquisition of luxury items not available locally.
   • This indicates that a major reason for cities establishing contacts with faraway lands was to cater to the needs of the rich and powerful — likely one of the key factors behind the Harappan attempt to establish links with distant regions.
4. How, then, do we explain Harappan outposts found in far-flung areas, such as Shortughai in Afghanistan and Bhagatrav in Gujarat?
   • This may be explained by economic interdependence and a wider trade network linking different regions.
   • Differential access to basic resources — agricultural products, minerals, timber, and the like — was crucial in linking the various regions of the Indus Valley, and this could only be achieved by establishing trade routes.
   • Emerging in the fertile Indus-Hakra plains, the rich Harappans wanted possession of more and more luxury items. In quest of this, they strengthened ties that already existed with Central Asia and Afghanistan, and also established settlements in places like Gujarat and the Gangetic Valley.
5. The elaborate social structure, standard of living, granaries, numerous seals, uniform script, and regulated weights and measures found across a wide area together indicate the existence of a highly developed system of trade in the Harappan civilisation.
6. A number of stone weights have been discovered from excavations.
   • The Harappans used sets of cubical stone weights, with a basic unit of 16 (equal to about 14 grams in modern terms).
   • Larger weights were multiples of 16 — such as 32, 48, 64, and so on — while smaller ones were fractions of 16.
7. There is evidence that the Harappans traded with parts of India, as well as with other parts of the world — for example, Egypt, Babylon, and Afghanistan.

Internal Trade

• The presence of granaries at Harappa and Mohenjodaro indicates an attempt by the rulers to secure an assured source of food supply.
  • Food grains were presumably brought from surrounding villages and stored here, to be redistributed to the townsmen.
• Grains are a bulk commodity, consumed every day — vast quantities would have had to be collected and transported by bullock carts and boats, and it would be difficult to haul large quantities of food over great distances.
  • This is why towns were usually located in the most fertile areas available in a region, with grain probably collected from the surrounding villages.
  • For example, Mohenjodaro was located in the Larkana district of Sind, a fertile area of the region. However, some other settlements sprang up on important trade routes or industrial sites, where location was determined not so much by fertile agricultural tracts as by possibilities of trade and exchange.

Villages

• Villages supplied essential food grains and other raw materials to the towns — but what did the Harappan towns give the villages in return?
  • One answer is that the rulers of the towns used force to collect grain, calling it a tax given in return for administration.
  • However, one important ingredient of this rural-urban relationship was the ability of urban centres to collect a whole range of items not available locally, and to supply them to the rural hinterland.
• One item of particular interest is the stone tools:
  • People in almost all Harappan towns and villages used parallel-sided stone blades, made of very good quality stone not found everywhere.
  • It has been found that such stone was brought from sites like Sukkur in Sind. This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that, at sites like Rangapur in Gujarat, people used stone tools brought from distant areas during the urban phase of Harappa — once the civilisation declined, people in these areas began using tools made of local stone instead.
• Other such items included copper and bronze.
  • Copper is available only in certain pockets, yet almost all Harappan sites have yielded copper-bronze tools, which also show a uniformity in design and execution across almost all Harappan sites.
  • This indicates that their production and distribution must have been handled by centralised decision-making bodies — possibly the merchants or administrators residing in the towns.
• Apart from these strategically important items, Harappan settlements — big and small — have also yielded objects of gold, silver, and very many precious and semi-precious stones, procured by the merchants and rulers of the cities.
  • With the inception of urbanism, the volume of trade within the Harappan civilisation increased in scale and variety to an unprecedented extent.
  • Sites like Mohenjodaro reveal evidence of extensive bead-making — these products filtered down to the rich and powerful in small villages and towns as well.
• The Harappans traded in stone, metal, shell, and other materials within the Indus culture zone; in some cases, common products have been found across all areas, indicating some kind of trade.
  • However, instead of metal money, the Harappans preferred exchange through a barter system.

Sources of Major Raw Materials

• Excavations at different Harappan sites have yielded a large number of bangles, beads, potteries, and various copper, bronze, and stone objects — indicating the use of many kinds of metals and precious stones, which would not have been uniformly available in every region.
  • Even very small Harappan sites have yielded precious stones and metal tools, indicating an intensive exchange network among the Harappans, catering to the needs of the rich.
• The discovery of factory sites in the limestone hills of Sukkur and Rohri indicates that chert blades were mass-produced here and sent to various Harappan settlements in Sindh.
• The Khetri deposits of Rajasthan must have been an important source of copper. There were links between the copper-manufacturing Ganeshwar–Jodhpura culture and the Harappan civilisation.
  • Archaeologists believe that the Harappans were importing copper tools from these areas, where people were still pastoralists and hunters. Lead and zinc probably also came from Rajasthan.
  • The Harappans might also have met some of their copper needs from sources in Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Provinces.
• Tin is available in the Tosam area of modern Haryana, but other possible sources are Afghanistan and Central Asia.
• Gold may have come from the Kolar fields of Karnataka, where it may have been obtained via trade from the Neolithic people who lived there — these Neolithic herders may also have been exporters of cattle. Gold could also have been panned from the sands of the upper Indus.
• Most varieties of semi-precious stone used for bead manufacture came from Gujarat. The exception was lapis lazuli, obtained from Badakshan in north-east Afghanistan.
  • That the Harappans exploited this source is confirmed by the discovery of Harappan sites like Shortughai and Altyn-Depe in the region.
  • Turquoise and jade could only have been obtained from Central Asia.
• Cities like Mohenjodaro, Harappa, and Lothal were important centres for metallurgy, producing tools, weapons, kitchenware, and other objects for wide distribution.
• Lead may have come from Kashmir, Rajasthan, or South India.
• Silver vessels are frequently found at Harappan sites; however, there are no known sources of silver within the region itself.
  • Silver might have been imported from Afghanistan and Iran; the Indus merchants may also have exchanged goods with the Mesopotamians for silver.
• Sea-shells, so popular with the Harappans, must have come from the sea-coast of Gujarat and western India.
• Manda, in Jammu, is located at the point where the river Chenab becomes navigable — good-quality timber was probably acquired from regions further upstream, and sent down the rivers to the central Indus Valley.

Mode of Transport for People and Goods

• Traders must also have transported merchandise across long distances in caravans of pack animals, such as oxen, sheep, goats, and donkeys. Two-wheeled carts were the most important mode of transport.
  • There is evidence from terracotta models of bullock carts; copper or bronze models of carts with drivers have also been found at Harappa and Chanhudaro.
  • For longer journeys through wooded country, caravans of pack-oxen would have been the chief means of transport.
  • Towards the end of the mature Harappan phase, there is evidence of the use of the camel. The use of the horse, however, seems to be absent.
• It is likely that the Indus saw a certain amount of riverine traffic.
  • The location of some important sites can, in fact, be explained in relation to the trade routes of the time — for instance, Mohenjodaro.
  • Boats are depicted on seals and moulded tablets, and clay models have been found at Harappa and Lothal. River boats had cabins, ladders leading to the roof, and a high, seated platform on the stern for navigation.
  • Many representations of ships have been discovered on seals, or as graffiti, at Harappa, Mohenjodaro, and elsewhere. A terracotta model of a ship was also discovered at Lothal, hinting at the use of ships and boats to carry goods from production centres to cities.
• At Lothal was also discovered a dockyard.
  • Apart from this site, the seashore of the Arabian Sea seems to have been dotted with many sea-ports — places like Rangapur, Somnath, and Balakot would have functioned as outlets for the Harappans.
  • Even on the inhospitable Makran coast, Harappan sites like Sutkagen-Dor and Sutkakoh have been discovered.
    • The primary reason for their location in these inhospitable tracts was that they were safe from the dangerous monsoon storms and currents hitting the seacoast of western India and Sind, while in the monsoon months, they could still function as outlets for the Harappans.
    • This kind of extension along the sea-coast would have provided the Harappan ships with points of anchorage right up to the Persian Gulf.

Major Trade Routes

• Trade routes can be reconstructed by studying the geographical landscape, settlement patterns, and the distribution of raw materials and finished products.
• Major trade routes connected the following areas:
  • Sindh and south Baluchistan.
  • Coastal Sindh, upper Sindh, and the central Indus plains.
  • The Indus plains and Rajasthan.
  • Sindh and east Punjab.
  • East Punjab and Rajasthan.
  • Sindh and Gujarat.
• The route connecting north Afghanistan, the Gomal plain, and Multan, with a feeder route going to the Taxila valley, also continued to be important.
• There was also a coastal route linking Gujarat sites such as Lothal and Dholavira to sites such as Sutkagen-dor on the Makran coast.
• The location of important sites can, again, be explained in relation to these trade routes — for instance, Mohenjodaro lay at the intersection of the water-route of the Indus, and the east-west land route that linked the Quetta valley and the Bolan river to Kot Diji.

Commodities Traded

• Traders must also have been engaged in a brisk trade in grains and other food products, transporting these between villages and cities.
  • Rice was imported from Gujarat to Punjab.
  • Lothal and Surkotada provided cotton for the developing townships of Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Banawali, and others.
  • Balakot and Chanhudaro were centres for shell-working and bangle-making.
  • Lothal and Chanhudaro were centres for the manufacture of beads of carnelian, and other stones.
• Trading appears to have been more of an administrative activity than a purely commercial one between individual traders, since establishing a colony at a distance of around 500 km would not have been feasible for an ordinary trader — it was likely the administrators of Harappa who sought to bring the resources of distant areas under direct control.

External Trade

• Besides internal trade, the Harappans also had commercial contacts with their western neighbours. Lothal, Surkotada, and Balakot were among the important trading coastal towns connecting the civilisation to Mesopotamia and other West Asian sites.

Overland and Sea Trade Routes

• The importance of overland routes from the Harappan civilisation through Afghanistan is evident from the location of Harappan sites near each of the passes and routes leading through Baluchistan into Afghanistan.
• Two main overland routes connected the Harappan civilisation with West Asia:
  • The northern route passed through northern Afghanistan, north Iran, Turkmenistan, and Mesopotamia.
  • A southern route passed through Tepe Yahya, Jalalabad, and Ur.
• Sea route via the Persian Gulf: from the Indus region to Mesopotamia, via Dilmun (Bahrain) and Makan (Oman).
  • Mesopotamian records from 2350 BC onward refer to trade relations with Meluhha, the ancient name given to the Indus region.
  • Mesopotamian texts refer to Meluhha as a “land of seafarers,” showing that trade between Mesopotamia and the Indus region was carried out by sea — the depiction of ships and boats on seals also supports this.
  • Sites such as Sutkagen-dor, Balakot, and Dabarkot were important points along the maritime route to Mesopotamia.
  • Lothal (near the Gulf of Cambay), and Kuntasi and Dholavira (in the Rann of Kutch), along with other sites along the coast of Kutch, played an important role in maritime trade.

Important Sites and Traded Commodities

The main sources of information on long-distance trade include Harappan artefacts found at sites outside the subcontinent, and foreign objects found at Harappan sites — supplemented, in the case of Indus-Mesopotamian trade, by textual sources.

Turkmenistan:

• A number of Harappan and Harappan-related objects have been found in south Turkmenistan, at sites such as Altyn Depe, Namazga, and Khapuz.
  • These include ivory dice, metal objects (a spearhead and a ladle), an ithyphallic terracotta, perforated ware, a segmented bead, and a silver seal.
  • The most definite evidence comes from Altyn Depe, in the form of a rectangular Harappan seal bearing the Harappan script.

Afghanistan:

• The most important evidence of trade with Afghanistan comes from an isolated Harappan trading outpost at Shortughai. The Harappans set up this trading colony in northern Afghanistan to facilitate trade with Central Asia.

Iran:

• Several sites in Iran have yielded Harappan and Harappan-related artefacts, including Hissar, Shah Tepe, and Jalalabad.
  • The main evidence consists of seals and carnelian beads (both etched and long barrel-cylinder types).

Persian Gulf:

• A round seal with a short-horned bull motif and Harappan writing was found at Failaka (a Kuwaiti island) in the Persian Gulf.
• A seal with a bull motif and Harappan script was found at the site of Hajjar.
• Jar fragments with Harappan writing have been found at many Persian Gulf sites.

Bahrain:

• Harappan and Harappan-related artefacts — including a piece of ivory, a linga-shaped object, a circular mirror, and seals with Harappan motifs and/or writing — have been found at Ras-al-Qala, on the island of Bahrain.
• Excavations near Hamad in Bahrain yielded a typical Harappan seal and carnelian beads in burials.

Trade with the Oman Peninsula:

• The Harappans were also trading with the Oman peninsula.
  • A carnelian bead of the Harappan type was found at Umm-an-Nar, along with similarities to other Harappan artefacts at the site (a square steatite seal, pottery fragments, carnelian beads, a cubical stone weight, etc.).
  • Maysar, an excavated copper-smelting site, has yielded evidence (pottery decorations and seal motifs) suggesting Harappan influence.
• Major imports from Oman may have included chlorite vessels and shell, perhaps including mother-of-pearl; copper has also been mentioned as an Omani export to the Harappans.
• As for Harappan exports to Oman, surviving archaeological evidence includes beads, chert weights, and ivory objects.

Trade with Mesopotamia

• There is both literary and archaeological evidence for Harappan trade with Mesopotamia.
• Literary evidence:
  • Mesopotamian records refer to the famous king Sargon of Akkad (c. 2350 BC), boasting that the ships of Dilmun, Magan, and Meluhha were moored at his capital.
    • Dilmun can be identified with Bahrain, and Magan with the Makran coast and Oman; Meluhha may refer to the Indus valley.
  • Early Mesopotamian literature also refers to a community of merchants from Meluhha living in Mesopotamia; another instance refers to an official interpreter of the Meluhhan language.
• Archaeological evidence:
  • Harappan-related seals and carnelian beads have been found at Mesopotamian sites such as Kish, Nippur, Lagash, and Ur — carnelian beads were also found in the royal graves at Ur.
  • Certain motifs, such as the bull, found on Mesopotamian seals, have been cited by some scholars as reflecting Harappan influence.
  • Cylinder seals (common in West Asia) with Harappan-type motifs suggest interaction between merchants of the two regions.
  • The absence of Mesopotamian seals and sealings in Harappan contexts suggests that Mesopotamian traders were not directly involved in the Harappan-Mesopotamian trade interaction.
• Very few West Asian artefacts have actually been found in Harappan contexts:
  • A seal of the Persian Gulf type was found at Lothal, along with bun-shaped copper ingots similar to those found in the Persian Gulf islands and Susa.
  • A lapis lazuli bead from Mohenjodaro, and a pendant with lapis lazuli inlay found at Cemetery-H levels at Harappa, were possibly imports from West Asia.
  • A cylinder seal with Indian motifs was found at Kalibangan.
  • Three cylinder seals of the Mesopotamian type were found at Mohenjodaro, though these too seem to have been made at some centre within the Harappan civilisation itself.
  • The absence of Mesopotamian goods at Harappan sites can be explained by the fact that the Mesopotamians traditionally exported items like garments, wool, perfumed oil, and leather products — all perishable items, which have not left any trace.

Traded Items: Imports and Exports

• Mesopotamian texts mention the following items as imports from Meluhha: lapis lazuli, carnelian, gold, silver, copper, ebony, ivory, tortoiseshell, a chicken-like bird, dog, cat, and monkey.
• Mesopotamia’s general exports included fish, grain, raw wool, woollen garments, and silver.
  • Silver might have been one of the items of export to the Harappans — silver was not available from any known Harappan source, yet they used it in large quantities, suggesting an import from Mesopotamia.
• Given the scarcity of material objects showing direct contact between the Harappans and the Mesopotamians, some scholars have questioned the notion of direct trade exchange between these civilisations.
  • It is believed that the Harappans might instead have taken their wares to settlements in the Persian Gulf, from where some were further transported to Mesopotamian towns by the merchants of Persian Gulf ports like Bahrain.
  • The Harappans had also set up a trading colony in northern Afghanistan, which facilitated trade with Central Asia.
• Other exports:
  • Carnelian beads were an important Harappan export to West Asia.
  • Textiles and conch shell objects were other possible exports.
  • Ivory and ivory objects may have been exported to Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and perhaps the Persian Gulf.
• Other imports:
  • Lapis lazuli was probably an import from Afghanistan; jade must have come from Turkmenistan.
  • Tin may have been obtained from Ferghana.
  • Carved chlorite and green schist vessels were imported from the Persian Gulf.

Assessments of Harappan–Mesopotamian Trade

• Ratnagar highlights the importance of this trade, especially the trade in lapis lazuli, and even argues that its decline was a reason for the decline of the Harappan civilisation.
  • But there are very few Harappan artefacts found in Mesopotamia, and even fewer Mesopotamian artefacts found at Harappan sites.
  • A few Mesopotamian-type stone weights have been reported from Mohenjodaro and Harappa.
  • Three motifs found on some Harappan seals are seen by some scholars as reflecting Mesopotamian influence — the whorl design, a man grappling with two animals, and the gatepost motif.
  • The evidence as a whole is not very substantial.
• Chakrabarti and Shaffer, by contrast, argue that Harappan trade with Mesopotamia was not direct, extensive, or intensive, and that this trade does not seem to have been particularly important for the development or sustenance of the Harappan civilisation.
• The argument that the quantum of Harappan long-distance trade was not great is, on the whole, persuasive:
  • Unlike the resource-poor area of Mesopotamia, the Harappan culture zone was rich in a variety of natural resources.
  • Food requirements, and most of the raw materials required by Harappan craftspersons, could have been met by resources available within the Harappan culture zone.
  • The diverse, well-developed craft traditions meant that most finished goods required by the Harappans were likewise available from within this area.
  • A few raw materials and products were obtained from other parts of the subcontinent, and from areas such as Afghanistan and Central Asia — but very few essential items had to be imported from distant places.
• Harappan trade must have involved highly organised merchant groups, as well as nomadic peddlers in the mountainous stretches. The extent of state control over this activity remains a matter of debate.

The Exchange System

• The Harappans had established an extensive network of inter-regional trade, both inside and outside the Indian subcontinent. However, we do not know exactly what the actual mechanisms of exchange were between the Harappans and the non-Harappans.
• Such a large area of interaction would inevitably have involved communities with divergent lifestyles:
  • Large areas of the country, in those times, were inhabited by hunter-gatherers.
  • Some other areas were occupied by pastoral nomads.
  • Still others were just beginning cultivation.
  • Compared to them, the Harappans represented a considerably more advanced stage of civilisation.
• To exploit mineral sources from regions inhabited by hunter-gatherers or other communities, in some cases, the Harappans established their own settlements in those areas — though this would not have been feasible in every case. Probably, these non-Harappan communities were given items that they themselves considered valuable.

The Exchange System among the Harappan Towns

• The Harappans made distinct attempts at regulating trade and exchange amongst themselves.
  • Even the far-flung Harappan sites have yielded uniform systems of weights and measures.
  • The weights followed a binary system in the lower denominations — 1, 2, 4, 8, up to 64 — then moving to 160, and then in decimal multiples of 16 — 320, 640, 1600, 3200, and so on.
    • These weights were made of chert, limestone, steatite, and similar materials, and were generally cubical in shape.
  • Measures of length were based on a unit of foot of about 37.6 cm, and a unit of cubit of about 51.8 to 53.6 cm.
  • Such a uniform system of weights and measures indicates an attempt by central authorities to regulate exchange among the Harappans themselves, and possibly with the non-Harappans as well.
• Seals and sealings have been discovered in large numbers at Harappan settlements.
  • Seals and sealings are marks of ownership, meant to guarantee the quality of the product being sent to faraway lands.
  • That they were used for trade is known from the fact that many sealings bear impressions of cords and matting on their reverse — indicating that they were originally stuck to bales of merchandise.
  • At Lothal, many sealings were discovered lying among ashes in the ventilation shafts of warehouses — they may have been discarded after imported goods had been unpacked.
  • The seals carried intaglio designs of various animals, along with a writing that has not yet been deciphered. However, their use in long-distance exchange seems certain.

The Location of Harappan Sites: Agriculture and Trade

• Some scholars believe that Harappa was located at a point separating a zone of agricultural settlements to its south from a zone of pastoral nomads to its north-west — allowing Harappa to exploit the resources of both neighbouring communities.
• It has also been suggested that, although Harappa did not have any particular advantage in terms of food production, it grew into a large city because of its strategic location as a trading settlement.
  • Harappa had a very advantageous location, with the following resources found within 300 km:
    • Access to the Hindukush and North-West Frontier, meaning access to precious stones such as turquoise and lapis lazuli, brought through these routes.
    • Access to mineral salt from the salt range.
    • Access to tin and copper from Rajasthan.
    • Probable access to sources of amethyst and gold in Kashmir.
    • Access to the point where all five rivers of Punjab joined into a single stream, allowing the Harappans to control river transport across all five rivers — river transportation being far easier in those times, when concrete roads did not exist.
    • Access to timber from the mountain zones of Kashmir.
• The settlements at Mohenjodaro and Lothal also had their own logic in terms of location:
  • Some scholars believe that the apparently religious nature of large structures at Mohenjodaro might indicate that it was a ritual centre.
    • Whether or not this was so, the rich people here were using gold, silver, and all kinds of precious articles that were not locally available.
    • Mohenjodaro was closer to the sea compared to Harappa, giving it easier access to the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia, which were probably the chief suppliers of silver.
  • Similarly, Lothal drew resources from southern Rajasthan and the Deccan, probably helping the Harappans procure gold from Karnataka, where contemporary Neolithic sites have been discovered near the gold mines.

Conclusion

• The location of villages was primarily determined by the availability of fertile soil and irrigation facilities, while the location of towns was determined by additional factors, such as proximity to mining districts or trade routes.
  • Sometimes, the factor of trade became so important that towns were established in inhospitable plains, where agricultural yields were very poor. Sutkagen-Dor, on the Makran coast, is one such site — located in an inhospitable area, its prime activity was as a trading post between the Harappans and the Mesopotamians.

Functions Performed in Cities of the Harappan Civilisation

• Balakot, on the coast of Baluchistan, and Chanhudaro, in Sind, were centres for shell-working and bangle-making.
• Lothal and Chanhudaro were producing beads of carnelian, agate, and other stones.
  • Some unfinished beads of lapis lazuli found at Chanhudaro might indicate that the Harappans imported precious stones from faraway places, and then worked them locally before selling them.
• Mohenjodaro has yielded evidence for the presence of a large number of craft specialists — stone workers, potters, copper and bronze workers, brick-makers, seal-cutters, and bead-makers, among others — underscoring just how integral trade, craft specialisation, and long-distance exchange were to the functioning of Harappan cities.