Employment News - 7, February 1997
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Trade and Contacts
The excavations at practically all the sites associated with the Indus civilisation prove beyond doubt that the civilisation which flowered into such a mature stage was a city civilisation. The well laid-out houses, the elaborate drainage system, the citadel area, the granaries, the workmen’s quarters and places of community gatherings - the ‘great bath’ and the pillared hall-all bear evidence to the fact that the Indus civilisation had all the elements we associate with city culture today. One of the main elements of city-life is trade and of course, money. The fact that trade was an important element in the life of the Indus civilisation is evident from-among many other things-weights and measures-found extensively among the ruins.
The weights found are made of all sizes-some large enough to be lifted with ropes while others so small as to be used by jewellers only. Falling in the progression of 1,2,8 and so upto 12,800 the weights show remarkable uniformity irrespective of the place of the find. Some small weights made of dark grey slate resemble those found at Elam and Mesopotamia but are more accurate. It seems that some sort of control was exercised over maintaining proper standards in weights.
The variety in weights as well as their standradisation make it evident that the people of the Indus vicilisation were a trading people. Even though one may discount the theory that the recessed basin at Lothal was actually a dockyard with sluice gates to enable ships to berth at high tide, there is enough evidence to show that the Indus people were a sea-faring people with wide ranging contacts. As one historian put it, “...we could suggest that long-distance trade was indeed a central aspect of the Harappan urban system”.
Nearer home, the people of the Indus civilisation got their gold from Kolar in the south and silver, turquoise and lapis lazuli from Iran and Afghanistan. Copper came from Rajasthan and conch shells from the Deccan. Iron, however, does not seem to have been known to the Harappan people.
Of long distance trade and contact, there is evidence to show that the people of the Indus civilisation have commercial relations with crete, Egypt and Mesopotamia. First, among the excavations, we find seals which show that the people were familiar with boat making and may even have built larger vessels. On the other hand, there have been discovered at least two dozen seals in Mesopotamia which are almost certainly of Harappan origin, however, are rare among the excavations of the Indus civilisation but in Mohenjo-daro, three cylinder seals of Mesopotamian origin have been discovered.
More interesting is the literary evidence. The tablets at Mesopotamia speak of their trade with Tilmun, Magan and Meluhha,. Of these, the first, Tilmun, has generally been identified with Bahrain and the second, mentioned as a source for copper, with Oman or some other part of South Arabia. Meluhha, has, on the other hand, been generally identified with the region of the Indus. Among the things imported from Meluhha, mention is made of timber, copper, gold and , perhaps the most important, ivory.
Causes of Decline
Till not very long ago , scholars generally believed that the one cause of the decline of the Indus civilisation was the invasion of the horse borne Aryans from Central Asia. The main proponent of the theory was Sir Mortimer wheeler, who during his excavations at Mohenjo-daro in 1946; found some thirty skeletons lying about without proper burial. These were found in awkward positions and a couple of these bore signs of deep cuts as if attacked with some sharp weapon. This led Wheeler to put forward the theory that there must have been a general massacre of the city population by the invading barbarians. The theory seemed to gain support from passages in the Rig Veda where the god Indra is exhorted to destroy the forts (puras) of the enemy (dasyus). Moreover, Indra is referred to as purandar or the destroyer of forts. Wheeler suggests that the forts thus referred to in the Rig Veda were the citadels found in Mohenjo-daro and Harappa and that the Rig Veda thus referred to the attack by the Aryans on the Anaryas, the inhabitants civilisation and their ultimate destruction. “Climatic, economic, political deterioration may have weakened it,” wrote Wheeler, “but its ultimate extinction is more likely to have been completed by deliberate and large scale destruction”. Wheeler’s theory received support from other eminent scholars like Gordon Childe and Stuart Piggott.
Later, as the question was examined in greater detail and depth, this theory did not seem tenable, for one, there were no signs of large scale invasion in any of the Harappan settlements. Secondly in Mohenjo-daro itself, where the distorted skeletons had been discovered by Wheeler, scholars pointed out that it was only a case of some thirty skeletons from the city’s population of over 40,000. There was also the fact that Mohenjo-daro was abandoned by about 1800-1750 BC whereas the date of the Rig Veda placed at about 1500-1200 BC, and there was no explanation for this large gap.
While discussing the causes of decline, one more factor was quite evident. With the Indus civilisation settlements being so widespread no monolithic explanation as the one given earlier seemed realistic. And hence the emphasis reverted to the factors played down by Wheeler, that is, the ‘Climatic, economic (and) political deterioration. Scholars also pointed out that instead of emphasising any single factor, it would perhaps be more realistic to say that any weakness or deterioration in any one factor had its repercussions on others so that all or many factors combined created what they called the ‘domino effect’, leading to the decline or collapse of the Indus civilisation.
Among the natural factors, Mohenjo-daro and Lothal did show signs of heavy flooding which may have forced the inhabitants out of the area. At Kalibangan, on the other hand, it was the drying up of the river Ghaggar, which could have been gradual or sudden. It is possible that the inhabitants had to desert the cities because of the change in the course of the rivers like Ravi and the Indus. Epidemics like malaria also cannot be ruled out as a factor for decline.
Finally, any city culture thrives on a delicate balance of the production and provision of goods and services. Over a period of time, this balance does get disturbed which in turn affects other elements of city life, ultimately resulting in its downfall. Signs of such deterioration are evident in Mohenjo-daro and some other cities. Thus at the higher strata of the excavations, indicating the later stages of the life of the city, we find the houses spilling onto the streets and the drainage system no more meticulously laid out as before. There is a general decline in the civic quality of life till such time that the settlements are finally abandoned.
Whatever may be the cause or the causes of decline, one factor is certain: that the abandonment of the Indus settlements was not a sudden event and that is occurred over a period of more than a century.
Survival and Continuity
The Indus civilisation thus passed into history: but just as a civilisation does not emerge from nothing, it does not also disappear without a trace. Some scholars have tried to show that the civilisation following the Indus civilisation had little in common with its predecessor. To an extent this is correct for we do not find the city culture appearing in India for some centuries. Similarly, the institution of seals disappeared for a long time. The style of pottery changed and the greatest casualty was perhaps the script.
On the other hand we find some elements of the civilisation which continued into the later ages. The most remarkable is the cult of the Pasupati which in all probability transformed into that of Siva which is alive even today. Similarly belief in the mother-god-dess-the female energy being the source of all creation-and the worship of the pipal tree widely prevalent in India can be traced back to the Indus civilisation.
In all, one can say that although the old order changed giving place to the new;the old did not die out completely. It was more a matter of transformation rather than creation all anew.
Employment News - 7, February 1997
You are Visitor Number