Ans.
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) was a Bronze Age
civilisation (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1600 BCE) mainly in the
northwestern regions of South Asia, extending from what today is northeast
Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India.Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
it was one of three early civilisations of the Old World, and of the three, the
most widespread.It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, which flows
through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial, mostly
monsoon-fed, rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the seasonal
Ghaggar-Hakra river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan. Aridification of
this region during the 3rd millennium BCE may have been the initial spur for
the urbanisation associated with the civilisation, but eventually also reduced
the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise, and to scatter its
population eastward.
At its peak, the Indus Civilisation may have had a
population of over five million.Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley
developed new techniques in handicraft (carnelian products, seal carving) and
metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin). The Indus cities are noted for
their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water
supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings.
The Indus Valley Civilisation is also known as the
Harappan Civilisation, after Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated in
the 1920s, in what was then the Punjab province of British India, and now is
Pakistan.The discovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the
culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological
Survey of India in the British Raj.Excavation of Harappan sites has been
ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999.This
Harappan civilisation is sometimes called the Mature Harappan culture to
distinguish it from the cultures immediately preceding and following it. Of
these, the earlier is often called the Early Harappan culture, while the later
one may be referred to as the Late Harappan, both of which existed in the same
area as the Mature Harappan Civilisation. The early Harappan cultures were
preceded by local Neolithic agricultural villages, from where the river plains
were populated. As of 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found,
of which 96 have been excavated,mainly in the general region of the Indus and
Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. Among the settlements were the
major urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro (UNESCO World Heritage Site),
Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan and Rakhigarhi.
The Harappan language is not directly attested and its
affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered. A
relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured
by a section of scholars.
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) encompassed much
of Pakistan, western India, and northeastern Afghanistan; extending from
Pakistani Balochistan in the west to Uttar Pradesh in the east, northeastern
Afghanistan to the north and Maharashtra to the south. The geography of the
Indus Valley put the civilisations that arose there in a highly similar
situation to those in Egypt and Peru, with rich agricultural lands being
surrounded by highlands, desert, and ocean. Recently, Indus sites have been
discovered in Pakistan's northwestern Frontier Province as well. Other IVC
colonies can be found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be
found as far away as Turkmenistan and in Maharashtra. The largest number of
colonies are in the Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujrat belt Coastal
settlements extended from Sutkagan Dor in Western Baluchistan to Lothal in
Gujarat. An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortughai in
northern Afghanistan, in the Gomal River valley in northwestern Pakistan,at
Manda, Jammu on the Beas River near Jammu,India, and at Alamgirpur on the
Hindon River, only 28 km from Delhi.Indus Valley sites have been found most
often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot, and on
islands, for example, Dholavira.
It flourished in the basins of the Indus River, which
flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial, mostly
monsoon-fed, rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the seasonal
Ghaggar-Hakra river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan. There is evidence
of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in Pakistan and the
seasonal Ghaggar River in India. Many Indus Valley sites have been discovered
along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds.Among them are: Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan,
and Ganwariwala.
According to some Archaeologists, more than 500
Harappan sites have been discovered along the dried up river beds of the
Ghaggar-Hakra River and its tributaries, in contrast to only about 100 along
the Indus and its tributaries; consequently, in their opinion, the appellation
Indus Ghaggar-Hakra civilisation or Indus-Saraswati civilisation is justified.
However, these arguments are disputed by other archaeologists who state that
the Ghaggar-Hakra desert area has been left untouched by settlements and
agriculture since the end of the Indus period and hence shows more sites than
those found in the alluvium of the Indus valley; second, that the number of
Harappan sites along the Ghaggar-Hakra river beds has been exaggerated."Harappan
Civilisation" remains the correct one, according to the common
archaeological usage of naming a civilisation after its first findspot.