Origins and Characteristics of the Harappan Civilization Explained

hello everyone good afternoon I hope you're all doing well now in yesterday's lecture we had finished discussing the

stone ages and today we have to begin with a new chapter that is the Aran civilization

time period haran civilization the early phases of the harapan civilization started appearing

as early as 3400 3500

BC and the Haren sites began to disappear around

1750 BC right now the dates obviously can vary the harapan civilization may be

divided into various phases of evolution the earliest being the early harapan

age from roughly 3400 to 2600

BC the mature haran age from

2600 to let's say 1900 BC and the late haran

age from 1900 to around

1750 BC the harapan civilization was the first urbanized civilization in the

Indian subcontinent it flourished in the of Northwestern portion of the Indian

subcontinent it was a bronze a civilization that was a contemporary of

other bronze civilization such as the Chinese Mesopotamian Persian Egyptian civilizations

Etc however among them it was the largest it was the most extensive one we also witness the widespread use

of script town planning the flourishing status of

longdistance trade and the burgeoning industry of the haran cities that

is crafts production and all this was based on a large agricultural Surplus

as I have already mentioned the hartan civilization represented India's first

urbanization the first urbanization the haran civilization second urbanization mahaj janpath period or

post viic period and third urbanization sultanate period onwards okay so first

urbanization now obviously all these features did not emerge suddenly right they did not evolve

suddenly we see an evolution of the culture of the harapan people early haran

period these characteristics were in their nent stage of development so they

were not fully developed mature haran period represented the developed phase of the civilization in which these

characteristics manifested themselves with their full vibrancy and late Haren period corresponds with the period of

decline in which these characteristics started to gradually disappear vanish clear

here sure now if the upsc has to ask a question topic

origin of the heran civilization what are the different theories and explanations given to

explain the origin of the heran civilization a question may emerge from the features or characteristic

of the haran civilization namely what were the features

of economic life of the harant specifically questions may arise

from the agriculture craft production trade and their impact on the lives of

the haran people there may be a question with regards

to the political system first of all whether such a

political system EX existed or not and if it did what was its nature

then there may be a question with regards to the social structure and economic structure

right whether the society was a flat one or was it a hierarchical one right then a question related to

culture covering art

sculpture and uh religion Etc right so features question then there may be a question

with regards to the decline of the harapan civilization a debate with regards to

the factors responsible for the decline of the haran civilization and

secondly the correct contextualization of decline when we are talking in terms of decline of the haran civilization

what exactly it means then we may be asked to highlight the

elements of changes and continuity in the Indian culture in link to the or in association with the harapan

civilization so how did life in the later phases differ from the haran period and in what respects was it

similar and specifically over here we'd be required to highlight the role of

the late haran culture

take so if the questions arise they are probably going to arise from these areas go back home conduct a survey and try to

see with regards to the things that you learning in the classroom whether you'll be able to address those questions or

not what extra things are necessary now first of all the

origin of the Aran

civilization write down in 1921 the excavation

of haraa by John

Marshall and theam Sani provided

the early glimpses of an

ancient and sophisticated Urban

civilization predating the Aran culture

take in 1922 this was followed up by the excavations

at Moan jaro by rakal

Das banery by Rd banery full

stop next these discoveries

confirmed the status of

India as one of the early cradles

of civilization okay next point

further discoveries and ex excavations revealed the

blueprint of an ancient Advanced Bronze

Age civilization in the indust

sarasti Zone that appeared to

be far more extensive and advanced

as compared to the other Bronze

Age civilizations such as mesop

poia Egypt Persia

or China clear so like these bronze civilizations the

harapan civilization was also bronze civilization but it was far more extensive that is in terms of area and

population it was far larger and far more advanced than those other civilizations next

Point naturally from the very beginning

historians were interested in

unraveling the secrets of the emergence or of the

origin of the harapan civilization but answering these

questions was not so straightforward there were significant hurdles challenges write

down however answering these questions was

challenging yeah first of all the haran script

has remained undeciphered okay so we are not able to

read what The Harens wrote about themselves which could have provided us important Clues with regards to their

origin and secondly there are practical

problems associated with archaeology excavations vertical excavations or

horizontal excavations excavations Poss lied why because many of the haran sites are

situated beneath the presently populated regions right therefore people would have to be cleared out displaced in

order to excavate those sites secondly uh new things have come to light such as as the human population has expanded the

human footprint the human presence has spread to previously uninhabited regions sites present with the expanding

human footprint the developmental story has also followed infastructure development on

roads are being Lan sewage lines are being laid down Railways are being laid right

new developmental projects corridors and this has also resulted in the destruction of many of these sites

right so even before archaeologist had the opportunity to excavate them to study them many of these sites have been

degraded so there are a number of practical problems associated with archaeology so because of this the

question with regards to the origin of the uh origin of the harapan civilization is not a straightforward

one its answer is quite challenging to decipher and

naturally the subject of the origin of the

civilization has become a matter

of debate clear two prominent theories have been

put forward one is the theory of

sudden origin also known as the diffusionist

theory also known as the foreign origin Theory or

the Mesopotamian origin Theory so which set of historians do you think

would claim that the cities of the harapan civilization were the work of foreigners would it be nationalist

historians or Colonial historians Colonial historians they would try to attribute

the creation of the harapan civilization to foreigners they have a tendency to associate all golden phases of Indian

past with foreign influence right so important Scholars included

Gorden Cramer e m

and E morer wheeler right

Gordon Kramer and M have argued that people from foreign lands came to this part of the subcontinent

and established the harapan civilization constructed the cities and transferred the technology and agricultural knowhow

to the local communities which was responsible for the sudden origin of the harapan civilization

so e the people from foreign lands specifically from Mesopotamia came to

the Indus Valley conquered it and settled here Mortimer wheeler on the other hand

says that it was not people from Mesopotamia rather they ideas which trans which came

to India through the trade routes that existed between these two civilizational centers so it was the result of

the diffusion of ideas through raade Roots which was

responsible now Prem IDE either people from Mesopotamia or their ideas were

responsible for the sudden emergence of the harapan civilization from fully built up

cities now what is the evidence that they have given in support of their Theory

firstly they have highlighted that the Mesopotamian civilization

was much older than the arapan civilization so logically direction of diffusion of

people or ideas from Hara to Mesopotamia or Mesopotamia to Hara Mesopotamia to haraa already well developed they had

started constructing their own cities they had developed long distance trade they had their own script and they

simply transplanted them to the pun and syn region right

secondly they like to point out the similarities between the Mesopotamian

and haran civilization similarities that both the Mesopotamians

and Harens lived in cities and these cities had two

levels of occupation lower ring people Lower Town me the

commoner class was living and these people argued that it was natural for the foreign rulers of the harapan cities

to maintain a a degree of separation from the common ruled class right because the British were doing it the

mugal had done it The Sultans had done it and therefore All Foreign ruling class people do the same

thing they have also argued that both of them used burnt

bricks burnt bricks were used in the construction of harapan as well as Mesopotamian structures

they have also argued that bronze sculptures have been frown from both

harapan as well as Mesopotamian cities that both of them had knowledge of bronze

Metallurgy they have also highlighted the use of script

in both cases and finally they have talked about the presence

of seals in both harapan as well as Mesopotamian cities in fact they have also argued that some Mesopotamian seals

have also been discovered from harapan cities such as moan jaro or kalibangan or Lal or haraa indicating the presence

of M pans in the harapan cities as well take further they have

argued that uh sorry they have argued one more thing

that if you look at the stratag graphic analysis of mature haran cities you are going to find a number of sites where a

welldeveloped mature haran context exists but below that there is nothing to co

occupation what does that point to grad Evolution No in

fact this was the first instance of settlement so on the basis of these things it has

been argued that the construction of the harapan Cities was the work of

Outsiders however this theory has been deeply criticized in ground

SP that first of all the

similarities between haraan and Mesopotamian settlements are simply superficial they're not

substantial now although both Harens as well as Mesopotamians lived in cities was the morphology of their Urban

settlements the same no haran cities were known for their

extensive town planning whereas Mesopotamian cities

represented what kind of development planned development or unplanned halfhazard

development ha Hazard development secondly while burnt bricks were used by

both The Harens as well as the Mesopotamians there is a major difference among Harens the use

of burnt bricks was

Universal so they constructed almost all their structures using burned bricks whether it was the it were the houses of

the elites or the big uh public buildings or the fortifications or the houses of even the most Ordinary People

burn bricks on the other hand among the Mesopotamians burned bricks were used

exclusively by the Elites for construction of their large policial houses fortifications and other

monuments so the use of burned bricks was

extremely selective and

exclusive thirdly while bronze Metallurgy was known to both The Harens as well as the

Mesopotamians be differences thean bronze technology appears to be inferior to the Mesopotamian bronze

technology The Harens used poorer

quality and technique for making

bronze sculptures whereas Mesopotamian bronze Metallurgy appears to be far

more advanced secondly the use of bronze was Al also

far more widespread in Mesopotamia as compared to haraa in haraa bronze represented a rare

material and bronze sculture and even rarer art form okay

while both had script were the scripts of The Harens and the Mesopotamians the

same no or script

was script logic

pictographic pictographic instead of letters symbols are used consisting of more than

400 characters and has it been deciphered yet no it

remains undeciphered on the other hand Mesopotamian

script was a CI form script and has been deciphered deer using the Rosetta Stone Rosetta

Stone it was a bilingual inscription one part of the inscription was written in the

Mesopotamian script and the same message was then repeated in another language which was

already known to the archaeologists to is say is compare right and using this the Mesopotamian

script was deciphered uniform script a script that is written with a cisis stylus right so this kind of an

object on wet clay right especially wet clay tablets then they were allowed to Dy making those writings permanent okay

so this was a uniform script it contained letters and alphabets instead of pictures and symbols clear so it was

an alphabetical scpt and we also find that c

he while they were used by both The Harens as well as the Mesopotamians were they the same or

different different thing basic shape of the harapan felds rectangular or Square and the Mesopotamian seals

were cylindrical okay so do you think that all these

things are the work of the same group of people invol involv

so the argument that Mesopotamians were responsible for the creation of the haran civilization that becomes

weaker secondly we also have access to

new archaeological findings from a wide region across the northwest of the

subcontinent and a complete picture of evolution of

the human culture over thousands of

years these are known as the antient cultures of the haran civilization

now Neolithic calic cultures which flourished in the

Northwestern portion of the subcontinent and Western India from roughly 7,000 BC onwards gradually they became more and

more materially advanced their understanding of their environment also increased they started to cultivate

large numbers of crops and their population started to increase as their population started increasing their

Surplus also kept on increasing resulting in the a portion of the population becoming involved in

secondary economic activities primarily or completely and this resulted in the emergence of small

towns that is the early harapan phase and then life started to become more

sophisticated till the mature haran period or the developed haran stage was

attained okay thirdly recently a detailed genetic study was published with regards to the

findings at a place called rakana now skeletons in the graves at raak they were subjected to DNA analysis surviving

tissue especially the tissue that was extracted from the ear muscles or the coar region of the

skull D DNA analysis what were the researchers looking for a particular genetic marker

a particular Gene R1 A1 Gene right

now this particular Gene is present in all people with Iranian step ancestry to northan Caspian

region And1 now did these researchers discover this Gene find this

Gene through this DNA analysis in these skeletons no

so this Gene was absent from the

skeletons at raak but what do we find that it is a permanent fixture in

all of the DNA specimen extracted from graves in Mesopotamian or Persian cities okay so it is a

Universal feature of Mesopotamian Persian

and Egyptian skeletons what does this tell us there was no genetic connection

between the skeletons are rakari and the skeletons in these places okay and this is also going to finally put to rest the

idea that the harapan civilization was the work of foreigners of Mesopotamians and in such a scenario the

second explanation becomes more plausible second explanation it is the theory

of gradual origin or indigenous

origin what does it state that the haran

civilization emerged gradually from the antecedent

cultures of Western and Northwestern

India to assume the characteristics

of uh welldeveloped and extensive Bronze

Age civilization this process took

place over thousands of years and not in a matter of a few

centuries take Scholars associated with this Theory amand

Goos and Muhammad rafik mugal amand go has primarily identified the similarities

between the poy of the

SOI SE swall culture which flourishes which flourish in the Gujarat Sy and Rajasthan

region and the arapan civilization now SOI seal culture

flourished just before the emergence of the Aran civilization argument that people who were responsible for the SOI

seal culture were also responsible for the harapan civilization when they were in this phase this was a

privil rural Neolithic calic pastoral and agrarian culture they then began practicing

Surplus agriculture they started to participate more uh intensely in trading and craft production activities the size

of their settlement started to grow up and finally assumed the characteristics of a proper civilization

ation Mr mugal on the other hand has gone beyond Potter to explore similarities in other

fields as well such as uh religion agriculture

technology construction technique town planning

script Etc and he has also gone beyond the sual culture only he has said that the haran

civilization was the work not only of the people of or the descendants of the soial

culture but also the people of other calic and Neolithic communities which existed in this region just before the

emergence of the haran civilization culture such as the

Iran baluchi culture or the

gagar Acra culture Etc is this much Clear they also point out that there are

several sites where we we find a clear

picture of evolution from pre

Haren to early Haren to

mature haran without any break can you give certain examples of

such sites cont

mat early and mature har Etc okay that means the mature phase of the harapan civilization was the work of

gradual Evolution over a long period without much involvement of Outsiders without much involvement of followers

but this theory is also subjected to certain limitations yeah limitations point

out first of all due to the undeciphered nature of the Haren script there are certain

things which are hidden from us namely what was the basics what was the driving force behind the creation of

such an extensive civilization and its maintenance so what was the nature of the political organization or what was

the basis for the origin of the civilization and its sustenance exact forces responsible was agriculture the

main driving force or was trade the main driving force or was it a religion or some other kind of ideology or was it

military might so we are unclear about

the exact nature of the unifying

force responsible for the emergence and

sustenance of the heran civilization in the absence

of usable written records then we also have some

archaological inconsistencies for example we have a number

of mature harapan sites without any preh heran

layer they appear to have emerged suddenly out of nowhere then we also have certain sites

where both a mature as well as a preeran layer exists but there's a big gap between them there's a sterile layer

between them that means after the arv Haren phase they were abandoned and then they were resettled several centuries

later thirdly what is the theory arguing that early pre heren sites evolve into early

Haren sites and early Haren sites evolve into mature Haren sites but there are several pre and early harup and sites

that never evolved further than their original states they remained in place they were either abandoned or continue

to remain in that pre or early mature phase uh pre and uh early phase right so some early early

sites never matured and the reason for these AR archaeological inconsistencies is going

to remain hidden from us till we are able to answer this question in patterns what was the

driving force what was the unifying force right so why does it appear that people who were living in the early

early harapan phase suddenly decided to migrate and establish a completely new and mature haran settlement at a new

site or why did they abandon those early har sites when we are able to answer this

question we cannot answer this question until we can decipher the paren script is this

clear uh interspersed with a sterile layer interspersed with a sterile layer okay we find this for example at

Hara mature harapan sites without any preeran context example clear points of

view do you need me to dictate all these things good take down a

question shed light on the

debate regarding the origin of the

Aran civilization 200 words shed light on the debate regarding

the origin of the harapan civilization take next

question say the pattern of the evolution of

the Aran civilization from its

antecedent cultures 200 words 15 marks

cation evolved over thousands of years in several stages neic calic

prehen or prehen rural cultures right these were consisting of pastoralist and uh agricultural communities they evolved

into early haran settlements which finally developed mature characteristics mature

settlements Dev evolution of mature

haran civilization from the stone

AG right give me a couple of minutes I'll be

right e e e

right sorry about that huh the stages of evolution of haran civilization from the Stone Age to the

mature haran period right so write down according to the theory of gradual Evolution according to the theory of

gradual Evolution comma the harapan civilization was the end result

the harapan civilization was the end result of a long process of cultural

development of a long process of cultural development that

lasted thousands of years P stop this process may be divided into

the following stages stages

write down preh haran age re

harage that is 7,000 to 3400

BC number two early harapan age 3200 to 2600

BC and number three mature harapan AG 2600

to 1900 BC give the first heading early harapan H sorry pre page

now it was during this period that initially Neolithic and later calic

cultures began emerging in which part of the subcontinent in the Northwestern portion

of the subcontinent on the outskirts of

the Indus and gagar hakra river

systems Cur the mahard

or cholistan culture the gagar

arra culture the

SOI seal culture the

Iran baloi culture Etc characteristics did they begin

cultivation and animal husbandry or did they remain in the hunter gatherer phase of

life began Agriculture and animal husbandry did they continue living in

makeshift camps and moving from place to place or did they start start setting up permanent

settlements permanent Villages did they continue constructing their structures using the water do

technique to construct mud houses mud H hased Huts or did they start constructing mud brick houses m break

houses did they continue governing themselves through the Norms of Band Society organic structure or did a

corporate governance structure start to emerge corporate governance structure start to started to emerge so

early political formation started happening what was the nature of their agriculture was it a high level

intensive agriculture resulting in a large Surplus or was it subsistence level agriculture resulting in no or

very little Surplus little Surplus and thus hunting and Gathering

activities continue to be an important uh source of uh food for them take what were the limiting factors with

regards to agriculture C in this region located what is the climate of this area is it a warm and wet climate

humid climate dry and arid irid climate Okay initially they were located far away from the river valleys they were

located on the outskirts of the river valleys arid regions May located there was scarcity

of water okay what was the level of technology

that they had access to did they have access to sophisticated agricultural implements such as plows Etc

so had they started using the animal power for agricultural activities no

and that from the Arid regions they are going to move towards relatively more fertile regions that is the upper

courses of the Indus River and its tributaries okay their technological knowhow is also

going to improve and use of the wooden plow is going to be introduced they are going to start harnessing animal power

for agricultural activities especially plowing of the soil right so a section of the population at

baluchistan or at mahad started to migrate towards

the upper course of the index

system right now is the upper course of any perennial river the best place to cultivate

agriculture most suitable Zone the lower course or the upper course of any river system

lower even after migrating towards this region the and although improvements but

drastic change agricultural Surplus appeared but it

remained low it remained small technological improvements took place

for example the use of the wooden plow Etc took

place Stone technology became more refined and the stone quaries that were found along the baluchistan Afghanistan

border they were used to construct large number of sophisticated implements such as sides right or

axes and the technique of using animal power for

agricultural purposes was introduced along with this the

wheel which till now was being used only for the purpose of pottery was repurposed for transportation bullet

cards were constructed for the first time right and while this set of changes was not sufficient

to overcome the natural limitations of agriculture in this in the upper course of the river

valley it provided the next stage for evolution of settled Society sorry divide right so when we are

talking about the M Chan culture we are talking about s such as

mahard but but once they migrated to the upper course of the Indus Valley new settlements emerged such

as raand ilai Mundy

D Etc next stage of evolution is going to follow another major

migration migration from the upper course of the Indus River system to the lower course of the river

system clear advantages

yeah Rich alium was deposited by the endus sarasti and their tributaries making the soil extremely fertile there

was abundant supply of water there was abundant availability

of Timber which could be used for construction purposes

right however some limitation were also present yeah that the lower courses of the river

valleys are often uh vulnerable to frequent flooding now flooding of the lower course of the river valley is a

major factor behind the renewal of soil fertility but it can be very dangerous for human habitation right and therefore

the Rivers had to be tamed so to overcome these limitations what did the people started

doing they started construction of

dams bares and buns to harness the power of the

river flood irrigation and result of flood irrigation what happened to agricultural

productivity that increased the size of the Agricultural Surplus that also increased

what is going to happen to the human population as a result more production means more

population the rate of growth of the Agricultural Surplus however was greater than the growth of the rate of

population therefore there would always be a large Surplus available and Workforce did it need to be involved

in agriculture only no it could now be repurposed towards secondary economic activities

such as craft production

and raing activities and as the craft production and trading activities became more intense the

Craftsmen as well as Traders would they prefer living in the rural setting or would they start to come together in

common markets common markets so at the interchange exchange of goods become

becomes more uh becomes easier right so that is why this provided the trigger towards urbanization now obviously in

the initial stage the cities or towns would have been smaller in size small VES VES towns towns and then towns are

going to become cities and the cities are going to then become metropolises okay now in cities

May Craftsmen and Traders are The Agrarian people or non-agrarian people they are not associated with agriculture

at all they are one step removed from the primary production process therefore to sustain this population

agricultural Surplus rural setting Urban settings transfer right and who would be

responsible for this transference some kind of political structure some kind of government

government so governance is going to emerge some political structure would be responsible for maintaining Law and

Order in these cities trans transporting or Shifting the Surplus from The Villages towards the cities providing

these people the necessary raw material Etc now would such activities take place in

an isolated Center where there is a large enough Surplus

right so for example this is the course of a river and its sorry and its tributaries IND river

right all this let's see all this would be the settlement Zone

right settlement zone Green shaded area and what are we going to

see that if this area is in a position to support the emergence of a

particular trading site then Common Market City similarly one City May emerge over

here similarly one City May emerge over here and so on and so forth this is the pattern that we are going

to find over here right and gradually what we are going to see that instead of these centers acting as centers of local

trade they are going to become connected to each other River routs

exist land Roots be emerge who is going to be responsible for conducting this uh longdistance

trade the trading Community facilitated by the government structure long trade or

governance one new instrument is going to be required that is written ledgers and Records written

accounts are going to be maintained written records would have to be maintained

script is this clear sure now all these things started taking place in the early haran phase itself however the Surplus

was still relatively small and as a result characteristics they were not very well developed cities had started

to emerge but they were relatively smaller the element of town planning was not very well implemented the governance

structure also seems to have been weaker having limited ability script was used but its use was not widespread at this

stage change when the Surplus becomes large enough okay that is

the mature haran phase that is from 2600

to 1900 BC all the characteristics associated

with the haran civilization manifested themselves in their developed

form for example large well planned cities emerged a

large agriculture natural Surplus was present to sustain these cities long distance

trade flourished the use of script became

Universal there was a great degree of standardization across the civilization in terms of the weights and measures

that were being used the script that was being found the kinds of seals that were in circulation Etc in

sub standardization Emer so we can say that stage this emerged after a long process of gradual Evolution lasting

thousands of years now early haran phase important sites

Amry cour D Rand der

gumla Gully qua Nal

zob Mundi so padri

banavali arapa Etc

mat Usual Suspects for example Hara moano

rakii let's say doav Vera etcom all the characteristics associated

with the harapan civilization manifested themselves in their developed form stages of

evolution preher phase the evolution of Neolithic cultures

into subsistence level farming cultures

with technological improvements second stage that is the early Haron

phase we see the emergence of the stage of agricultural Surplus which was

relatively small we also see the emergence of smaller

towns and cities in the lower

Enders and we see a gradually increasing Trend in

Surplus trade and urbanization and

finally mature har phase we see the developed

form of the civilization okay

when do you think the earliest contact between the harapan civilization and the Mesopotamian civilization would have

emerged along the boundary between the early and mature haran phase mature harapan phase was characterized by

flourishing overseas trade flourishing overseas trade overseas

trade so it was or the the foreign trade of the harapan emerged

towards the later half of the early harapan age trade

land root say SE root say initially land root was used now if you look at the geography of

this region right now the haran civilization

region roughly region right but civilization is region and Mesopotamian civilization this region

Tigres River systems right uh Iraq Syria Israel Palestine region they them so was there any direct link between haraa and

Mesopotamia no but this was not an uninhabited Zone tribals of the Iran baluchi culture

right and it was these people who emerged as the interlocutors between the harap

civilization and the civilizations of West Asia in the initial phase reg

climate arid climate do you think that people can rely upon agriculture to sustain the

themselves no therefore agriculture forms a very small part of their occupational mix they are rather still

dependent primarily upon pastoralism pastoral activities take they are nomadic by Nature clear

now during the wet season is it advisable for these people

to stay with their animals in the plains they would migrate towards the hills and

Hills towards the middle suan Kar mountain ranges for example right fo Hills there are several mountain passes

also so in the dry season in sorry in the wet season in the summer season they would move towards the hills or Jo drier

season they would come down from the hills and move into the plains on both sides thus coming into contact with both

the persan civilization people as well as thean civilization people right they going to exchange goods right

and ultimately what are they going to start doing they are going to start becoming the

interlocutors between the Persians and the herens okay write down

initially initially this trade was conducted

over the land route over the land route and was

facilitated and was facilitated primarily by primarily

by the nomadic pastoralists of the Iran baluchi culture of the Iran baloi

culture during the wet season sub point during the wet season

comma these pastoralists would move to the Hills would concentrate in the Hills would

concentrate in the Hills these pastoralists would concentrate in the

hills and exchange goods with other bands with other bands of

pastoralists P stop next appoint in the dry season they would move into the

ples of Punjab and Iran coming into the coming into contact

with the settled civilizations of these regions with the settled civilizations

of these regions okay next main point

later later comma overseas trade emerged

as another medium of

commerce between India and West Asia between India and West Asia during the early haran period or the

mature haran period mature haran full stop this was a unique

characteristic of the mature haran period that is trade by the C root R bya the C

root okay next Point

mature huh all the characteristics associated with next

point in the mature haran cities in the mature haran cities Comm on

a large number of a large number of non-agrarian sections had to be supplied had to be

supplied with food and raw material full stop Surplus had to be

channelized from the villages to these cities to these cities from the villages to these

cities will stop further further standardization

of Weights measures and other

systems was necessary to facilitate trade to facilitate

Trade Stop does a state emerged does a state

emerged full stop next point the development of script the

development of script took place in order to

facilitate governance and trade in order to facilitate governance

and trade we find the earliest evidence of the use of script from an early haran

site known as padri this is in present day

Gujarat earliest evidence of Haren script is this clear take so three stages of

evolution of haran civilization from pre to mature next we need to talk about

the prominent characteristics of the arapan civilization so when you think of the

characteristics or features of the harapan civilization what are the things that come first to your mind

civilization city is thing yes so it was an urban civilization urbanization well planned urbanization

unplanned urbanization well planned cities were there and it represented the earliest

phase of urbanization in India to point characteristic the harapan civilization

represented the first phase of urbanization in

India in India P stop haran cities

were well planned and no other contemporary civilization were well planned and no

other contemporary civilization could match could

match its level of town planning and no other contemporary civilization

could match its level of town planning okay

chronolog did it belong to theic age no did it belong to the calic age yes because the use of coer was evident in

the haran towns as well but is it characterized as the calic civilization n is characterized as

a Bronze Age civilization right of Bronze Age civilization is actually referring to a group of civilizations

which flourished roughly in the same time period at the same time however even over here the harapan civilization

was unique it appears to be far larger and in several respects much more advanced

than any other bronze civilization at the same time we can also say that although it flourished in

India in the calic context it is not categorized as a calic civilization it belongs to the bronze AG write

down the har civilization H next main point next characteristic the harapan

civilization is part of The Sisterhood of bronze AG

civilizations other contemporary civilizations you are aware of bronze civilizations name them Mesopotamia

Egypt Persia Etc right then further write down although it emerged during the calcul

Age comma it was distinct due to the use of bronze

metal if you look at the distribution of prominent haran cities most of the cities are located

where along the along the rivers hisi the early historians they

characteriz the haran civilization as a rivan civilization and what is the

basic factor for the emergence of such a rivine civilization a large agricultural

Surplus forms the basis so the very basis of civilization is agriculture and the Surplus that it

generates however since then the the category I ization of harapan civilization as a rivan civilization has

been questioned recently there have been a number of new discoveries of

settlements located far away from fertile indust and sarasti River zones they are located in the

irid and semi irid regions such as bistan such as the ETC

right do you think agriculture would have been sufficient to support such a large large settlement no and therefore

many new historians have started to argue that agriculture was not the primary basis for the uh haran

civilization rather its main engine was trade trade was necessary not only for shifting agricultural Surplus from the

more fertile regions to these arid regions but also for the prosperity of these arid regions which allowed them to

import the agricultural surplus of other Surplus areas take write down next main point Le earlier

historians characterized the harapan civilization characterized the harapan civilization as a river valley

civilization characterize the harapan civilization as a river valley

civilization where the basic driving force was agriculture point the recent discoveries of a large

number of new sites the recent discoveries of a large number of new cities new cities

outside the traditional agricultural Zone such as baluchistan and kach such as baluchistan and

kach as prompted as prompted historians to challenge the older

notion P stop next point it appears that trade and crafts production

must have played a very important role in harapan

urbanization in harapan urbanization did The Harens enjoy a good standard of living or were they mostly poor good

standard of living levels of prosperity were relatively High write

down The Harens had a large

prosperous and flourishing economy with a and flourishing economy

and was the haran economy Diversified or not dependent Diversified which a with a diverse base

with a diverse base stop sub

point the large agricultural Surplus was mobilized towards was mobilized

towards City Construction infrastructure development craft

production and trade and trade and what would have been required to

mobilize this large agricultural Surplus towards these activities some kind of political

Authority right the ability of the political authority to channelize the Surplus and

regulate such an extensive Market in indicates State a state with lower sophistication

or highly sophisticated State highly sophisticated state so write down

H while the exact nature of the ruling class while the exact nature of the ruling

class is not clear is not clear

comma it can be said with certainty it can be said with certainty

that The Harens had a sophisticated state had a sophisticated

state which could control the vast civilization facilitate trade facilitate trade

and and impose a high degree of uniformity and