Chapter Overview

The Indus Valley or Harappan Civilisation (सिंधु घाटी / हड़प्पा सभ्यता) was the subcontinent’s first urbanisation. Its mature, urban phase lasted from about 2600 to 1900 BCE across roughly 1.3 million sq km of present-day Pakistan and north-western India. It had planned cities with covered drains, standard bricks and weights, long-distance trade reaching Mesopotamia, and a script that nobody can yet read.

It opens every ancient Indian history syllabus. Prelims tests it through site-river-state matching and “which site / which object” questions. Mains asks you to describe its town planning and to critically examine why it declined.

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

Date the Early, Mature and Late Harappan phases and name the discoverers of Harappa (1921) and Mohenjo-daro (1922)
Place every major site with its river, present-day state and signature find, including the four extremities
Describe Harappan town planning: citadel and lower town, grid streets, 1:2:4 bricks, covered drains, the Great Bath
Explain the economy: crops, animals, crafts, raw-material sources, weights, seals and trade with Meluhha, Dilmun and Magan
Reconstruct religion and burial practices from objects, and explain why the script is still undeciphered
Critically evaluate the theories of decline, including the 2025 drought study and the 2019 Rakhigarhi DNA study

Prerequisites

Prehistoric Sites and Rock Art of Chhattisgarh: the Stone Age background before the first cities
Drainage of India: the Indus system and its tributaries, which locate most sites

Learning Path

Follow the topics in this order:

graph TD
    A["1. Sites and Town Planning
discovery, phases, sites,
drains, Great Bath"] --> B["2. Economy and Trade
crops, crafts, weights,
seals, Meluhha"]
    B --> C["3. Religion, Art and Script
Mother Goddess, Pashupati,
burials, undeciphered script"]
    C --> D["4. Decline and Legacy
theories, de-urbanisation,
new evidence"]
    D --> E["5. Quick Revision
One-page sheet"]
    E --> F["Next chapter:
Vedic Age"]

Topics in This Chapter

#	Topic	What it covers
1	Sites and Town Planning	Discovery (1921–1924), three phases, extent, the four extremities, a site-by-site table, citadel and lower town, grid streets, bricks, drains, houses, Great Bath, granaries, Lothal dock, Dholavira reservoirs
2	Economy and Trade	Wheat, barley, cotton and rice; ploughed field and plough model; animals and the horse question; crafts and metals; raw-material sources; weights and seals; Meluhha, Dilmun, Magan
3	Religion, Art and Script	Mother Goddess, Pashupati seal, linga-yoni, tree and animal worship, fire altars; burial types; Dancing Girl and Priest-King; the Indus script and why it is undeciphered
4	Decline and Legacy	Mature to Late Harappan, theories of decline with proponents and criticism, the 2025 drought study, Rakhigarhi DNA (2019), what survived
—	Quick Revision	Every site, date, scholar and object on one page

Where It Is Asked

Paper	What to expect
Prelims P-I (Part 1, India GS)	Site-river-state matching; excavators; “first / only / largest” sites; objects (Pashupati seal, Dancing Girl, Priest-King); crops and animals known or not known; Meluhha-Dilmun-Magan; script direction; decline theories and scholars. Statement-based and match-the-following formats are common
Mains P-III (GS-I), History of India	Short answers (features of town planning, uniqueness of Dholavira, why the script is undeciphered) and long answers (economic base and trade; religion and its continuity; critical examination of the decline)

Exam focus

High-yield: the site table (river, state, excavator, signature find); the four extremities; Kalibangan versus Banawali; the Pashupati seal animals; Dilmun = Bahrain, Magan = Oman; Wheeler versus Dales.
Common mistakes: calling Mohenjo-daro the first site excavated (it was Harappa); putting a bull on the Pashupati seal; saying the Harappans used iron or coins; treating the invasion theory as accepted.
Chhattisgarh angle for Mains: no Harappan site is known in Chhattisgarh, but the state offers living parallels: Bastar Dhokra uses the same lost-wax method as the Dancing Girl, and Pola keeps the reverence for the bull alive. Use such parallels carefully, as illustrations of continuity, not as proof.

Quick Reference: The Harappan Civilisation at a Glance

Item	Fact
Phases	Early c. 3300–2600 BCE · Mature c. 2600–1900 BCE · Late c. 1900–1300 BCE
Precursor	Mehrgarh (Balochistan), Neolithic, from c. 7000 BCE
First excavated	Harappa, Ravi, Daya Ram Sahni, 1921
Mohenjo-daro	Indus, Sindh, R.D. Banerji, 1922; Great Bath; UNESCO 1980
Announced	John Marshall, Illustrated London News, 20 September 1924
Extremities	Manda (N) · Daimabad (S) · Alamgirpur (E) · Sutkagendor (W)
Largest in India	Rakhigarhi (Hisar, Haryana)
Indian UNESCO site	Dholavira (Kutch), inscribed 27 July 2021
Town planning	Citadel (west) + lower town (east); grid streets; bricks 1:2:4; covered drains
Economy	Wheat, barley, cotton; bronze, no iron; barter; chert weights (binary for small)
Trade	Meluhha (Indus), Dilmun (Bahrain), Magan (Oman)
Religion	Mother Goddess, Pashupati seal, pipal, humped bull, fire altars; no temples
Script	About 400 signs; right to left; undeciphered (as of 2026)
Decline	From c. 1900 BCE; multiple causes; Wheeler’s invasion theory refuted by Dales (1964)

Related chapters: Vedic Age · Art and Culture · Ancient Chhattisgarh · Folk Arts of Chhattisgarh

Start Learning

Begin with the first topic:

→ Sites and Town Planning