🏺 Indus Valley Civilisation & the Vedic Age

Harappan Sites and What Each Is Known For

Exams rarely ask "where is site X?" in isolation — they pair a site with its signature find. Learn the table as pairs.

Defining Features

• Town planning: streets on a grid, a raised citadel and a lower town, covered drains, and baked bricks in a standard 1:2:4 ratio.
• Economy: wheat and barley, the earliest known cotton cultivation, standardised weights (binary multiples of 16), and trade with Mesopotamia, which called the region "Meluhha".
• Religion: mother-goddess figurines, the "Proto-Shiva" (Pashupati) seal, worship of trees and animals — but no temple has been found.
• Script: pictographic and still undeciphered; most inscriptions are short seal texts.
• Not known: iron and, at most sites, the horse — two classic "which was absent?" questions.

Early Vedic (Rigvedic) Period, c. 1500–1000 BCE

• The Rigveda has 10 Mandalas and about 1,028 hymns. The Gayatri Mantra (addressed to Savitri) is in Mandala III; the Purusha Sukta in Mandala X is the first mention of the four varnas.
• Indra is the most-praised god (about 250 hymns), followed by Agni (about 200).
• Society was pastoral and tribal; wealth was counted in cattle. The Sabha and Samiti were popular assemblies; women attended them.
• The Battle of Ten Kings (Dasarajna) was fought on the Parushni (Ravi); the Bharata king Sudas won.
• The Sindhu is the most-mentioned river; the Saraswati is praised as "naditama" (best of rivers).

Later Vedic Period, c. 1000–600 BCE

• The centre shifted east to the Ganga–Yamuna doab; iron (krishna ayas) came into use and Painted Grey Ware is the period's pottery.
• Agriculture became the main occupation; the varna system grew rigid and the Sabha and Samiti lost importance.
• Prajapati, Vishnu and Rudra rose in importance as Indra and Agni declined.
• The Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads were composed. India's motto "Satyameva Jayate" comes from the Mundaka Upanishad.

The Four Vedas

The 16 Mahajanapadas (6th century BCE)

Buddhist (Anguttara Nikaya) and Jain texts list sixteen great states, from Gandhara and Kamboja in the north-west to Assaka on the Godavari in the south. Four were dominant — Magadha, Kosala, Vatsa and Avanti — and Magadha eventually absorbed the rest, with its capital moving from Rajagriha (Rajgir) to Pataliputra. Vajji (capital Vaishali) is often cited as an early republic (gana-sangha).

Recent SSC and PSC papers use three patterns for this topic — practise all three:

1. Site ↔ find matching: "Match List I (site) with List II (find)" — Lothal/dockyard, Kalibangan/ploughed field, Mohenjo-daro/Great Bath.
2. "Which was NOT known to the Harappans?" — the expected answer is usually iron (or the horse).
3. Early vs Later Vedic contrasts: cattle → agriculture, Indra → Prajapati, flexible → rigid varna, Sabha/Samiti strong → weak.

🔁 Revise in 60 Seconds

• Harappa 1921 (Sahni, Ravi); Mohenjo-daro 1922 (Banerji, Indus).
• Lothal dockyard; Kalibangan ploughed field; Dholavira reservoirs (UNESCO 2021); Rakhigarhi largest in India.
• Rigveda: 10 Mandalas, ~1,028 hymns; Gayatri in III, Purusha Sukta in X.
• Later Vedic: iron, Painted Grey Ware, Prajapati, rigid varna.

📌 Prelims Traps to Avoid

• ✘ Harappan civilisation had no temples and no iron.
• ✘ The Harappan script is undeciphered — options claiming it was read by Prinsep refer to Brahmi, not Harappan.
• ✘ The four varnas are first mentioned in the Purusha Sukta (Mandala X), a late part of the Rigveda.

Who discovered the Indus Valley Civilisation?

Harappa was excavated by Daya Ram Sahni in 1921 and Mohenjo-daro by R.D. Banerji in 1922, under ASI Director-General John Marshall, who announced the discovery in 1924.

What is the difference between the Early and Later Vedic periods?

The Early Vedic period (c. 1500–1000 BCE) was pastoral and tribal with Indra and Agni as chief gods. The Later Vedic period (c. 1000–600 BCE) saw iron, settled agriculture in the Ganga valley, a rigid varna system and the rise of Prajapati and Vishnu.