India's first urban civilization: its cities, economy, society and decline
Harappan Civilization: Discovery, Naming and Chronology
The Basics
In 1853, Alexander Cunningham, a British engineer and excavator, noticed a seal showing a bull and six written letters at Harappa, but he did not grasp its significance. The real breakthrough came in 1921, when Indian archaeologist Daya Ram Sahni began excavating Harappa in Punjab. Around the same time, R. D. Banerjee excavated Mohenjo-daro in Sindh. Both sites yielded pottery and antiquities pointing to a developed, unknown civilization. John Marshall supervised large-scale excavations at Mohenjo-daro from 1931, followed by Mackay in 1938, Vats at Harappa in 1940, and Mortimer Wheeler in 1946. After independence, Indian and Pakistani archaeologists, including Suraj Bhan, S. R. Rao, B. B. Lal and M. R. Mughal, extended work across Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan and Pakistan.
By the mature Harappan phase, cities like Mohenjodaro and Harappa were no longer simple villages but planned urban centres. This did not mean every Harappan settlement was a city; most people still lived in villages that supplied food and labour to the cities, while city-made goods travelled back to the villages.
By the mature Harappan phase, common features already studied, such as planning and drainage, took different shapes at different places. Each city grew along its own river, in its own region. Each served its own role in trade and farming.
The Harappan civilization spread over alluvial plains, mountains, plateaux and coasts, so its farmers could never have followed one single cropping pattern. Agriculture was the main source of food, but it was backed up by animal husbandry and hunting, with riverine and marine resources tapped where available, so that if one resource failed, people could fall back on another.
With food surplus freeing part of the population from farming, Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Chanhudaro, Lothal and other cities became centres of craft production. Craft activity was often localized in particular parts of a settlement. Some sites specialized in one or two crafts, while others, like Harappa, made a wide range of goods.
The Harappans left no readable texts, so everything known about their religion comes from objects: seals, terracotta figurines, altars and graves. In 1931, John Marshall first outlined 'Harappan religion' from this evidence. He is now criticised for reading later Hindu ideas too freely into Indus material. Because the script remains undeciphered, every interpretation stays a hypothesis. Historians still debate what these objects meant to the people who made them.
At their peak, Harappan cities shared a common culture. Towns like Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Kalibangan, Dholavira and Banawali had standard town planning, weights and seals. They were linked through trade networks. This uniformity lasted for centuries. But sometime after 2200 BCE, cracks began appearing in this stable urban world.