Indus valley Civilization: An untold story
When
the world didn’t wake, we measured to 20th part of a gram. when the
world didn’t know where to live we constructed two stair buildings. Suddenly, what
happened to the largest ancient civilization, the most advanced Bronze Age
civilization and the civilization which has accounted for over five million
population at its peak. Scientists said that the civilization existed between
3300BCE-1300BCE. What happened after that?? Does anybody knows?? The
contemporary civilizations to the Indus valley civilizations, Egyptian and
Mesopotamian, left some clues while the Indus valley left questions… let us dig
deep into the earth to unearth the secrets of ‘the greatest civilization world
has ever seen’…
We need to go back as less as 7000 BC to unearth the secrets. But the early Harappa civilization was dated back to 3300BC. From that time it has existed for over two millenniums. The mystery that unrevealed is that what made them to extinct without leaving any traces to future races.
Prosperity of Indus civilization:
Harappa civilization has well flourished by the year 2600BC. By that time there was many no of cities out of which 1052 cities were found as of now. And the historians say that the population in the cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro crossed one million each, You can imagine how big they were in that period. The cities were very well planned including drainage facilities. The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage that were developed and used in cities throughout the Indus region were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East and even more efficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and India today.One of the most debatable topic is the monuments. Harappans didn’t build any great monuments unlike its contemporaries (Egyptians). There is no conclusive evidence for that. The trading was taking place at very good levels with the contemporaries.
People of Indus civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass and time. They measured weights as low as 0.05 kg, they measured lengths as less as 1.074 mm. They extracted several metals like copper, bronze, lead, tin etc. their engineering skills were remarkable.
They had very sophisticated writing system. Archeologists have found up to 600 different indus symbols from the things they unearthed. Though their script is not able to understand properly, it is quite similar to Dravidian languages. Even some of the symbols in that script were found in Dravidian languages.
The
roots of Hinduism lies in indus civilization, the seal found resembles the god
Shiva. And there was a clear evidence that those people worshipped mother
goddess, name includes Parvati, Sakti. Shiva lingam and Swastick symbols were
found from excavated area.
Can mystery be solved…..
The
reasons behind the decline of Harappa civilization are clearly unknown. There
are many theories, among which ‘Aryans invasion’ was the most popular one.
According to that theory, Aryans are the people belong to central Asia, who
were able to ride horses, invaded indus people. And historians say that those
were Sanskrit speaking people, those are the ones who wrote Vedas, sacred texts
of Hinduism. Interestingly Rig-Veda, first of all four, was written in the
period ranging from 1700BC-1100BC, after the decline of indus valley
civilization. However, there is no evidence from Vedas about the invasion
theory. In Sanskrit Aryas means nobles but not the invaders. However, how can they portray themselves as villains in
the entire episode, not to say, Vedas were written by Aryans only. Theories of violent
ends have been partly proved by the discovery in Mohenjo-Daro of human remains
that indicated a violent cause of death. However such evidence was not
consistent as most other cities showed an absence of a massacre.
Another
popular thesis or speculation is the climatic changes and the change of
direction of Indus River. It is said by the historians that major ecological
changes had happened around 2000 BC, like tectonic changes caused the creation
of a dam in the lower Indus, thus flooding the plains and cities. Evidence to
prove this hypothesis has been found. But here the question is, how can that
adverse ecological changes can happen in just one century, like changing the
course of the river. Also the average rain fall began decreasing, eventually
created a desert.
One
more thing one needs observe is about River Saraswathi. According to the Rig-Veda
and other literature available, there was three major rivers named Saraswathi,
along with Ganga (Ganges) and Yamuna. But now we can’t find river Saraswathi,
instead, there is a desert (Thar). According to the Mahabharata, the Saraswathi
dried up in a desert (at a place named Vinasana or Adarsana);after having
disappeared in the desert, reappears in some places; and joins the sea
"impetuously". Might those climatic changes created a desert, in a
well flourished land.
As the
Indus civilization was the very recently excavated one (1842), it still needs
much more research to find any clues about the fall of that civilization and to
give any conclusive statements regarding that. Till then, it’ll be one among
the great untold mysteries of the world…
In : ancient history
Tags: indus valley civilization mystery india ancient aryans river sindhu saraswathi sarasvati technology ancient
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