Q&A on IVC

Q) Discuss the salient features of the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC)? 

A)  Indus valley civilisation started with the with rural settlement around 4000B.C and developed into mature form between 2500 B.C - 1,900 B.C. and gradually degenerated by 1,200 B.C. In its mature form, Indus valley witnessed a civilisation, whose advancements were unparalleled at its times.  Indus Valley Civilisation(IVC) has following characteristic features:-

Society and Social Organisation:-

a. Social Hierarchy:-  IVC is predominantly an urban society. With excavations at Mohenjadaro, Harappa, Dholavira and other sites we came across the division of the city into three parts. Those are i. Citadel, ii. Middle Buildings and iii. Lower Buildings. Due to these demarcations, Scholars believed in the existence of Social hierarchy between the groups, who are occupying those aforesaid portions of the city. 

b. Agriculture:- IVC cultivated Wheat and Barley as their staple food and they also produced Rye, Peas, Seasmum, Mustard. By early 1800 B.C, Lothal produced rice. IVC people consumed almost all foods except Sugarcane.

Pashupati Seal

c. Religion:- IVC doesnt have elaborate rituals or temples or Images dedicated for the worship. Their religion is based on their belief system. 

i. Pashupati Worship:- In Excavations, IVC produced a seal containing a person sitting in Yogic posture wearing Three-Horned-Headgear. Rightside of the image, there are Tiger and an Elephant and on the leftside there are Buffalo and One-horned Rhino. At the bottom of the Seal, we can observe the Antelopes. Scholars believed that IVC people would have worshipped Pashupati. 

Mother Godess

ii. Mother Goddess:- During excavations, IVC produced many artefacts bearing an image of the women. Scholars believed that IVC would have worshipped a woman in the form of Mother Goddess. 

iii. Great Bath:-  Mohanjadaro and some other sites produced huge Great Bath with depth of more than 2mts. Scholars believed that it is used for the religious purposes and there are rooms adjacent to the bath for changing clothes. 

d. Fashion:- IVC people are fashion conscious. They wore many ornaments like necklaces, Finger rings, Amulets, Bracelets, Bangles and many other made of Gold, Silver, Beads, e.t.c., 

e. Recreational Activities:- IVC people for the recreational activities, engaged into Dicing, Fishing, Boat racing, Buffalo fighting, e.t.c.,

Burial Practices

f. Burial Practices:- IVC practiced many burial practices. Many times, it used cremation but we can also find burial practices like Urn Burials, Burials in Sitting posture, where head is facing north, Brick chambered burials e.t.c.,

Town Planning & Architecture:-

One of the unique feature of the IVC is its town planning and architecture. 

Buildings:- Each building is built with baked bricks. Many of them are Double storied ones. Many houses have wells within their compounds. Each house is connected to drainage, which is sometimes closed with bricks. 

Buildings are constructed into a Grid Pattern, due to which Streets would cross with each other in perpendicular direction.  That means, streets are wide and open for commutation. 

As aforesaid, IVC towns had divisions within itself, Citadel, Middle Portions and Lower Buildings. The citadel is huge in many cases. It consists of Huge granaries, which must have used for holding grains. 

Economy:- 

According to scholars, Economy of IVC is mainly based on the Barter System and they also used Seals in trading. As the IVC were the first to produce the cotton in the world, They exported cotton and textiles to Greece, Mesopotamia, Mangolia and other far flung areas. Mesapatomians mentioned IVC as Meluha in their Inscriptions. 

They imported, Lapis Lazauli from Mangolia, Perfumes from Greece, Gold from Mesapatomia, Silver from Sumeria and Pearls and Shells from South India. 

They had their own system of Measurements. The starting weight is Measured in 16 and the remaining heavy weights are in multiples of the 16. 

Technology:- 

IVC knows metallurgy. They have the idea of Gold, Silver, Tin, Copper and other metals. They made Bronze by combining the Copper and Tin. Their advancements are conspicuous from the 4 inch dancing girl in tribhanga posture made of the Bronze. 

Art and Artefacts:- 

4" Tribhanga dancing girl

IVC produced many seals, For which they used mainly steatite. The most prominent one is the pashupati Seal. Some of the seals like Unicorn seals having the Pictographical script of the IVC. 

IVC produced Many statutes and Images. The most important ones are Dancing girl in Tribhanga posture made of Bronze, Bearded priest wearing shawl made of steatite, Red Colour male torso. 

Bearded Priest

IVC produced many mother goddess figures. It is a crude figure of a standing female adorned with necklaces hanging over prominent breasts. She wear loin cloth and a girdle. She also wear fan-shapped headgear.

IVC is marked with Pottery. Technically, it is called Black-polished-ware(BPW), which most beautiful pottery characterised by glowing and shining qualities with beautiful pictures around it.

In this way, IVC had flourished around 2,500 B.C to 1,900 B.C in matured form But, due to unknown factors, IVC gradually degenerated and at present it is silently standing as the evidence to great civilisation flourished once upon a time on the Indian Sub-Continent.