Decline of the Harappan civilisation

Topic: Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"; Class 7, Ch 4 "New Beginnings: Cities and States"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"

Meaning

The decline of the Harappan civilisation was the slow end of its cities after c. 1900 BCE. Seals, writing, standard weights, special beads, long-distance trade and big public buildings disappeared, and people moved to small villages. The people themselves did not vanish. This matters because it shows a civilisation can lose its cities and its "state" without being destroyed by war. It also explains the gap of over 1,000 years before cities rose again in the Ganga valley.

Explanation

Background: what "decline" actually means

• De-urbanisation (people leaving cities and going back to village life) is the best word for it.
• The Mature Harappan phase lasted c. 2600–1900 BCE.
• After c. 1900 BCE, the settlements that survived lost the common "package" that had tied the whole region together:
• Seals (small carved stamps used in trade)
• Writing (the Harappan script)
• Standard weights, which were replaced by local ones
• Special beads, such as etched carnelian beads (red stone beads with designs cut into them)

• Long-distance trade and craft specialisation (skilled workers making one kind of good)

• Because this shared package was lost, historians read it as the end of the Harappan state. It was not the end of the population.

Sequence of change

• c. 2200 BCE: a climate shift begins. Rainfall falls, the land gets drier and farming comes under stress.
• c. 1900 BCE: the urban features (seals, script, weights, beads) disappear from the surviving sites.
• Material decline in these late sites:
• fewer materials, and of poorer quality
• poorer house building

• no public structures, so no more civic works like the Great Bath

• By c. 1800 BCE: sites in Cholistan (the Hakra area) are abandoned.

• People move east and south, into Gujarat, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

• Settlements become rural (village-based).

• Over 1,000 years later: cities appear again in the Ganga valley. This is the Second Urbanisation, and it happened in a completely different region.

Causes: a debate with no single answer

• Historians have suggested several causes. Each fits some sites, but none explains the collapse of the whole civilisation:
• climate change
• deforestation (cutting down forests)
• too many floods
• rivers shifting or drying up

• overuse of the land

• Two factors are now more widely accepted (NCERT Class 6): 1. Climate shift from c. 2200 BCE: less rain and a drier phase, which hurt farming. 2. Drying of the Sarasvatī in its central basin. This is directly linked to the abandonment of Kalibangan and Banawali.

• The wider scholarly view agrees there is no single cause.

• Suggested drivers include a slow change in climate and monsoon, and farming stress from a growing population that overused resources.

• There are also sudden-event theories, such as earth movements (tectonic disruption) changing the rivers that fed the Sarasvati/Ghaggar system [2].

• Scientific studies support the climate story.

• Isotope and plant-remains studies show the monsoon weakening after c. 5,000 years BP (before present).

• Around 4,200 years BP, farmers shifted from wheat and barley to drought-resistant millets. This was a way of adapting to less rain, and it fits the NCERT climate-shift dating [3].

• No evidence of war: no army and no weapons of war have been found. By the material record, it was a fairly peaceful civilisation.

The invasion theory and how it was disproved

• 1925: John Marshall's excavation finds 16 skeletons in "Deadman Lane" at Mohenjodaro.
• 1947: Mortimer Wheeler links these skeletons to the Ṛig Veda.
• The Ṛig Veda mentions pur (forts) and calls the god Indra puramdara ("destroyer of forts").

• Wheeler's famous line: "On circumstantial evidence, Indra stands accused." He meant that invading Aryans had destroyed the city.

• 1964: George F. Dales rejects this in his paper "The Mythical Massacre at Mohenjodaro" [4]. His reasons:

• The skeletons come from different time periods.
• The burials are careless and without ceremony. They do not look like soldiers killed in battle.
• There is no destruction layer and no burnt city.
• There are no armoured warriors.

• There is no sign of a last defence of the citadel (the raised, walled part of the city).

• Dales also said the bodies were scattered across the site. They were not lying in the streets "where they were slain", as Wheeler had claimed. Some may be later deaths with no link to the city's end, for example victims of hill bandits [4].

• This is a classic example of new study of the evidence reversing an accepted view in archaeology.

Result: the people and their culture carried on

• Many Harappan practices continued into later Indian life:
• the plough
• bangles worn up the full arm, still seen in Gujarat and Rajasthan
• the 'namaste' figurine posture
• games and toys
• the thirsty-crow motif (the crow-and-pitcher story) on a pot from Lothal

• continuing craft traditions

• So the decline ended the cities and the urban "state" package. It did not end the people or their way of life.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Mature phase c. 2600–1900 BCE. The decline runs from c. 2200 BCE (climate stress) through c. 1900 BCE (urban features lost) to c. 1800 BCE (Cholistan abandoned). The whole civilisation is dated c. 3500–1300 BCE.
• Region and sites:
• Mohenjodaro: Deadman Lane skeletons
• Cholistan (Hakra): abandoned by c. 1800 BCE
• Kalibangan and Banawali: abandoned as the Sarasvatī dried
• Lothal: thirsty-crow pot

• Gujarat, Haryana, western UP: areas people moved to

• Key people:

• John Marshall: 1925 excavation
• Mortimer Wheeler: 1947 invasion thesis

• George F. Dales: 1964 rebuttal

• How we know:

• Archaeological finds, including the disappearance of seals, weights, script and beads from late layers, and changes in where people settled.
• Skeletal remains at Mohenjodaro [4].
• Oxygen-isotope and plant-remains studies on the monsoon and the shift to millets [3].
• NCERT Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones" and Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation".

Don't confuse with

• Aryan invasion thesis (Wheeler, 1947): the old idea that invaders violently destroyed the cities. The current view is a gradual, mainly climate- and river-driven de-urbanisation, with no destruction layer and no war evidence.
• Great Bath / civic works of the Mature phase: these belong to the urban peak. The Late Harappan (post-1900 BCE) sites have no public structures.
• Second Urbanisation: the rise of cities in the Ganga valley more than 1,000 years later. It was a new region, not a continuation of the Harappan cities.
• Drying of the Sarasvatī vs excessive floods: both are proposed causes. Only the Sarasvatī drying is directly linked to the abandonment of Kalibangan and Banawali.

Prelims Hooks

• 1925: John Marshall finds 16 skeletons in "Deadman Lane", Mohenjodaro. 1947: Wheeler says "On circumstantial evidence, Indra stands accused." 1964: George Dales writes "The Mythical Massacre at Mohenjodaro".
• Indra is called puramdara ("fort-destroyer") in the Ṛig Veda. Wheeler used this as evidence for an Aryan attack.
• Two more widely accepted causes (NCERT Class 6): climate shift from c. 2200 BCE and drying of the Sarasvatī (Kalibangan and Banawali abandoned).
• Cholistan (Hakra) sites were abandoned by c. 1800 BCE, and people moved into Gujarat, Haryana and western UP.
• Things lost after c. 1900 BCE: seals, script, standard weights, etched carnelian beads, long-distance trade and craft specialisation. Trap: the plough and full-arm bangles were not lost; they continued.
• Continuity markers: plough, full-arm bangles (Gujarat/Rajasthan), namaste figurine, thirsty-crow motif on a Lothal pot.

Mains Points

• Decline had many causes and was gradual:
• The single-cause "Aryan invasion" model has been dropped.
• It was replaced by long-term climate and river stress (aridity after 2200 BCE, the Sarasvatī drying), backed by evidence of a weaker monsoon and a shift to millets [3].

• This is a useful GS-I example of why explaining history with only one factor is risky.

• Changing interpretations in history:

• Wheeler (1947) was overturned by Dales (1964) [4].
• This shows how re-studying sources can overturn an accepted view.

• It also shows the danger of reading archaeology through religious texts on circumstantial evidence.

• The state ended, but the culture continued:

• The script, weights, seals and trade networks disappeared.
• The people, their crafts and their customs survived into later Indian civilisation.
• This argues against a "clean break" in Indian history, and it anchors comparison with the Second Urbanisation in the Ganga valley.

Related concepts

• 4.2 kiloyear event
• Late Harappan phase
• Cemetery H culture
• Jhukar culture
• Sinauli
• Thirsty crow pot
• Aryan invasion theory
• Mortimer Wheeler
• Mythical massacre at Mohenjo-daro

Read more

• Decline: end of the cities, not the people