First Urbanisation

History glossary

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

Meaning

First Urbanisation is the name for the rise of the first cities in the Indian subcontinent: the cities of the Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvatī) Civilisation, which were at their peak in the mature phase, c. 2600–1900 BCE. The name matters because it marks India's first experience of city life. It also lets historians compare these cities with the Second Urbanisation, when cities grew again in the Gangetic plains from c. 600 BCE onward.

Explanation

Background: from villages to cities

  • The Harappan Civilisation as a whole spans c. 3500–1300 BCE. Cities were at their height only in the mature phase (c. 2600–1900 BCE).
  • In the earlier phase, people lived mostly in farming villages and small settlements.
  • Cities need extra food:
  • Farmers had to grow a surplus, which means more food than they needed for themselves.

  • This surplus fed people in cities who did not farm, such as craftspeople, traders and officials.

  • NCERT calls this productive agriculture. It is one of its 7 tests for a "civilisation". The others are government and administration, urbanism, crafts, trade, writing, and cultural ideas.

Main features of Harappan urban life

  • Urbanism (planned city life). This means town planning, water management and drainage.
  • Standard materials. Baked and unbaked bricks, seals, standardised weights (weights of fixed, matching sizes), beads and copper-bronze objects are found across a very wide area.
  • A ranking of settlements. Sites fall into clear levels:
  • 5 major cities: Rakhigarhi, Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira and Ganweriwala
  • regional centres

  • agricultural villages, ports (e.g. Lothal) and craft or manufacturing centres (e.g. Chanhudaro, which had no citadel, or raised fortified area)

  • Water management. Dholavira is famous for its reservoirs (large tanks for storing water) [2].

  • Trade, both inside and outside the region. Dholavira shows trade links with Mesopotamia and the Oman peninsula [2].

Decline and the long gap

  • After c. 1900 BCE, the big cities declined. Settlements became smaller, and the late phase continued until about c. 1300 BCE.
  • Historians do not agree on why the cities declined. Common explanations include changes in climate and rivers, floods, and pressure on the land. No single cause is accepted.
  • Result: For more than a thousand years, there were no large cities in the subcontinent.
  • City life came back with the Second Urbanisation, centred on the Gangetic plains from c. 600 BCE.

Time, place and evidence

  • Period: Mature Harappan phase, c. 2600–1900 BCE. The whole civilisation spans c. 3500–1300 BCE.
  • Area: Finds come from Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Sindh and Pakistani Punjab, and from Jammu & Kashmir, Indian Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
  • More than 2,000 sites are known.

  • Most of them lie between the Indus and Sarasvatī (Ghaggar-Hakra) river basins.

  • Major cities and where they are today:

  • Rakhigarhi: Haryana, the largest known site
  • Mohenjo-daro: Sindh, Pakistan
  • Harappa: Punjab, Pakistan, the first site to be discovered
  • Dholavira: Rann of Kutch, Gujarat

  • Ganweriwala: Cholistan desert, Pakistan

  • Other sites:

  • Kalibangan: Rajasthan, on the Ghaggar
  • Lothal: Gujarat, a port
  • Chanhudaro: Sindh, a craft town

  • Bhirrana, Banawali and Farmana: Haryana, in the Sarasvatī basin

  • Key people: Harappa was excavated in 1921 under Daya Ram Sahni. Mohenjo-daro was excavated in 1922 under R.D. Banerji.

  • How we know:
  • Almost all our evidence comes from archaeology (digging up and studying old sites and objects): bricks, seals, weights, beads, pottery and city layouts.
  • The Harappan script has not been deciphered (read), so there are no written records we can use.
  • Dholavira was discovered in 1968 and excavated over 13 field seasons (1989–2005) [2].
  • Dholavira was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021 as "Dholavira: a Harappan City". It lies on Khadir island in the Rann of Kutch [2].
  • It was occupied c. 3000–1500 BCE. When it was inscribed, it ranked as the 6th largest Harappan site [2].

Don't confuse with

  • Second Urbanisation: These were the Gangetic plain cities from c. 600 BCE onward. The First Urbanisation is the Harappan cities of c. 2600–1900 BCE, in the Indus–Sarasvatī region.
  • Indus Valley Civilisation: This is a name for the civilisation, not for the process of cities rising. Revised NCERT treats the name as obsolete because sites extend far beyond the Indus basin.
  • Whole Harappan period vs mature phase: The civilisation spans c. 3500–1300 BCE. The First Urbanisation refers mainly to the city-building mature phase, c. 2600–1900 BCE.
  • Dholavira's dates vs the civilisation's dates: c. 3000–1500 BCE is how long that one site was occupied [2]. It is not the date range of the whole civilisation.

Prelims Hooks

  • The rise of the Harappan Civilisation = First Urbanisation of India. The Gangetic cities (c. 600 BCE onward) = Second Urbanisation.
  • Mature (urban) Harappan phase: c. 2600–1900 BCE.
  • The five major cities are Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Mohenjo-daro (Sindh), Harappa (Pakistani Punjab), Dholavira (Gujarat) and Ganweriwala (Cholistan). Rakhigarhi is the largest.
  • Lothal (Gujarat) = port town. Chanhudaro (Sindh) = craft town with no citadel.
  • Dholavira: UNESCO World Heritage Site (2021), on Khadir island in the Rann of Kutch. It shows trade with Mesopotamia and the Oman peninsula [2].
  • NCERT's civilisation checklist has 7 criteria. "Urbanism" covers town planning, water management and drainage.

Mains Points

  • Continuity and change in Indian urban history:
  • Using the term First Urbanisation lets an answer compare the Harappan cities (planned towns, drainage, standard weights) with the Second Urbanisation in the Ganga plains (c. 600 BCE onward).

  • The gap of more than a thousand years shows that city life in India was not continuous.

  • Governance shown without written records:

  • The levels of settlement (5 major cities, then regional centres, then villages, ports and craft towns) and the shared standards across 2,000+ sites point to some form of organised control.

  • We know this only from archaeological evidence, because the script remains unread.

  • Names follow evidence:

  • Most sites lie between the Indus and Sarasvatī basins. This is why the name moved from "Indus Valley" to "Sindhu-Sarasvatī".
  • Dholavira's water system and its trade with Mesopotamia and Oman give a concrete example of the city life and external trade of the First Urbanisation [2].

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"; Class 7, Ch 4 "New Beginnings: Cities and States" (primary)
  2. 2Dholavira: a Harappan Citywhc.unesco.org · tier 2