Second Urbanisation

Topic: Janapadas, Mahajanapadas and the Second Urbanisation · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 4 "New Beginnings: Cities and States"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"

Meaning

The Second Urbanisation is the new phase of city life that began in the 1st millennium BCE in the Ganga plains, parts of the Sindhu basin and nearby regions. It started about a thousand years after the Harappan cities ended, and it spread slowly across the subcontinent.

It matters because, unlike the Harappan cities, these cities never disappeared. India's urban life has continued without a break from the early Ganga towns until today. It also came together with early states, iron, coins, and Buddhism and Jainism. This is why the sixth century BCE is treated as a major turning point.

Explanation

Background: the first cities and the long gap

• First Urbanisation: The Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvatī) civilisation was India's first city-based society. It broke down in the early 2nd millennium BCE.
• Britannica dates the decline to roughly 2000–1750 BCE. It says the decline came in stages, perhaps over a century or more, and not in one sudden event [2].

• Mohenjo-daro's end was sharp and sudden. In Kathiawar and further south, things looked very different [2].

• What disappeared shows what a "city" needs:

• big houses and public buildings
• crowded streets and markets
• full-time specialists such as metalsmiths, potters, builders and weavers
• a writing system and seals
• drains and sanitation
• an administration, a state structure and a ruling class

• Britannica also notes that writing, seals and several specialised urban crafts disappeared [2].

• The people did not disappear. Some cities were abandoned. In others, people stayed but went back to village life. The old system of social and political control ended [2].

• The urban gap: For about one millennium, India had no real cities, apart from a few possible towns.
• Britannica calls this the "Post-Harappan" or, better, the "Post-Urban" period. It lasted until about 750 BCE [2].
• Regional cultures carried on through this gap: village farming, pottery styles and metal work all continued.

Causes: what made cities possible again

Iron, surplus and trade worked together:

• Iron: Iron working "coincided with, if not actually contributed to" this change [2].
• The earliest dated iron is probably from about 1200–1100 BCE at Pirak, in the Kachchhi region [2].

• Iron axes helped clear forest, and iron ploughs could turn the heavy, wet Ganga soil.

• Surplus (food grown beyond what farmers themselves need): A larger harvest could feed people who did not farm.

• These non-farmers, such as craftsmen, traders, soldiers and officials, lived in towns.

• Settlement growth: Painted Grey Ware (PGW) settlements spread eastward into the upper Ganges–Yamuna valleys. PGW is grey pottery painted with simple designs.

• By the second quarter of the 1st millennium BCE, this growth produced the first cities of the Ganges system [2][3].

Main features: the sixth-century package

NCERT (Class 12, "Kings, Farmers and Towns") calls the sixth century BCE a major turning point. Five things arrive together:

• Early states: the janapadas (early kingdoms named after the land where a people settled) and the mahajanapadas (the bigger, more powerful kingdoms that grew out of them).
• Cities: the towns of the Second Urbanisation. Many of them were capitals of mahajanapadas.
• Growing use of iron: better tools and more farm produce.
• Coinage: money made trade and tax collection easier.
• New systems of thought: including Buddhism and Jainism.

How the parts fed each other

• Towns and trade needed money, so coins appeared.
• Surplus and towns needed someone to collect taxes and defend them, so states appeared.
• Towns brought together new groups. Traders and artisans asked new questions about the old ritual order.

• Buddhism and Jainism found listeners among them.

• Result: City life spread gradually across the subcontinent, and it has continued right up to today (Class 7, "New Beginnings").

Time, place and evidence

• When:
• Britannica puts the start in the Ganga and Yamuna valleys around 900 BCE [2].
• The first Ganga cities appear in the second quarter of the 1st millennium BCE (c. 750–500 BCE) [2][3].
• NCERT treats the sixth century BCE as the turning point.

• The earlier dates show when the process began. The sixth century BCE is when cities were fully formed. Use the NCERT date as the exam answer.

• Where: The Ganga plains, parts of the Sindhu basin and nearby regions. From there it spread across the subcontinent.

• Pottery markers:
• Painted Grey Ware (PGW): usually dated c. 1200–800 BCE [3].

• Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW): a fine, shiny black pottery. The Second Urbanisation is generally placed at the end of the PGW phase and with the use of NBPW [3].

• How we know: there are two kinds of evidence. 1. Archaeological excavation: digging up the ancient towns and studying what lies in the ground. 2. Ancient literature: late Vedic, Buddhist and Jain texts often mention the new cities.

• A claim is strongest when both agree. An example is a city named in a text whose site, when dug up, contains NBPW pottery.

Don't confuse with

• First Urbanisation (Harappan): It ended in the early 2nd millennium BCE and left no city that continued. The Second Urbanisation began in the 1st millennium BCE and never ended.
• Post-Urban (Post-Harappan) period: This is the gap between the two urbanisations, lasting until about 750 BCE [2]. Village life went on, but there were no real cities.
• Painted Grey Ware vs Northern Black Polished Ware: PGW (c. 1200–800 BCE) belongs to the build-up to the Second Urbanisation. NBPW marks the urban phase itself [3].
• c. 900 BCE vs sixth century BCE: 900 BCE is Britannica's date for when the process began [2]. The sixth century BCE is NCERT's date for the full turning point, with states, cities, iron, coins and new religions.

Prelims Hooks

• India's First Urbanisation was the Harappan civilisation. The Second Urbanisation began in the 1st millennium BCE in the Ganga plains and parts of the Sindhu basin.
• The gap between the two urbanisations was about one millennium. Britannica calls it the "Post-Urban" period, lasting until about 750 BCE [2].
• Painted Grey Ware is dated c. 1200–800 BCE. The Second Urbanisation is seen at the end of PGW and with NBPW [3].
• The earliest dated iron is from about 1200–1100 BCE at Pirak, in the Kachchhi region [2].
• The two kinds of evidence are archaeological excavation and late Vedic, Buddhist and Jain texts.
• Trap: The Harappan decline (c. 2000–1750 BCE) happened in stages, not in one sudden event everywhere. Only Mohenjo-daro's end was sudden [2].

Mains Points

• The true root of the Indian city: The first urbanisation left no city that survived. The second has never broken. So the Ganga towns, not Harappa, are the real start of India's continuous urban history.

• The gap shows that cities need certain conditions, not just people. The same people stayed on the same land but built no city for a thousand years. Cities need surplus, specialists, trade and a ruling authority.

• Iron: cause or companion? Britannica says iron "coincided with, if not actually contributed to" the change [2].

• For: iron axes and ploughs opened up the wet Ganga forests and raised surplus.

• Against: PGW settlements were already growing, so iron may only have sped up a process that had other causes, such as rice farming, population growth and trade routes.

• One package, not five facts: A good GS-I answer shows how states, cities, iron, coins, and Buddhism and Jainism fit together in the sixth century BCE.

• Surplus feeds towns.
• Towns need money and rulers.
• Towns create new social groups, such as traders and artisans, who question the old ritual order.

Read more

• From First Urbanisation to Second