The End of the Civilisation
a. There is evidence that by c. 1800 BCE most of the Mature Harappan sites had been abandoned. Simultaneously, there wasan expansion of population into new settlements in Gujarat, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
b. Distinctive artefacts of the civilisation- weights, seals, special beads, Writing, long-distance trade, and craft specialization disappeared after 1800 BCE. House construction techniques deteriorated and large public structures were no longer produced.
c. Overall disappearance of artefacts and settlements indicates a rural way of life in what is called Vedic culture or vedic civilisation began.
d. Several explanations have been put forward. These range from climatic change, deforestation,excessive floods, the shifting and/or drying up of rivers, to overuse of the landscape.
e. Some of these“causes” may hold for certain settlements, but theydo not explain the collapse of the entire civilisation. It appears that a strong unifying element, perhaps the Harappan state, came to an end.
Evidence of an “invasion”in Indus valley civilisation
a. Deadman Lane is a narrow valley where part of a skull, the bones of the thorax and upper arm of an adult were discovered. All were in very friable condition, at a depth of 4 ft 2 in. The body lay on its back diagonally across the lane. Fifteen inches to the west were a few fragments of a tiny skull. It is to these remains that the lane owe sits name.
b. Sixteen skeletons of people with the ornaments that they were wearing when they died were found from the same part of Mohenjodaro in 1925.
c. R.E.M. Wheeler, then Director-General of the ASI, tried to correlate this archaeological evidence with that of the Rigveda, the earliest known text in the subcontinent.
d. There is no destruction level covering the latest period of the city Mohenjodaro, no sign of extensive burning, no bodies of warriors clad in Armour and surrounded by the weapons of war. The citadel, the only fortified part of the city,yielded no evidence of a final defence.