Guide: Overview of Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) - UPSC PDF Download

Did you know, “Dentistry was a profession practiced during the time of Indus Valley Civilization”? The world of archaeology got surprised when in 2006, when a British scientific journal “Nature”, wrote that the first evidence of drilling of human teeth was found at the excavation in Mehrgarh, Pakistan (Indus Valley Civilization) dating back to 5,500 BC.

Excavated ruins of Indus Valley

Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) is filled with such interesting facts & stories and lays the foundation of Ancient Indian history. It is one of the oldest known Civilizations, contemporary of Egyptian & Mesopotamian civilizations.

Why do you need to learn this chapter?

IVC forms a landmark in the prehistory of the Indian subcontinent. We can trace our present culture, religion, Socio-Economic and political structure to the ancient civilization of the Indian subcontinent. The IVC also marks the beginning of a system of language, script, art, and science.

In-depth study of IVC is also important from the civil services point of view. The weightage of art and culture has been increasing in the last few years in both preliminary and mains examination of UPSC. It will not be wrong to say that IVC is one of the sub-sets of the broad topic of the art and culture in UPSC.

The questions of UPSC are that which a rational man with a curious mind can boggle with and leads to your journey of becoming an officer.
Think of these questions:

• What were the food, social habits of IVC people & are they relevant to the modern society?
• What are relations ships during the Indus Valley Civilisation?
• Were the people of IVC religious? If yes, which gods they worship?
• What were the tools they used? Which metals did they know? What system of weights and measures did they used? 

You will get answers to these questions and many more in this course of IVC at EduRev. To help your retention EDUREV comes with a series of concentration questions - factual in nature. These are a direct indicator of your progress in the course. Try this one: 

Structure of IVC on EduRev

EduRev provides an in-depth analysis of the various concepts in IVC and that too in a scientific manner which helps you retain, assimilate and analyze the concepts and enhance your fluid intelligence to answer some of the challenging questions of UPSC civil services.
In this chapter, we cover different aspects of IVC, mainly in 4 distinct modules:
Module 1: History and sources of past, Introduction to IVC, geographical location and significance of sites, theories of origin, town planning and architecture

Videos:
1. Introduction & Indus Valley Cities

2. Evolution & Discovery of IVC 

3. IVC Sites and their Significance

4. Overview of Indus Valley Civilisation

Notes:
1. Discovery of IVC & Theories of Origin 
2. Urban Growth & Significance of IVC 
3. Town Planning and Architecture 

Test & Mind-maps: 

1. Test: Introduction Of IVC & Town Planning

2. MindMaps: Introduction to IVC & Town Planning 

Module 2: Political, Social and Economic life of the people during IVC

Videos: 

1. Political Structure

2. Social Life

3. Economic Life 

Notes:
1. Political, Social & Economic Life of the people during IVC

Test & Mind-map:

1. Test: Political Socio-Economic Life 

2. Mind-map: Political, Social & Economic Life

Module 3: Religion, sculpture, seals, and tools of the people at IVC

Videos:

1. Sculptures, Seals and Pottery 

2. Tools, Script & Religion 

Notes: 

Religion, Sculpture, Seals & Tools of the people at IVC 

Test & Mind-map:

1. Test: Religion, Sculptures & Seals 

2. MindMap: Religion, Sculptures & Seals 

Module 4: Theory of decline of IVC & the essence & legacy of IVC 

Videos:

1. Decline of IVC 

2. Recognition of IVC by PM Narendra Modi 

3. Legacy of IVC

Notes: Theory of Decline of IVC & its Legacy

Test & Mind-map:

1. Test: Decline Of IVC 

2. MindMap: Decline of IVC 

Complete Chapter Tests:

1. Test: Indus Valley Civilization (UPSC Level)

2. Test: Indus Valley Civilization (State Service Exams)

3. Final Test: Indus Valley Civilisation - 1

4. Final Test: Indus Valley Civilisation - 2

5. Final Test: Indus Valley Civilisation - 3

Every module shall comprise of videos, notes, tests and mind-maps. Let us look at the structure of each module in detail.

EduRev Videos

Features of Videos at EduRev

• The video lectures have been prepared by Ms. Binu Krishna, who has appeared for UPSC Mains Exam 3 times & 1 interview and had scored 145 marks in 2015 (equivalent to AIR 1 ~ Tina Dabi).
• Videos are lucid, graphically engaging and designed in a manner so as to increase the retention of information in the mind of the student.
• Each video is around 10-15 mins so that concepts can be learned at a crisp pace with maximum retention in the mind of the learner.
• Videos at EduRev are complete in all aspects of conceptual coverage and scientific learning and aspirants can bank upon us for UPSC.

EduRev Notes

Once you are through with a particular bunch of videos, you would need to start reading the notes which provide the detailed version of the videos.  Notes are prepared by some of the best teachers available for civil services preparation in India. These notes are the culmination of several hundreds of hours of efforts of experienced faculties in this field and selected candidates curating the content, especially designed with a pedagogy which makes retention easier and relevant to the current patterns and trends of civil services examination. Here the aspirants are advised to chalk down the main points/footnotes/keywords of these notes in the same order as given in the notes. In between the notes you will find questions to help you retain your focus on the content. This will considerably enhance your learning, retention and linkages of diverse topics.
Gets hands on experience with our concentration boosters! 

EduRev Tests

Once you have completed the videos and the notes, and these concentration boosters along with it, you are now in a position to take the test of a full module. EduRev tests are 20 - 25 minutes in duration and very scientifically designed keeping in mind the ability of a question to differentiate and capture various potentials of an aspirant. Each question is accompanied by a detailed solution along with its difficulty level.  As an aspirant, you will find test feedback across various parameters such as your nationwide rank, percentile, top score, your strength, and weakness.
Remember; your target should be to achieve 99 percentile in each and every test. This way the mammoth civil services examination of UPSC shall no longer be invincible for you! Let's try one of the questions which have been asked in the UPSC Prelims exam: 

EduRev offers 6+ tests for IVC, which cover the questions from previous and recent years as well as probable questions for civil services examination designed by experienced faculties and vetted by selected candidates.

Mind-Maps

EduRev works very closely with aspirants, experienced faculty and bureaucrats who wish to knowledge. Therefore, we understand that an aspirant feels that civil service examination is invincible due to the endless ordeal of scattered information available at myriad sources. And this is where the need arises to assimilate, collate, recollect and apply the mammoth information your mind is consuming. This is exactly what we call the MIND-MAPS. These maps are quick tools to recap and revise the whole chapter in less than 10 minutes. We advise the aspirants to take a print of these MIND-MAPS and fix them on the walls of your room or in your notebook.
Caution: Without consuming the information in our videos, notes, and testing your knowledge, these mind-maps will not help!

EduRev is confident to help you in your journey and dream of becoming a civil servant and serve our country together. We request you not to procrastinate at this very moment and instead let the learning begin!

In addition to the above content, we've also provided animated videos to help you visualize better and extra tests for your practice.