TN Board Summary: Pre Historic India and the Harappan Culture - UPSC PDF Download

 In India, the prehistoric period is divided into the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), Neolithic (New Stone Age) and the Metal Age.

• However, these periods were not uniform throughout the Indian subcontinent. The dating of the prehistoric period is done scientifically.
• The technique of radio-carbon dating is commonly used for this purpose. It is based on measuring the loss of carbon in organic materials over a period of time. Another dating method is known as dendrochronology. It refers to the number of tree rings in wood. By counting the number of tree rings in the wood, the date of the wood is arrived at.
• Several rock shelters and caves used by the Paleolithic people are scattered across the subcontinent. They also lived rarely in huts made of leaves. Some of the famous sites of 

Old Stone Age in India are:

• The Soan valley and Potwar Plateau on the northwest India, 
• The Siwalik hills on the north India, 
• Bhimpetka in Madhya Pradesh.
• Adamgarh hill in Narmada valley, 
• Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh and 
• Attirampakkam near Chennai.

Features:

• People are called as hunter gatherers.
• Stone implements are made of a hard rock known as quartzite, 
• We have little knowledge about their language and communication, 
• A few Old Stone Age paintings have also been found on rocks at Bhimbetka and other places, 
• The period before 10000 B.C. is assigned to the Old Stone Age.

Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age

• The next stage of human life is called Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age which falls roughly from 10000 B.C. to 6000 B.C.
• Transitional phase between the Paleolithic Age and Neolithic Age.
• Mesolithic remains are found in Langhanj in Gujarat, Adamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and also in some places of Rajasthan, Utter Pradesh and Bihar.
• The paintings and engravings found

Features:

• Tiny stone artefacts, often not more than five centimetres in size, and therefore called microliths.
• The hunting-gathering pattern of life continued
• a shift from big animal hunting to small animal hunting and fishing.
• use of bow and arrow also began during this period.
• tendency to settle for longer periods in an area.
• domestication of animals, horticulture and primitive cultivation started.
• burials of the dead along with some microliths and shells seem to have been practiced.

Neolithic Age

• Dated from 6000 B.C to 4000 B .C. Include the Kashmir valley, Chirand in Bihar, Belan valley in Uttar Pradesh and in several places of the Deccan.
• The important Neolithic sites excavated in south India are Maski, Brahmagiri, Hallur and Kodekal in Karnataka, Paiyampalli in Tamil Nadu and Utnur in Andhra Pradesh.

Features

• Practice of agriculture, domestication of animals, polishing of stone tools and the manufacture of pottery.
• emergence of village communities based on sedentary life, 
• Stone tools were now polished, 
• Mud brick houses were built instead of grass huts.
• Wheels were used to make pottery. Pottery was used for cooking as well as storage of food grains, 
• Large urns were used as coffins for the burial of the dead, 
• Rice cultivation was extensive in eastern India.
• people of Neolithic Age used clothes made of cotton and wool.

Metal Age

• Neolithic period is followed by Chalcolithic (copper-stone) period when copper and bronze came to be used.
• The new technology of smelting metal ore and crafting metal artifacts is an important development in human civilization.
• The Chalcolithic age is followed by Iron Age. Iron is frequently referred to in the Vedas.
• The Iron Age of the southern peninsula is often related to Megalithic Burials.
• Megalith means Large Stone. The burial pits were covered with these stones. Such graves are extensively found in South India.
• Some of the important megalithic sites are Hallur and Maski in Karnataka, Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh and Adichchanallur in Tamil Nadu.
• Black and red pottery, iron artifacts such as hoes and sickles and small weapons were found in the burial pits.

The Harappan Civilization

• Earliest excavations in the Indus valley were done at Harappa in the West Punjab and Mohenjo-Daro in Sind. Both places are now in Pakistan
• It was first called the ‘The Indus Valley Civilization’. But this civilization was later named as the ‘Indus Civilization’ due to the discovery of more and more sites far away from the Indus valley.
• It has come to be called the ‘Harappan Civilization’ after the name of its first discovered site.

Important Sites

• Among the many other sites excavated, the most important are Kot Diji in Sind, Kalibangan in Rajasthan, Rupar in the Punjab, Banawali in Haryana, Lothal, Surkotada and Dholavira, all the three in Gujarat.
• The larger cities are approximately a hundred hectares in size. Mohenjodara is the largest of all the Indus cities and it is estimated to have spread over an area of 200 hectares.

Salient Features of the Harappan Culture Town Planning

• System of town planning on the lines of the grid system - that is streets and lanes cutting across one another almost at right angles thus dividing the city into several rectangular blocks.
• Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Kalibangan each had its own citadel built on a high podium of mud brick. Below the citadel in each city lay a lower town containing brick houses, which were inhabited by the common people, use of burnt bricks, absence of stone building.
• underground drainage system connecting all houses to the street drains which were covered by stone slabs or bricks.
• Mohenjodaro is the Great Bath, There are side rooms for changing clothes, The floor of the Bath was made of burnt bricks.
• Water was drawn from a large well in an adjacent room, and an outlet from one comer of the Bath led to a drain. It must have served as a ritual bathing site.
• The largest building in Mohenjodaro is a granary measuring 150 feet length and 50 feet breadth. But in the citadel of Harappa we find as many as six granaries

Economic Life

• Wheat and barley were the main crops grown besides sesame, mustard and cotton.
• Animals like sheep, goats and buffalo were domesticated. The use of horse is not yet firmly established.
• Bronze and copper vessels are the outstanding examples of the Harappan metal craft.
• Gold and silver ornaments are found in many places.
• Pottery remains plain and in some places red and black painted
• Pottery is found. Beads were manufactured from a wide variety of semi-precious stones.
• Foreign trade was mainly conducted with Mesopotamia, Afghanistan and Iran.
• Trade links between the Indus and Sumerian people. Many seals of Indus valley have been found in Mesopotamia. Trade was of the barter type.

Social Life

• Beads were worn by men and women ornaments were made of gold, silver, copper, bronze and semi precious stones. The use of cosmetics was common.
• Spindles, needles, combs, fishhooks, knives are made of copper.
• Fishing was a regular occupation while hunting and bull fighting were other pastimes, numerous specimens of weapons of war such as axes, spearheads, daggers, bows, arrows made of copper and bronze.

Arts

• Dancing girl from Mohenjodaro made of bronze
• Its right hand rests on the hip, while the left arm, covered with bangles, hangs loosely in a relaxed posture.
• Pots and jars were painted with various designs and colours. Painted pottery is of better quality.
• The pictorial motifs consisted of geometrical patterns like horizontal lines, circles, leaves, plants and trees.
• On some pottery pieces we find figures of fish or peacock.

Script

• Harappan script has still to be fully deciphered Script was mostly written from right to left.
• In a few long seals the boustrophedon method - writing in the reverse direction in alternative lines - was adopted.

Religion

• Chief male deity was Pasupati, (proto-Siva) represented in seals as sitting in a yogic posture with three faces and two horns.
• He is surrounded by four animals (elephant, tiger, rhino, and buffalo each facing a different direction). Two deer appear on his feet.
• The chief female deity was the Mother Goddess represented in terracotta figurines. In latter times, Linga worship was prevalent.
• Trees and animals were also worshipped by the Harappans.
• They believed in ghosts and evil forces and used amulets as protection against them.

Burial Methods

• cemeteries discovered around the cities like Mohenjodaro,Harappa, Kalibangan, Lothal and Rupar, Complete burial and postcremation burial were popular at Mohenjodaro.
• At Lothal the burial pit was lined with burnt bricks indicating the use of coffins.
• Wooden coffins were also found at Harappa.
• The practice of pot burials is found at Lothal sometimes with pairs of skeletons. However, there is no clear evidence for the practice of Sati.

Decline of the Harappan Culture

• According to some scholars the final blow was delivered by the invasion of Aryans. The destruction of forts is mentioned in the Rig Veda
• discovery of human skeletons huddled together at Mohenjodaro indicates that the city was invaded by foreigners.
• The Aryans had superior weapons as well as swift horses which might have enabled them to become masters of this region.