Prehistory & Indus Valley Civilisation – Comprehensive Notes

Concept and Definition of History

• History is the systematic study of past events in chronological order.
• Etymology: Derived from the Greek word Istoria, meaning “learning by enquiry.”

Sources for Reconstructing Indian History

• Archaeological: tools, pottery, ornaments, megaliths, terracotta figurines, coins, rock‐cut architecture, temples, stupas, palaces, forts, memorial pillars.
• Epigraphic: rock edicts, temple & copper-plate inscriptions, pillar inscriptions, sealings.
• Literary: religious (Vedic corpus, epics, Bhakti literature), secular classical works, folk songs, foreign travellers’ accounts.
• Numismatic: punch-marked, cast, inscribed, gold, silver, copper coinage.
• Iconographic & monumental: sculptures, reliefs, cave murals, structural remains (e.g., Thirumalai, Vellore Fort, Tanjavur Temple, Sanchi Stupa).

Scientific Dating Methods

• Radiocarbon dating (C-14) – measures decay of C^{14} in organic material for ages up to ≈ 50{,}000 years.
• Mitochondrial-DNA analysis – tracks prehistoric human dispersals via maternal lineages; ancient DNA currently extracted from fossil bones.

Human Evolution (Broad Sequence)

Australopithecus afarensis → Homo habilis → Homo erectus → Homo neanderthalensis → Homo sapiens.

Prehistoric India (Stone-Age Sequence)

Stone Age is subdivided into Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic; the entire era precedes writing (pre-history).

Lower Palaeolithic (≈ 2 million – 60{,}000 BCE)

• Hominin: Homo erectus.
• Earliest Indian discovery: Robert Bruce Foote at Pallavaram (Chennai) in 1863.
• Geography: Athirampakkam, Gudiyam (TN); Hunsgi-Isampur valley (Karnataka); Bhimbetka & Hoshangabad (MP).
• Fauna: Elephas\,namadicus, Stegodon\,ganesa, Bos\,namadicus, Equus\,namadicus.
• Tools: bifacial hand-axes & cleavers showing symmetry.
• Subsistence: hunting, gathering; use of gestures & proto-speech.

Middle Palaeolithic (≈ 3{,}85{,}000 – 40{,}000 BCE)

• Core-flake industries on chert, jasper, chalcedony, quartz.
• Sites on Narmada, Godavari, Krishna, Yamuna; excavated at Nevasa (H.D. Sankalia).
• Tool repertoire shrinks in size; relative decline of hand-axe, rise of scrapers, borers, points.

Upper Palaeolithic (≈ 40{,}000 – 10{,}000 BCE)

• Cognitive leap & blade-flute technology; bone tools (Kurnool Caves).
• Important localities: Meralbhavi (KA), Kurnool (AP), Godavarikhani (TS), Son Valley (Baghor I & III), Patne (MH).
• Ostrich-egg shell beads (Bhimbetka, Patne); burins & backed blades; beginnings of parietal art.

Mesolithic Culture (≈ 10{,}000 – 8{,}000 BCE)

• Microlithic geometric tools (lunates, triangles, trapezes).
• Key sites: Paisra (BR), Langhnaj (GJ), Chopani Mando & Sarai Nahar Rai – Mahadaha – Damdama (UP), Sanganakallu (KA), Kibbanahalli (KA), Adamgarh & Bhimbetka (MP), coastal Mumbai, Thoothukudi teri sands (TN), Visakhapatnam (AP).
• Economy: hunting, fishing, gathering; camel bones at Kanewal; seasonal semi-sedentary camps.
• Burials: extended & collective graves; Mahadaha shows joint male-female interment with ivory pendant.
• Art: rock paintings (Raisen, Pachmarhi; South Mirzapur); engraved chert core (Chandravati); geometric design on human tooth.
• Cultural traits: semi-permanent settlements, wide regional spread, continuity into Neolithic.

Neolithic Revolution in the Indian Subcontinent

Hallmark: domestication of plants & animals, polished stone celts, settled village life.

Mehrgarh (Balochistan) – Earliest Farming Community

• Period I (7000–5500 BCE): six-row barley, emmer & einkorn wheat, jujube, dates; herding sheep, goat, cattle.
• Period II (5500–4800 BCE): drill-perforated human tooth (early dentistry).
• Period III (4800–3500 BCE): wheel-made pottery, ornaments, copper artefacts.

Kashmir Neolithic (Burzahom)

• Pit-dwellings → mud houses (ceramic phase).
• Copper arrow-heads; black burnished ware; agate & carnelian beads.
• Dog & antler in burial; hunting scene with dog & sun engraved on stone.

Ganga Valley & Central India

• Lehuradeva provides earliest rice remains (≈ 6500 BCE); cord-marked pottery.
• Other sites: Koldiwa, Chirand, Senuwar, Mahagara.

Eastern India

• Bihar & West Bengal sites (Birbhanpur, Chirand) yield pointed-butt celts, chisels, shouldered axes; links to East/S-E Asia.

South Indian Neolithic (AP, KA, NW TN)

• Major river valleys: Godavari, Krishna, Pennar, Tungabhadra, Cauvery.
• Important sites: Sanganakallu, Tekkalakota, Brahmagiri, Maski, Piklihal, Watkal, Hemmige, Hallur (KA); Nagarjunakonda, Ramapuram, Veerapuram (AP); Paiyyampalli (TN).
• Typical features: ash-mound cattle pens, polished dolerite axes, millet cultivation, pastoralism.

Indus / Harappan Civilisation

Chronology & Phases

• Early (Kot-Diji) 3000–2600 BCE.
• Mature 2600–1900 BCE.
• Late 1900–1700 BCE.

Discovery Timeline

• 1826 CE – Charles Masson reports ruins at Harappa.
• 1856 – Harappan bricks used as ballast for Lahore–Karachi railway.
• 1921 – Daya Ram Sahni begins formal excavation at Harappa.
• 1922 – R.D. Banerjee uncovers Mohenjo-Daro.
• Subsequent excavations: Stein (Sutkagendor 1929), N.G. Majumdar (Chanhudaro 1931), B.B. Lal/Ghosh (Kalibangan 1953), R. Rao (Lothal 1953), J.P. Joshi (Surkotada 1964), R.S. Bisht (Banawali 1974; Dholavira 1985).

Geographic Spread (≈ 1.5 million km²)

West – Sutkagendor (Pak-Iran border); North – Shortugai (Afghanistan); East – Alamgirpur (UP); South – Daimabad (MH).

Major Urban Sites & Key Finds

• Harappa – gridded city on Ravi; twin granaries, bullock carts.
• Mohenjo-Daro – Indus bank; Great Bath, granary, famous bronze “Dancing Girl,” steatite “Priest-King,” cotton fabric fragment, Pashupati seal.
• Lothal – dockyard & first tidal port, rice husk, bead-making units.
• Kalibangan – fire altars, camel bones, ploughed field.
• Dholavira – water harvesting reservoirs, stadium-like layout.
• Surkotada – horse bones (disputed).
• Chanhudaro – specialized craft centre; dog-chasing-cat paw prints.
• Sutkagendor – maritime trade outpost towards Babylon.

Town-Planning Features

• Citadel (western, raised) vs. Lower Town (eastern, larger) – baked-brick platforms.
• Streets laid out in grid pattern, right-angle intersections; main avenue width up to 33 ft, lanes 9–12 ft; rounded corners for carts.
• Covered drainage with corbelled brick/stone slabs; soak-pits for every house; periodic cleaning holes; gentle gradient.
• Standardised burnt-bricks (7\times14\times28 cm etc.).

Notable Structures

• Great Bath (Mohenjo-Daro): rectangular 39\,ft\times23\,ft, depth 8\,ft; waterproof bitumen lining, steps N & S, circumferential galleries – possibly ritual purification.
• Great Granary (Harappa): 168\,ft\times135\,ft; ventilated brick platforms to store wheat, barley, millets, sesame, pulses.

Subsistence Economy

Agriculture
• Multicropping of wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, sesame, diverse millets; evidence of rice at Lothal.
• Irrigation inferred from canal-like channels & water-lift devices (Lothal).
Pastoralism & Animal Use
• Domesticated: zebu cattle, sheep, goat, dog, fowl; buffalo, pig, elephant known; limited horse evidence (Surkotada).
• Diet included fish & migratory birds; wild species (boar, deer, gharial) attested.

Craft & Industry

• Pottery: red ware with black painted motifs – pipal leaves, fish-scale, intersecting circles, zig-zag, horizontal bands, floral/faunal & geometric patterns; well-fired & fine.
• Metallurgy: copper, bronze, silver, gold – lost-wax casting (bronze figurine), copper arrow-heads, saws & drills, gold beads.
• Lapidary: carnelian, agate, steatite, faience beads; shell bangle (Nageshwar).
• Textiles: mastery of cotton & silk (impressions, spindle whorls); shawl with trefoil motif on “Priest-King.”
• Terracotta: toy carts, wheels, rattles, marbles, animal figurines, whistles.

Trade & External Contacts

• Standardised cubical chert weights using binary series 1:2:4:8:16:32 – the 16^{th} ratio ≈ 13.63 g.
• Linear scale: 1 “Indus inch” ≈ 1.75 cm.
• Maritime & overland exchange – Harappan seals/materials in Oman, Bahrain (Dilmun), Mesopotamia (Ur, Susa); cuneiform texts mention “Meluhha.”
• Inland networks link Rajasthan copper (Ganeshwar-Jodhpura), Baluchistan lapis, Gujarat shell, Karnataka gold.

Script & Seals

• About 5{,}000 inscriptions; longest line 26 signs; written boustrophedon (right-to-left & vice-versa); remains undeciphered.
• Materials: steatite, copper, terracotta, ivory. Depictions of unicorn, humped bull, composite animals, ritual scenes.

Art & Aesthetics

• Bronze “Dancing Girl” (Mohenjo-Daro) with arm-full bangles; steatite “Priest-King” draped in trefoil patterned shawl.
• Stone sculptures, faience figurines, shell & terracotta toys reveal leisure & creativity.

Causes of Decline (Multi-factor)

Repeated floods; tectonic/ecological change; river-course shifts (Ghaggar-Hakra); deforestation & soil salinity; drought/climate fluctuation; epidemic; Aryan or other incursions; overall urban disintegration by c. 1700 BCE.

Rapid-Recall Exam Facts & Miscellany

• Director-General of ASI during major Indus excavations: Sir John Marshall (1902–1928).
• >500 indus seals are steatite-made, not gold/silver.
• Mesolithic incorrect statement (common MCQ): They did not cremate the dead (burials show inhumation).
• First Indian palaeolithic tool discovery: Robert Bruce Foote, Pallavaram 1863.
• Mohenjo-Daro literally means “Mound of the Dead” – excavated 1922 by R.D. Banerjee.
• Harappa bricks were quarried in 1856 as ballast for railway construction, damaging the site.

Ethical & Methodological Insights

• Scientific dating (C-14, aDNA) reshapes cultural chronologies but requires ethical handling of human remains.
• Destructive colonial utilisation of heritage (Harappan bricks for railways) underscores need for preservation legislation.
• Indus script’s undeciphered status invites interdisciplinary collaboration (linguistics, AI pattern recognition, comparative iconography).
• Prehistoric research links India to global narratives—e.g., contemporaneity of Nile, Mesopotamian, Chinese civilisations (chronology bar on slide).

Contemporary Relevance

• Urban planning lessons: drainage, grid-streets, water harvesting (Dholavira) inform modern smart-city initiatives.
• Agricultural diversity & millets align with current climate-resilient farming strategies.
• Unity-in-diversity theme reflected in pan-regional spread of cultures ties into constitutional ideal of secular, harmonious India.