Dr. Ghulam Nadri, Assoc. Prof. History Department, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

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   The Indus Valley Civilization, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, flourished between 3300 BC and 1300 BC in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent (comprising parts of present day north-western India, Pakistan, and parts of Afghanistan). As this civilisation originated and flourished in the basin of the river Indus, one of the major rivers in the subcontinent, it came to be known as the Indus Valley Civilisation. This was also one of the most advanced and city-based civilizations of the world. Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were the two largest cities, which were discovered after extensive excavations carried out between the 1920s and 1940s by John Marshall and his team and Sir Mortimer Wheeler, directors of the Archaeological Survey of India. This was a bronze-age civilization because the people then used bronze (a mix of copper and tin) to make tools, weapons, and objects for local consumption and trade. It is also known as the proto-historic civilization because our knowledge about the people, their culture, religion, and their political and economic life is entirely based on the physical remains and objects found during the archaeological excavations.
   Historians have not been able to decipher the Indus script and understand what is inscribed on seals and other objects of that period. The cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation had elaborate town planning and sophisticated drainage system. The government and the people paid much attention to sanitation. Some cities had provision for public utilities such as bathing facility and granary. Mohenjo-Daro, for example, had the great public bath for customary and ritual bathing. Harappa and MohenjoDaro both had large granaries for storing grain to keep the inhabitants supplied with food. The Indus Civilisation is also known for its good craftsmanship especially in the production of seals, pottery, and jewellery. Some of these products were even taken to Mesopotamia and Mediterranean Europe through both overland (caravan) and overseas (maritime) trade between the Indus Civilisation and West and Central Asia. Around 1500 BC, the Indus Civilisation had considerably declined and by the time the Aryans began to move into north-western and northern India, it had completely disappeared.

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