End of Harappan Civilization.
Harappan Civilization: The developed form of Harappan civilization ended around 1900 BC. Harappa- Evidence of collapse is visible in Mohenjodaro. Similar symptoms are seen at other developed sites also. There was a change in city-building, new types of pottery started being used, pots, seals and beads came to an end. This brought about a change in material culture. As a result, the urban form of the Harappan civilization ended. 1900-1200 BC in Pakistan, Central and Western India, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Jammu, Western Uttar Pradesh. Many settlements were established in between. Evidence of Late Harappan culture or Late Harappan culture is found in these. This Harappan culture was not a city culture but a rural culture. Thus, the Harappan civilization declined.
Reasons for the fall Harappan Civilization
- Many reasons have been suggested for the decline of the Harappan civilization.
1. Foreign invasion
On the basis of the evidence found from Mohenjodaro (remains of skeletons, bones scattered here and there, jewellery, etc.), some scholars suggested that this city was destroyed by the invaders. These invaders destroyed the Harappan kingdom. Taking the help of Rigveda, Healer considers these invaders as Aryans and holds Indra (Purandar) responsible for destroying the Harappan forts. Modern scholars do not accept this argument of Mr. Healer.
2. Natural causes
Natural reasons have also been held responsible for the decline of the Harappan civilization. Natural causes such as large-scale fires, outbreak of floods, changes in the flow of rivers, tectonic movements, climatic changes, decrease in soil moisture and increase in dryness and large-scale deforestation have adversely affected civilization. A large part of the population was destroyed in large-scale epidemics like malaria or plague. Some of these reasons may have led to the decline of some particular places, but these did not destroy the entire civilization.
3. Administrative laxity-
It seems that by the last stage of the developed Harappan civilization, the administrative system became loose and weak and the state came to an end. As a result of this, there was a change in the city-building planning and the nature of the things used in physical life. Urbanity was replaced by rurality.
4. Economic reasons-
The most important reason for the decline of the Harappan civilization was economic. There was a decline in agricultural production and there was also a decline in industry and trade. In the last phase of civilization, due to political and other reasons, internal and foreign trade ended which was the main basis of Indus economy. Economic inactivity also weakened the economy. No technological changes were made in the equipment used for a long time. As a result they lost their usefulness. Due to these reasons, the developed Harappan cities were replaced by later Harappan settlements.
Reasons for the decline of Harappan civilization
- 1. Foreign invasion
- 2. Natural causes
- 3.local language
- 4. Economic reasons
Harappan civilization’s contribution to later Indian civilization
Harappan civilization ended. But it left a rich mark on the subsequent Indian civilization and culture. The traditions of food, clothing and jewelery continued in modified and changed forms. The art of pottery making, metallurgy, writing art, sculpture, painting and dance and music also developed later. The most profound impact of the Harappan civilization was in the field of religion. The worship of natural powers remained an important part of Indian religion even later. Similarly, considering animals as worshipable, worshiping various forms of Shakti, worshiping Shiva, snake worship and belief in ghosts continued even later. The impact of urbanization of the Harappan civilization was not immediate, but after a long gap, cities emerged and developed again in the ‘Second Urbanisation’.
Problems of Harappan Civilization
In the previous pages, we saw how the Harappan civilization came to light and what were its main characteristics? These features were studied on the basis of available archaeological evidence. Here we will try to know how the forgotten history is constructed on the basis of early excavations, later excavations and antiquities of Harappan sites? Also, how can the antiquities found be interpreted correctly?
Cunningham based his exploration of archaeological sites on the accounts of the Chinese traveler Hei Tsang, who visited India in the seventh century and visited Buddhist sites of that time. Therefore, for them written sources – literature and inscriptions – were more important. Also, they were more interested in studying the antiquities found from early historical sites, hence they could not assess the importance of the seal obtained from Harappa. Marshall and his colleagues, on the basis of seals recovered from Mohenjodaro Harappa, which was found in the pre-historic level, brought to light a developed culture of the pre-historic period, which we know today as Harappan culture.
Without paying attention to stratification, a major shortcoming in their excavations was that these archaeologists did not pay necessary attention to the level of recovery of antiquities, rather they used to draw their conclusions considering all the levels of antiquities obtained from one mound to be from the same period. The problem of stratification was solved by Mr. Healer. For the study of antiquities, he did not make the entire mound the basis, but based on the antiquities obtained from its different levels, he depicted different periods like the early, developed and later sections of the Harappan civilization. This made it easier to understand the nature of civilization.
Question of spread of civilization: After the partition of India, most of the important sites associated with the Harappan civilization have gone to Pakistan. Therefore, in the past years, Indian archaeologists have tried to trace the expansion of the Harappan civilization within the present Indian border. As a result, many new Harappan sites have come to light through excavations and surveys. Efforts in this direction are still ongoing. This is providing new information about the Harappan civilization. The interest of foreign archaeologists in the Harappan civilization has also increased. They
* Micro-examination of antiquities is being done with the help of scientific methods. This can provide more and authentic information about Civilization C.
There is no complete information from archaeological sources.
There are other problems associated with the study of Harappan civilization. A big problem is that archaeological evidence provides information about physical life, but other aspects related to civilization remain unanswered. For example, the Harappan state organization and social structure cannot be clearly understood unless written evidence is available. Until the information about Harappan script is not complete, our knowledge about this subject will remain incomplete.
Classification of antiquities –
Another problem is the classification of the antiquities found.
How to do this and how to draw a conclusion based on them as to what their usefulness was? Antiquities can be easily classified on the basis of the materials used in making them, such as items made of clay, metal, stone, bone, semi-precious stones. As far as the utility of these antiquities is concerned. Archaeologists generally adopt two procedures for this. According to the first process, the usefulness of such objects is determined based on the context in which they are found. According to the second process, their utility in ancient times is estimated on the basis of the utility prevalent in the present time. Sometimes physical life is also imagined with the help of indirect evidences which are sometimes wrong.
The problem of depiction of religious life:
The biggest problem in the study of antiquities is to depict the actual ancient civilizations on the basis of these. The biggest problem in the context of Harappan civilization is the actual depiction of religious life here. Were the female figurines made of clay, shown in various forms, symbolic of the mother goddess? Was the stone male statue found from Mohenjodaro actually that of a priest-king? Similarly, was the Great Bath of Mohenjodaro actually meant for ritual bathing? What was the purpose of the altars recovered from Kalimbangan and Lothal? The answers to all these questions are approximate. There are many such examples. The seal on which Pashupati Mahadev is believed to be inscribed is the most controversial. It is generally considered to be the image of Proto-Shiva and it has been estimated that Shiva was the main male deity of the Harappan civilization, but the picture of Sai, who is considered to be the vehicle of Shiva, is not in the seal. Similarly, the Rudra deity mentioned in the Rigveda and later identified as Shiva, does not match the picture given in the seal. On this basis, archaeologists speculate that the seal is not a picture of Pashupati but a picture of a shaman who had magical powers. These can be both male and female. With this new logic the concept of worship of Pashupati Shiva changes.
In this way, many popular beliefs are changing due to the new interpretation of antiquities. It is possible that more new beliefs may emerge in the future. Many questions related to Harappan civilization will be answered in the future.
Writer of this article.
This helpful article is written by Nisha Kumari.
NISHA KUMARI
(Content Writer)
Nisha kumari is a article writer member of team searchgyan. she write very helpful article which can helps to grow your knowledge. she is also very confident about her article which helps to improve your knowledge.
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