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IAS Ultimate Learning Experience (P) LTD ANCIENT GS TSP 2014 DIRECTION STUDENTS ONLY INDIA INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAM. Ancient India · They cultivated land and grew fruits and corn. History is a record of the achievements of man. They also domesticated animals like the ox and · To begin with, these records consist almost the goat. solely of the rude implements which the people · They knew the art of producing fire by the used in their daily lives. friction of bamboos or pieces of wood, and made (a)Palaeolithic Men – Old Stone pottery, at first by hand, and then with the potter’s · These are small pieces of rough undressed wheel. stones, chipped into various forms, which were · They live in caves and decorated their walls by originally fitted with handles made of sticks or painting scenes of hunting and dancing. A few bones. They served as weapons for hunting wild of these can be seen today both in Northern and animals, and could also be used as hammers or Southern India. for purposes of cutting and boring. · They constructed boats and went out to sea. They · They lived in constant dread of wild animals like could spin cotton and wool and weave cloth. tigers, lions, elephants and the rhinoceros. They They used to bury their dead, and Neolithic had no idea of agriculture, but lived on the flesh tombs have been discovered in some parts of of animals and such fruits and vegetables as grew India. wild in jungles. They could not make pottery, (c) Mesolithic and probably did not even know how to make a · Scholars also distinguish a culture midway fire. between Palaeolithic and Neolithic, and call it · The Palaeolithic men belonged to the Negrito Mesolithic (from Greek “meso” = middle). Its race, like the modern people of the Andaman two chief characteristics were, first, that the Islands, and was characterized by short stature, stone implements used were extremely small, dark skin, woolly hair and flat noses. only about an inch in length. (b)Neolithic Men – New Stone · Secondly, that instead of quartzite they were · The significance of this name lies in the fact that made of chalcedony and other silicate varieties in this age also men had to depend solely on by a technical process differing from that stone implements, and were ignorant of any employed in the Palaeolithic Age. metals, except gold. The Age of Metals -Chalcolithic 1800 BC – 1000 · They used stones other than quartzite, and these BC were not merely chipped, but in most cases · Neolithic men were the ancestors of the people “ground, grooved and polished”. who ushered in the next stage of civilization · The civilization of the Neolithic men shows which is distinguished by the knowledge and use distinct traces of advance. of metals. 1 IAS Ultimate Learning Experience (P) LTD ANCIENT GS TSP 2014 DIRECTION STUDENTS ONLY INDIA INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAM. · Culture extended from Chotanagpur plateau to nature urban civilization was already in upper Gangetic basin existence. · Other sites – Brahmgiri (Near Mysore) – Indus · Some of the most interesting and important Valley Harappan sotes are A,ro. Cjamji-daro (80 miles THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION south of Mohenjo-daro on the left plains of the · The earliest remains of a settled culture in the Indus), kot Diji (25 miles east of Mohenjo-daro), Indian subcontinent are of little agricultural Kalibangan (Rajasthan) and Lothal (Gujarat). villages in central and southern Baluchistan and But the civilization of the Indus valley is still best Sind (both areas now in Pakistan. The oldest of known by the two sites, Mohenjo-daro (City of the these goes back to about 3500 BC. Dead) and Harappa on account of their size and of · Around the beginning of the third millennium the diversity of finds that have come to light. Both BC, a culture complex named after the type-site these places are now in Pakistan. of Amri (100 miles south of Mohenjo-daro and General Layout a mile away from the right bank of the Indus) to · To the west of each was a citadel, fortified by the south-east of Baluchistan appeared. crencilated walls. · It developed into a distinctive settlement, and · On this were erected the public buildings. The after a series of evolving stages gave way to what enclosed citadel area may have been used for is known as the Indus valley or the Harappan religious and governmental purposes. civilization named after Harappa in the · Below the citadel mound, there was the town Montgomery district (western Punjab), athough proper extending, at both the sites, no less than Mohenjo-daro situated in the Larkana district a square mile. (Sind) was no less an important centre. · The main street, some as much as 30 feet wide, Origin of Harappan Civilization were laid out on a grid plan. 1.It was a colonial offshoot of the Mesopotamia · The streets and buildings were provided with civilization which was brought to the Indus drains made of burnt bricks at Mohenjo-daro and region by the Sumerians, the early inhabitants Harappa as well as at several other Indus sites. of south Mesopotamia. · The houses were equipped with rubbish-bins and 2.From the excavations of number of sites in bathrooms, and occasionally with a privy on the Baluchistan, Sind and the Punjab, it is clear that ground or the upper floor. The bathrooms were the emergence of civilized life in the Indus valley connected by drains with sewers under the main were indigenous in origin. streets. 3.It is not unlikely that the situmulus for urban · The drainage system is one of the most development in the Indus region came from impressive achievements of the Harappa and outside most likely from Mesopotamia where 2 IAS Ultimate Learning Experience (P) LTD ANCIENT GS TSP 2014 DIRECTION STUDENTS ONLY INDIA INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAM. presupposes the existence of some kind of · Other than Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, several municipal organization. sites have been excavated: Kalibangan, Chanhu- · Some buildings are conspicuous by their absence daro, Lothal, Sutkagen-daro, Sotka Koh, and in the Harappan sites, and burnt brick of good Balakot. quality seems to have been the only building Script material. · The recovery of about 2500 Harappan · The houses of varying sizes, often of two or more inscriptions engraved on seals proves that the storeys, consisted of rooms constructed round a Indus people had a script. Several bold attempts rectangular courtyard. have been made to decipher it. According to some · The structural remains indicate that the big scholars the language belonged to the Indo- houses were meant for the rich. The parallel rows European or Indo-Iranian family, while of two room cottages unearthed at Mohenjo-daro according to others it belonged to the Dravidian and Harappa were perhaps used by the poorer group. sections of society and anticipates the ‘coolie’ Agriculture lines of modern Indian towns. From this may be · Wheat and barley were the main food-crops. Two inferred class differences in Harappan society. varieties of wheat, the club wheat and the Indian · Of the few large buildings so far discovered, the dwarf wheat were known. Great Bath in the citadel at Mohenjo-daro is the · Barley of a small-seeded six-rowed variety has most striking. This was a rectangular tank 39 23 been found both at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. and 8 deep, constructed of brick; the tank well · Dates and field peas were also grown and formed was jacketed with bitumen. At the north and items of Harappan diet. south ends of the Great Bath brick steps led to · Sesamom and mustard were used for oil. the bottom of the tank, which could be emptied · At Lothal and Rangpur (near Ahmedabad), rice by a drain. The Great Bath was meant for some husks and spikelets embedded in clay and pottery elaborate ritual of vital importance of the people. have been discovered. · Wet of the Great Bath, there lay a large granary, · The Harappan cultural zone fell in the low originally 150 feet from east to west and 75 feed rainfall area, and it is likely that irrigation was wide. Also at Harappa, a remarkable group of necessary for cultivation. But there is no granaries, each 50 20 feet, has been found ranged evidence to show that the Harappans practiced in two rows of six, with a central passage 23 canal irrigation, which was known in as feet wide. In an age when money was not in use, Mesopotamia. A likely conjecture is that fields the granaries must have reflected the solvency were irrigated by irregular floods. of the administrative organization. 3 IAS Ultimate Learning Experience (P) LTD ANCIENT GS TSP 2014 DIRECTION STUDENTS ONLY INDIA INSTITUTE FOR IAS EXAM. Food Habits · A large variety of copper tools such as flat axes, Harappan Region (Style Food) chisels, knives, spear and arrow heads, small 1. Sind Wheat and Barley saws, etc. has been found. 2. Punjab Wheat and Barley · Various techniques of working in copper were 3. Rajasthan Barley only known, namely hammering, lapping, casting, etc. 4. Gujarat Rice and Millet · Brick kilns, associated with copper working, (Rangpur, Lothal and Surkotada) have been discovered at various places. Sesame seeds, Mustard, and Ghee were their · The authors of Harappan culture possessed the sources of fat and oil; Seeds of Jujube and dates, knowledge of gold. Beads, pendants, armlets, discovered in the Harappan sites indicate that brooches, needles and other personal ornaments Harappans were consuming these fruits; bones of of gold seem to have been reasonably common deer, sheep goat and bear confirm that they ate all though by no means prolific. these animals; fish, milk and curd, too, were · Silver seems to have been first used by the Indus available to them and they might have been aware people: it was relatively more common than gold.

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