Neolithic or the New Stone Age

The main period of the Neolithic Age in the Indian subcontinent was 4000-1800 BC. This was the food producing age when man completely changed his way of life. Traces of Neolithic communities have survived mostly in the north-western region and the Deccan. Neolithic settlements in Baluchistan seem to be oldest around 3500 BC. In the new way of life man began to domesticate animals and cultivate plants. The dog, sheep and goat were probably the first to be domesticated.


Among plants, wheat and barley were the earliest cereals grown. As a result man began to settle down in certain selected areas. This led to the growth of villages and farming communities. The tools he needed also changed. All these developments took place first in north western India and culminated in the rise and growth of great Indus Civilization while the rest of the Indian subcontinent was late in undergoing the transition from Mesolithic to the Neolithic and then to the Chalcolithic periods.

Political System of The Harappa Civilization

At the top of the pyramid of the Harappa society were the administrators, traders and priests. Their presence can be presumed on the basis of an understanding of the problems of organization. The rise of civilization is associated with the emergence of a centralized decision making system called the state. In the Harappan civilization there was the presence of a decision –making authority for running the municipal system. The construction and maintenance of elaborate drainage system and streets would require a municipal authority in the cities.

The granaries indicate the presence of an authority that would collect food grains from the surrounding hinterland and redistribute it among the citizens. The tools, weapons, bricks etc show a remarkable uniformity of design. The organization of production and distribution of these objects over an area covering thousands of kilometers would give tremendous power to those who decided how much to produce and where to send the products. The sheer range and volume of goods consumed by the residents of the large cities indicate that some kind of ruling class resided in them. Many of the objects were rarities brought from the faraway lands. The possession of precious stones or metals would give immense prestige to owners vis- a vis rest of the population.

The large size of the cities did not simply indicate that a larger number of people lived there but also the fact that they contained many structures like temples, palaces etc. The people who lived in those structures exercised political and economic and religious authority. The seals that are considered marks of authority of traders, priests or administrators are found in large numbers in Mohenjo-Daro where the largest number of structures has been found. It is still not cleared whether Harappa Civilization consisted of two or even five independent political units. In many pre-modern societies the economic, religious and administrative units were not clearly demarcated.

Importance of Indus Valley Civilization

• Surkotada is the only Indus site where the remains of a horse have actually been found.
• A small pot was discovered at Chanhudaro which was probably an inkpot. Harappan pottery is bright or dark red and is uniformly sturdy and well baked.
• It was chiefly made and consists of both plain and painted ware and plain variety being more common.
• Harappan people used different types of pottery such as galzed, polychrome, incised perforated and knobbed.
• Main types of seals are the square type with a carved animal and inscription and rectangular type with inscription only.
• Terracotta seals found at Mehargarh were the earliest precursors of the Harappan seals.
• Evidence of sea and river transport by ships and boats in several seals and terracotta models have been found apart from the dockyard at Lothal. Representations of ships are found on seals found at Harappa and Mohenjodaro.
• Apart from Lothal in Gujarat, the three Harappan sites on the Makran coast - Sutkagendor, Sotkako and Khairia kot have been generally considered to have been posts in the maritime links with the Gulf and Mesopotamia.
• At Kalibangan the lanes and roads of the city were built in a definite proportion. Lanes were 1.8 mts wide and the roads were 3.6, 5.4 and 7.2 mts wide.

Survival and Significance - Indus Valley Civilization

• In the field of religions many important features of Harappan religion were adopted in later Hinduism. The Harappans worshipped Pashupati Shiva in his actual form as well as in the representative form as Linga, worship of mother goddess, worship of trees, animals; serpents were all adopted by Hinduism.
• The Harappan civilization contributed towards the advancement of Mathematics. The numerical and decimal system was evolved here which made remarkable contributions towards Vedic mathematics.
• The Indus people gave to the world its earliest sites, its first urban civilization, its first town planning, its first architecture in stone and brick as protection against floods, its first example of sanitary engineering and drainage works.
• Another remarkable contribution of the Harappan people was the cultivation of cotton. Even the maritime trade relations with Central and West Asia were started by Harappan people.
  
  
• To them also belong the credits for producing some of the earliest specimens of pottery. The Harappan way of making baked pottery, bricks, beads, jewellery and textiles was adopted in the later civilization. They also invented the device of a cart to harness the labour force of the animals to the production of man's utility.

Decline of Harappan Culture

The decline of Harappan culture is difficult to explain. During its late phase between 2000 and 1700 BC 'The Indus Valley Civilization as a distinct entity gradually ceased to exist'. Historians have different opinions regarding the causes of the decay and disappearance of the Harappan culture. Various causes have been ascribed for its weakening and then decay: Increase in rainfall, earthquake, decrease in fertility of soil, floods, Aryan invasion, disease etc.

Mortimer Wheeler pointed out that the Harappan culture was destroyed by the Aryans. The Aryans were more skilled at warfare and were powerful than the Harappans. In the last phase of Mohenjodaro, men and women and children were massacred in the streets and houses. But there is very little evidence on this opinion.

Sir John Marshal, Lambrick and E.J.H Mackay suggest that the decline of the Harappan civilization was mainly due to the vagaries of the Indus River. But this theory is partly true. Some of the evidence of the devastation by floods has been found at Mohenjodaro and Lothal but there is no such evidence in respect of other sites like Kalibangan.

Some historians suggest that the first urban civilization came to an end around 1700 BC because its numerous small settlements grew beyond their natural limits leading to the mismanagement of natural resources. Although the theory of ecological factors for the decline of the Harappan civilization is latest yet it does not give us complete answer. Historians are of the view that the decline of the Indus Civilization was not the result of a single event; it was a slow decline and a result of combination of factors.

Ancient History - Ancient India Science & Technology

Ancient indian MetallurgyTechnology means the application of scientific knowledge for practical purpose. It can also refer to machinery and equipment developed from such knowledge.

In ancient India there is a large number of evidence to suggest the prevalence of scientific and technological knowledge. Many of them were linked with the religious belief system prevalent at that point of time.

To begin with the archaeological remains of the Indus Valley reveal the knowledge of applied sciences. Scientific techniques were used in irrigation, metallurgy, making of bricks and pottery, and in measurement of areas and volumes. The artefacts found from the sites suggest that Harappans developed metallurgy of copper and bronze about 2500 B.C.

However, the technological knowledge in India actually had an uninterrupted run since the Vedic age.

It’s seen there   was a close relationship between religion and the advancement of technological knowledge. The foremost among them were in the fields of Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine, Physics and Chemistry.   

It’s roughly by third century BC that the scientific knowledge got segregated and the disciplines of Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine and others made separate stride in its development, even though its application remain interdisciplinary. A large body of written text and the inscriptions found over a period of time gives a vivid account of scientific and technological knowledge in ancient India.     

Mathematics