The Indus Valley (Harappan) civilization

Key takeaways

• Cities: planned towns with grid streets, brick houses and drainage systems.
• Standards: weights and measures were standardised across a wide area.
• Trade: seals and goods link the civilization to Mesopotamia, which referred to a land called Meluhha.
• Script: short inscriptions on seals have not been deciphered, so much of the social and political structure is inferred.
• Decline: around 1900 BCE cities were gradually abandoned, probably due to shifts in rivers and climate.

Urban planning

Mohenjo-daro and Harappa had sophisticated water management, including wells, drains and the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro. Dholavira, in Gujarat, had large reservoirs adapted to a dry environment.

Society and trade

The lack of obvious palaces or royal tombs has led scholars to debate how the cities were governed. Craftspeople worked in beads, metals and ceramics, and traded across the Arabian Sea and Central Asia.

Aftermath

After the cities declined, communities shifted to smaller settlements across the subcontinent. Some of the craft and symbol traditions of the Indus world continue in later South Asian cultures, though scholars debate how.