1

DECLINE OF THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILISATION

Submitted By-

Akshansh Singh Bhadouriya

SM0115003

Faculty In Charge

Ms. Namrata Gogoi

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, ASSAM

GUWAHATI

31 OCTOBER, 2015
 2

TABLE OF CONTETNS

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1.Research Questions
1.2.Literature Review
1.3.Scope And Objectives
1.4.Methodology

2. LIFE STYLE OF INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

3. ARYAN INVASION
4. FLOODS
5. OTHER REASONS FOR DECLINE
5.1.Plague
5.2.Earthquake
5.3.Increase In Number Of Population
5.4.Decline In Trade
5.5.Scarcity Of Food

6. CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER – 1

INTRODUCTION

Indus Valley Civilization, a name that is written in history with golden words not only because it
is an old civilization that provides us information about that time but also because of its culture
and heritage. This civilization was established around 3300 B.C. and flourished between 2600
and 1900 B.C. and in around 1900 B.C. it entered a period of decline and ultimately disappeared
 3

around 1400 B.C. All that archeologists know about this civilization is through archeological
evidences. Two of its most important cities are Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. The artifacts that are
found include seals with different animals carved on them such as Unicorns, Bulls, Rhinoceros,
etc. The artifacts also include male and female figurines, well craved and perfectly shaped
pottery. The archeologists have also found Great bath, College of priests, Great granary, and a
figure of a dancing girl. Despite of all these things the archeologists haven’t found evidences of
any kind of weapon.
The reason for decline of this civilization as stated by K.U.R. KENEDY was natural calamities
such as floods as the whole civilization was situated near the river Indus River, he stated this
because while he was researching in Indus Valley Civilization he found layers of slit. He also
stated that plague might be another reason as there might not be proper sanitation. But according
to R. MORTIMER WHEELER the reason for the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization was the
advent of the Aryans. He stated this because when he was researching on Indus Valley
Civilization he found some evidences of trade which might be done between the people of Indus
Valley Civilization and the Aryans or the other outside peoples. That might have attracted the
Aryans towards them. And as the Aryans arrived they might have destroyed the Indus
Civilization as the Indus Civilization did not have any sort of weapons so they probably could
not have been able to protect their rich heritage and culture1. The research on decline of the Indus
Valley Civilization is still ongoing, So stating something exact is not possible right now.

CHAPTER – 1.1

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Q1. What kind of life style did the people of Indus Valley Civilization follow?

Q2.What are the different theories of Decline of Indus Valley Civilization?

Q3. Were the Aryans responsible for Decline of the Indus Valley Civilization?
1Gregory L. Possehl; The Mohenjo-Daro Floods: A Reply; American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Feb., 1967),
pp. 32-40
 4

Q4. What were the probable reasons which made archeologists think that flood was one of the
reasons for decline of Indus Valley Civilization?

Q5. Was Plague or any other epidemic responsible for decline of Indus Valley Civilization?

CHAPTER – 1.2

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Gregory L. Possehl; The Mohenjo-Daro Floods: A Reply; Wiley (February 1967):

This article largely tells about the life style of the people of Indus Valley Civilization. It also
gives a brief description about the various archeological facts and evidences that tells about the
history of Indus Valley Civilization. This article mainly focuses on the decline of the Indus valley
civilization. It tells about the various factors due to which the Indus Valley Civilization lapse.
 5

2. Robert L. Raikes; The End of the Ancient Cities of the Indus; Wiley(April 1964):

The article mainly talks about the origin of the various cities of the Indus Valley Civilization like
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. It tells us how the cities developed their culture and heritage. Then
it focuses on the fall of the Indus Civilization as stated by E.J.H. Mackay and Dr. Frankfort who
some years back started researching on the Indus Valley Civilization.

3. Upinder Singh; A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to
the 12th Century; Pearson Education (2006):

This book talks about the rise of Indus Valley Civilization, their life style, trade, architecture,
crafts and many more theories. It emphasizes on the decline of Indus Valley Civilization. It tells
us that the decline started in 2200 B.C.E. and finally the civilization came to an end in 2000
B.C.E. The reasons that are given by different scholars are Attack on walled cities by Aryans,
flood due the movement of tectonic plates, decline in trade and many more. It also tells us that
there was a sudden decline in Kalibangan and Banawali, but cities like Mohenjo-Daro and
Dholavira declined gradually.

CHAPTER – 1.3

SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES

SCOPE:

The scope of this project is limited to the reasons of Decline of the Indus Valley Civilization due
to floods, earthquakes, plague and invasion of Aryans and the Life Style of the people residing in
Indus Valley Civilization.
 6

OBJECTIVES:

The objectives of this project are as follow:

 To study the various reasons of Decline of Indus Valley Civilization.

 To study the life style of Indus Valley Civilization.

 To study about Aryan Invasion on Indus Valley Civilization.

 To study the role of Plague as a reason for decline.

CHAPTER – 1.4

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this project, researcher has adopted Doctrinal research. Doctrinal research is essentially a
library-based study, which means that the materials needed by a researcher may be available in
libraries, archives and other data-bases. Various types of books were used to get the adequate
data essential for this project. Researcher also used computer laboratory to get important data
related to this topic. Researcher also found several good websites which were very useful to
better understand this topic.
 7

CHAPTER – 2
LIFE STYLE OF INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

Lifestyle of the people of Indus Valley Civilization was very systematic and organized. Their
houses were mainly of one or two stories and all were made either of sun burnt bricks or of mud
bricks. This all is based on the town planning of that civilization i.e. Citadel town and Lower
town. Citadel town was for high class and lower town was for lower class. Citadel town uses sun
burnt bricks whereas lower town used mud bricks. They also have great granary which was used
for storing extra grains which was afterwards given to the upper class as a tax. They have great
bath and temple of priest which was used by the upper class and the priests for performing
rituals. They have a well-designed sewage system which takes all the waste water outside the
 8

city also the sewage system was covered by big stones. The Indus Valley Civilization was an
agricultural society this fact has been made clear with the help of evidences such as ploughed
field and terracotta figurine of plough2. They use to hunt also as some evidences of fishing hooks
are also found. So their meal might have included vegetables grown by them and meat of fish
and other animals. The very famous thing of this civilization is its craft which include pottery
such as red on black and many more. It also includes weaving and metalworking such as using of
Bronze and silver to make figurines such as Dancing girl and daily use utensils also. Some
terracotta figures of animals such as bull, tiger and many more have also been found which
indicates the presence of these animals at that time. Archeologists have also found some seals
which indicate the presence of trade at that time. Also the seals are beautifully engraved with
pictures of some animals such as unicorn, bull, tiger etc. which is another example of excellent
craft work. There were some evidence of ornaments such as carnelian beads, terracotta bangles,
girdles, bracelets and anklets. There were also some evidences of wheels and carts which depict
presence of trade. They use animals such as bulls and ox to pull the carts for long distance trade.
This shows that people of Indus Valley Civilization lived a lifestyle which is equally good as the
lifestyle of people living in today’s world. They already set an example for the present society.

CHAPTER - 3

ARYAN INVASION

Aryans were considered the people with whom the Hindu tradition has been long associated. It
was believed that Aryans might have attracted towards Indus Civilization due to the overseas
trade that they use to carry out at that time. It was believed by the historians such as Sir Mortimer
Wheeler that the Aryans ventured into the Indian sub-continent from central Asia and conquered
the dark skinned Indus dwellers. Many people from the Indus civilization were killed and the one
who survived were either changed to Indo Aryan culture or were started treating as slaves. There
was another theory which suggests that Aryans started growing inside the Indus Valley
Civilization as a new culture. And then some of them started moving towards east ward and

2Upinder Singh; A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century; Pearson Education (2006);pp. 137-159.
 9

some towards south. Some said that Aryans was not the reason for the decline of Indus Valley
Civilization. As it is believe that Indus valley was already at a fall before the arrival of Aryans.
So it is possible that Aryans would not have found any people from the Indus Valley
Civilization3.

Although historians afterwards said that the theory of Aryan invasion is vague as they don’t find
any evidence of weapons or any tool in the excavation of Indus Valley Civilization that can be
used for war. According to K.U.R. KENEDY, the skeletal remains of the people of Indus Valley
Civilization bear no wounds or cuts which show that Aryan invasion theory was vague.
Furthermore it was believed that before the invasion of Aryans the people of Indus Valley
Civilization might have moved towards east India or South India and the Aryans would have
found an empty land and no people remaining to fight with. Historians such as R.L. RAIKES and
many more firstly seemed to have believed that decline of Indus Valley Civilization was due to
Aryans afterwards proved this theory a vague one because they were not able to find any
evidences related to this fact. So at the end the theory of Aryan invasion was totally vague4.

CHAPTER – 4

FLOODS

A theory which is widely accepted by the historians is of Flood. It was said that due to the
Tectonic changes in the earth’s crust, the gradient of the Indus River must have created an
artificial dam in the river bed, which would have made the flood water move towards Mohenjo-
Daro and other sites of Indus Valley Civilization as most of them were situated near the Indus
River. This must have cause a massive destruction in the civilization. According to M.R. SAHNI,
a tectonic uplift in the lower Indus plain causing the decline of the Harappan settlements situated
in that area. The evidence according to him consisted of the bedded alluvial soil above the cities
of Indus Valley Civilization. At the time of excavation it was found out not only by SAHNI but

3Robert L. Raikes; The End of the Ancient Cities of the Indus; Wiley(April 1964).
4Mark W. Muesse; The Hindu Traditions; Fortress Press (2011); pp. 26-28.
 10

by other archeologists also that there have been several layers of soils above the cities of Indus
which is possible only when the cities continuously got hit by flood 5. Due to flood there had been
soil erosion also which could have decreased their crop production, this could have decreased
there trade with outer world. The theory that RAIKES provided was that the slit that was
deposited by flood was of 30 – 20 feet on which he said that there might have been 5 to 7
continuous floods at that time6.As the sites were situated near the Indus River, the intensity of
flood would have been so much that it could have destructed the whole civilization at once

5AkkarajuSarma; Decline Of Harrapan Culture A Re-Look; IsIAO (December 1977).

6Malati J. Shendge; Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (1990).
 11

CHAPTER – 5

OTHER REASONS FOR DECLINE

Apart from continuous floods, Aryan invasion theory and other reasons behind the decline of
Indus Valley Civilization, outbreak of the plague epidemic is shown as another reason for the
decline of Indus Valley civilization. The theory of plague was given by K.U.R. KENEDY after
he carefully examined the remains of skeleton which shows that there was no sign of injury on
their skull which proves the theory of Aryan Invasion vague. After that he showed some
evidences of remains of a rat which showed that plague infected the people of Indus Valley
Civilization and would have killed half of the population of Indus. It is considered to be one of
the most abominable and deadly cause. Other theories of decline that are given by other authors
are that, there might have been a sudden increase in no. of population which could have made it
impossible for the people of Indus to survive as they were mainly agricultural society so it is
almost impossible to produce food for a large number of population, they use to hunt also but
that doesn’t contribute much also. Another reason was decline in trade. This was because after
the continuous floods the fertility of the soil was washed away because of soil erosion which
would have decreased the production of crops, which decreased the export of agricultural
products to the outer world. There were traces of other trades also but after the floods and other
causes they also went down which made their survival more difficult and finally led to Decline
of Indus Valley Civilization. All these reasons, that is, increase in number of population; decline
in trade and other reasons would have caused scarcity of food. The theory which was accepted
rarely was that after all these instances the people of Indus Valley Civilization would have moved
towards South or East and would have settled there permanently 7. Another cause given was that
there might have earthquakes which made the tectonic plates move and collide and which caused
flood the main reason of decline of Indus Valley Civilization.

7 Upinder Singh; A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century; Pearson Education (2006);pp. 137-159.
 12

CHAPTER – 6

CONCLUSION

The researcher would like to conclude the research work by stating that the life of Indus Valley
People was more like of the modern life style. They had a proper town planning with a well
planed sewage system. They also did town division in which citadel town was for upper class
and lower town was for ruling class. They also used sun burnt bricks and mud made brick to
build their houses and the bricks were of the same dimension. They also used copper utensils.
They were having seals made of clay which have depiction of animals which according to
archeologists were used for overseas trade. All this depicted that the life style of the people of
Indus Valley Civilization was better than that of today’s world because of their planned system
and hygienic style of living. The theories for decline of Indus Valley Civilization that were given
by different scholars include Aryan invasion, Flood theory, earthquake, plague, rise in
population, decline in trade and scarcity of food. Aryan invasion theory was proven wrong by
K.U.R. KENEDY as when he examined the skeleton of the people of Indus he was not able to
find a single sign of injury or any sought of break. So the Aryan Invasion theory was stated
vague. But after this the study performed by R.L. RAIKES and M.R. SAHNI came with a new
theory that was of flood. According to them there were several layers of soils above the ground
level of Indus Valley Civilization which resembles that the Civilization was hit by several floods
continuously. The theory of flood was supported by the arguments that there was some tectonic
plate collision which caused flood. Because of flood the other theories that came up was decrease
in production which ultimately lead to scarcity of food. Another theory was of plague which was
to an extent considered true because plague is caused due to rats and unhygienic living
conditions. And these conditions are possible after flood. So plague is also considered as the
reason of decline of Indus Valley Civilization. The researcher supports the theory of flood,
plague, earthquake and scarcity of food. Aryan invasion theory according to researcher is wrong
as it is not supported by any evidence like other theories.
 13

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Gregory L. Possehl; The Mohenjo-Daro Floods: A Reply; Wiley (February 1967).

 Robert L. Raikes; The End of the Ancient Cities of the Indus; Wiley (April 1964).

 Upinder Singh; A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to

the 12th Century; Pearson Education (2006).

 Akkaraju Sarma; Decline Of Harrapan Culture A Re-Look; IsIAO (December 1977).

 Malati J. Shendge; Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (1990).

 Mark W. Muesse; The Hindu Traditions; Fortress Press (2011); pp. 26-28.