The Indus Valley Civilisation: India's first cities

The Indus Valley Civilisation, also called the Harappan Civilisation, was one of the world's earliest urban cultures. Its mature phase lasted from about 2600 to 1900 BCE, with earlier farming villages going back to about 3300 BCE and a later phase continuing to about 1300 BCE. Its cities stretched across the Indus river system and beyond, covering parts of present-day Pakistan and north-western India, and it was geographically larger than ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia combined.

The civilisation was first identified in the 1920s, when excavations began at Harappa in 1921 and at Mohenjo-daro in 1922. Later work added major sites such as Dholavira and Rakhigarhi in India, Lothal on the Gujarat coast, and Kalibangan in Rajasthan. The cities share striking features: streets laid out on a grid, standardised weights and measures, covered drains, and large structures such as the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro. Dholavira, in the Rann of Kutch, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, as are the ruins of Mohenjo-daro.

Harappan life rested on agriculture, herding, craft production, and trade. Wheat and barley were staple crops, and the people made beads, pottery, seals, and metal tools. Steatite seals carved with animals and a still-undeciphered script point to organised trade and record-keeping, though the script has not been read and no Harappan royal palace or temple has been securely identified. Trade reached Mesopotamia by sea and land, and Lothal's dockyard is often cited as evidence of maritime commerce, though its exact function is still debated by scholars.

After about 1900 BCE the large cities faded, but settlement continued in many areas in smaller, more localised forms. Scholars now reject a single simple cause for this change and point instead to a mix of shifting river courses, changing rainfall, and the breakdown of long-distance trade networks. The civilisation matters because it shows that urban life, planning, and craft specialisation in South Asia long predate the kingdoms described in later texts, and because its undeciphered script is a reminder of how much of the ancient past must be read through archaeology alone.