Until
the discovery of the Indus
Valley Civilization, the development of literature
and culture in India
was always credited to the Aryans.
In 1920 archaeologists announced the discovery of
extensive urban ruins in the Indus
Valley which pre-dated the earliest archaeological
sources and this has caused scholars to re-examine
their views on the different phases of Indian culture.
The Rig
Veda which speaks in such derogatory terms of
the enemies subdued by the Aryan tribes, gives the
impression that they were all savage barbarians.
The
Brahmins for centuries have degraded the original
inhabitants of India with the intention of self
elevation, preservation and oppression. These
ancient dwellers in India
were Dravidians, and in fact, their culture
had developed a highly sophisticated way of
life. |
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The existence of the Brahui tribe in Baluchistan,
to the west of the Indus, who speak a Dravidian
language like South Indian Tamil,
gives evidence that a migration of people or culture
did occur. Also the Harappa
religion shows many similarities with those elements
of Hinduism which are specially popular in the present
Dravidian culture.
Archaeological
evidence shows that the Indus
Valley culture moved from west to east, with sites
towards central and southern India
flourishing after Harappa
and Mohenjo-daro had declined. This civilization is
one of the three great early civilizations that arose
in the late fourth and third millennia BC around the
three large alluvial systems of the Tigris-Euphrates,
Nile
and Indus
rivers.
This
civilization was thought to have been confined
to the valley of the river Indus, hence the name
given to it was Indus Valley civilization. This
civilization was a highly developed urban one
and two of its towns, Mohenjo-daro
and Harappa, represent the high watermark of the
settlements. |
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Subsequent archaeological excavations established that
the contours of this civilization were not restricted
to the Indus valley but spread to a wide area in northwestern
and western India.
Thus this civilization is now better known as the Harappan
civilization. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa
are now in Pakistan
and the principal sites in India include Ropar in Punjab,
Lothal in Gujarat
and Kalibangan in Rajasthan.
Recent research has shown Sutkagen Dor in Baluchistan
next to Iran is the westernmost known Harappan site.
It is thought to have once been on a navigable inlet
of the Arabian Sea, and the usual citadel and town are
present, as well as defensive walls 30 feet wide. Sutkagen
Dor would have been on the trade route from Lot al to
Mesopotamia. 
The
extensive excavations carried out at the two principal
city sites, Harappa
and Mohenjo-daro, indicates that this Dravidian
culture was well established by about 2500 B.C.
What we know of this ancient civilization is derived
almost exclusively from archaeological data since
every attempt to decipher the script used by these
people has failed so far. |
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Recent analyses of the order of the signs on the inscriptions
have led several scholars to the view that the language
is not of the Indo-European family, nor is it close
to the Sumerians, Hurrians, or Elamite, nor can it be
related to the structure of the Munda languages of modern
India.
If it is related to any modern language family it appears
to be Dravidian akin to Old Tamil, presently spoken
throughout the southern part of the Indian Peninsula.A
study of the evolution of scripts in India indicates
that the Dravidians,
over the centuries, have made the key contributions
to the development of language and literature in
India.
There
are literary as well as archaeological evidences
to show that there was trade with Mesopotamia.
The presence of a number of Indus
seals at Ur and other Mesopotamian cities and
the discovery of a 'Persian Gulf' type of seal
at Lothal - otherwise known from the Persian Gulf
ports of Bahrain and Failaka, and from Mesopotamia-provide
convincing corroboration of the sea trade suggested
by the Lothal dock in Gujarat. |
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Ancient Mesopotamian texts speak of trading with at
least two seafaring civilizations - Makkan and Meluha
- in the neighborhood of India
in the third millennium B.C. This trade was conducted
with real financial sophistication in amounts that could
involve tons of copper. The Mesopotamians speak of Meluha
as an aquatic culture, where water and bathing played
a central role. A number of Indus
Valley objects have been found buried with Mesopotamians.
The
Indus cities seem to have had very few public buildings.
The only one of any note is the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro
which appears to have been used in the performance of
certain rituals. Nothing that can be clearly identified
as a temple or a shrine has yet been discovered. A structure
once considered a granary is now thought to have been
a palace with ventilated air ducts.The people depended
upon agriculture and trade for their livelihood. Wheat,
barley and the date palm were cultivated; animals were
domesticated; and the cotton textiles, ivory
and copper were exported to Mesopotamia, and possibly
China
and Burma
in exchange for silver and other commodities. Production
of several metals such as copper,
bronze, lead
and tin
was also undertaken and some remnants of furnaces provide
evidence of this fact. The discovery of kilns to make
bricks support the fact that burnt bricks were used
extensively in domestic and public buildings. The Harappans
used the same size bricks and standard weights.
Evidence
for the religious beliefs and practices of these people
is slight, since the Indus
script cannot be read and apart from the bath, there
appears to be no religious structure. A certain amount
of information has been derived from scenes depicted
on seal-amulets and from the terra-cotta
figurines found at different sites throughout the
area. However such evidence is open to wide interpretation.
The predominance of female figurines and seals depicting
a horned goddess in association with the sacred pipal
tree are generally regarded as evidence of the worship
of a mother goddess who presided over fertility and
birth and who may have acted as guardian and protector
of the dead.
In
some of the mother goddess cults of the Ancient Near
East, the Great Mother who symbolized the power of fertility
came also to be associated with the renewal of human
life after death. She protected and revived those committed
to the earth from whence this new life sprang. Inhumation
was the most common method of disposing a corpse and
they were buried with an assortment of grave goods,
including pottery vessels which may have contained food
and drink offerings.
The
great bath at Mohenjo-daro
could not have been constructed for the purpose
of hygiene since all the private dwellings were
equipped with excellent bathrooms. Since so many
elements of the Indus culture appear to have found
their way into Hinduism, it is possible that ancient
purification rites were taken over and reinterpreted
by members of the Brahmin caste. |
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If this is so the later practice of constructing artificial
lotus ponds may be very ancient indeed. These lotus
ponds were used during historic times for various purification
ceremonies and one theory suggests that the bath was
probably used by the mother goddess cult. The cult at
Mohenjo-daro may have involved some form of ceremonial
bathing as a prelude to ritual cohabitation with prostitutes
associated with the goddess, carried out in the small
ante-chambers adjoining the bath.
One
seal uncovered at Mohenjo-daro
depicts a three-faced male god with arms outstretched,
seated on a low platform in a cross legged position
(like a yogi).
His arms are adorned with bangles and his head is crowned
with a fan-shaped head-dress from which two horns project.
He is surrounded by animals and fertility symbols suggest
that he concerned with the promotion of fertility.
The
appearance of coarser type of pottery indicates invaders
in the Indus cities. At Mohenjo-daro large rooms were
divided into smaller ones and mansions became tenements,
and the street plan no longer maintained. Evidently
the city was over populated and law an order were less
kept, perhaps because the invaders were already ranging
the provinces and city was full of newcomers. Around
1750 B.C. the uniform culture of this great area broke
up. The cause or causes of the end of the Indus civilization
are not easy to determine. At Mohenjo-daro
groups of sprawling skeletons in this period suggests
some sort of massacre or invasion. The end of the Indus
Valley Civilization may have been fairly abrupt
and violent, but long before the end came, there seems
to have been a gradual process of internal decay and
stagnation.
There
is not enough evidence to say that the destroyers of
the Indus cities were members of the group of tribes
whose priests composed the Reg Veda. However it is probable
that the fall of this great civilization was partly
due to the widespread migratory movements of charioteering
peoples which altered the face of the whole civilized
world in the 2nd
millennium B.C. During King
Solomon's reign over Israel
(970-931 B.C.) we see that chariots and horses were
imported from Egypt
and exported to Asia Minor.
From
the evidences presented in religions of Hinduism
and Mahayana Buddhism,
and the linguistic evidence in Sanskrit,
we can see that early Indian Christianity
totally transformed the religions and worships
in India. However, these earlier practices were
syncretised into Christianity resulting in it's
corruption and decay. |
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