The
Harappan Civilization - By N.S. Rajaram
http://www.hindunet.org/alt_hindu/1994/msg00178.html
Until quite recently, the famous Harappan civilization
of the Indus valley has been an enigma. Many questions still remain about the identity of
the people who created this great ancient civilization. Stretching over a million and a
half square kilometers, from the borders of Iran to east UP and with some sites as far
south as the Godavari valley, it was larger than ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia combined.
What is perhaps most puzzling about it is the fact that all major sites spread over this
immense belt went into sudden decline and disappeared more or less simultaneously. The
renowned archeologist, S.R. Rao, probably the foremost authority on Harappan archeology
recently wrote: "In circa 1900 B.C., most of the mature Harappan sites were wiped
out forcing the inhabitants to seek new lands for settlement. They seem to have
left in a
great hurry and in small groups, seeking shelter initially on the eastern flank of the
Ghaggar and gradually moving towards the Yamuna. The refugees from Mohen-jo-daro and
southern sites in Sind fled to Saurashtra and later occupied the interior of the
peninsula." From this it is apparent that the Harappans, though inhabiting a vast
area, fell victim to a sudden calamity which forced them to seek shelter in
other parts of
ancient India.
The usual explanation found in history books is that
the inhabitants of the Harappan cities were driven out by the invading Aryans. However it
is now recognised by scholars that the Aryan invasion theory of India is a myth that owes
more to European politics than anything in Indian records or archaeology. (The politics of
History, The Hindustan Times, Nov. 28 1993). The evidence against any such invasion is now
far too strong to be taken seriously. To begin with, sites spread over such a vast
stretch, measuring well over a thousand miles across would not have been all
abandoned simultaneously due to the incursion of nomadic bands at one extremity. Further,
there is profuse archaeological evidence including the presence of sacrificial altars that
go to show that the Harappans were part of the Vedic Aryan fold. As a result, it can
safely by said that the Vedic age also ended with the Harappan civilisation. From all this
it is clear that the loss of these sites must have been associated with some natural
catastrophe. A few scholars have pointed to evidence of frequent floods to account for the
abandonment. But, floods are invariably local in nature and do not cause the collapse of a
civilization over a vast belt. People adapt. Floods bring death but they also sustain life.
Some of the most flood prone areas of the world - like the Nile valley, Bengal
and the
Yangtse valley, in China,- area also among the most densely populated. It is the loss of
water or dessication that causes massive disruptions on the scale witnessed at the end of
the Harappan civilization. Thanks to the latest data from two major archaeological and
satellite based studies, we now know that this is exactly what happened.
It was ecological change that ended the great civilization not only
in India but over a vast belt that included Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Aegean. On the
basis of extensive explorations carried out in Northern Mesopotamia, a joint
French-American team led by H. Weiss of Yale
University has determined that most of the old
world civilization were severely affected by a prolonged drought that began about 2200 B.C.
and persisted for about 300years. The most drastically hit region seems to have been the
Akkadian civilization neighboring India. The drought may have been triggered by
massive
volcanic eruptions. According to the findings of this historic study concluded only
recently: "At approximately 2200 B.C., occupations of Tell Leilan and Tell
Brak (in
Northern Mesopotamia) were suddenly abandoned...a marked increase in aridity and wind
circulation, subsequent to a volcanic eruption, induced considerable degradation in land
use conditions.... this abrupt climatic change caused abandonment of Tell Leilan,
regional desertion, and collapse of the Akkadian empire based in southern Mesopotamia.
Synchronous collapse in adjacent regions suggests the impact of abrupt climatic change was
excessive. An end uncannily like that of the Harappans. The authors of this momentous
study note that the collapse of the Akkdians more or less coincided with similar climate
change, land degradation and collapse noted in the Aegean, Palestine, Egypt, and India. The
date of 1900 BC given by S.R. Rao for the collapse of the Harappans should be seen as
approximate. More accurate methods are now available that show this date to have been
sometime before 2000 BC, and they are well within the calibration error of
radiation and
other scientific dating techniques. The basic point is: as a result of several independent
explorations conducted over a vast belt from southern Europe to India, it is now clear
that civilizations over a large part of the ancient world were brought to a calamitous end
by an abrupt climate change on a global scale.
To attribute a global calamity of such colossal magnitude to
nomadic 'Aryan' tribes is simplistic in the extreme. These discoveries should help put an
end to all speculation regarding the Aryan invasion as the cause of breakup of the
Harappan civilisation.
On the other hand we now know that the Vedic civilization far from coming into
existence
after the Harappan, in fact ended with it; the mature Harappan civilization was the last
glow of the Vedic age. This recognition has brought about a fundamental change in
pespective in the history and chronology of not only ancient India, but also nearly all
ancient civilizations. It helps answer several fundamental questions about the source of
the Harappans - they should now be called the Vedic Harappans - and the age of the Rig
Veda. Thanks to recent discoveries about the mathematics and geography of Vedic India, we
are now in a position to answer both questions. This shift in perspective, that the Harappan
civilization came at the end of the Vedic age also helps explain a major puzzle; the
technological basis for this great civilisation. Even a superficial study of Harappan sites
suggests that its builders were extremely capable town planners and engineers. And this
requires a sophisticated knowledge of mathematics especially geometry. Elaborate
structures like the Great Bath of Mohen-jo-daro, the Lothal harbour or the citadel at
Harappa are inconcievable without a detailed knowledge of geometry.
The world had to wait 2000 years more, till the rise ofthe Roman
civilisation for sanitation and town planning to reach a comparable level. The question is:
where did the Harappans get the necessary mathematical land engineering knowledge? History
books tell us that Indians borrowed their geometry from the Greeks. This is absurd. The
Harappans must have had the neccessary technical knowledge at least 2000 years before the
Greeks. Without it the civilization would never have seen the light of day. It is as
simple as that. But once we recognise that Harappan archaeology belongs to the
closing centuries of the Vedic age, the mystery vanishes. The late Vedic
literature includes
mathematical texts known as the Sulba-sutras which contain detailed instruction for the
building of sacrificial altars.
After
a monumental study spanning more than 20 years, the distinguished American mathematician
and historian of science, A. Seidenberg showed that the Sulba-sutras are the
source of both
Egyptian and old Babylonian mathematics. The Egyptian texts based on the Sulba-sutras go
back to before 2000 BC. This provides independent confirmation that Indian mathematical
knowledge existed long before that date, ie, during the height of the Harappan era. The
sulba-sutras are part of the vedic religious literature known as the Kalpasutras. They were
created originally to serve as technical manuals for the design and construction of Vedic
altars. As previously noted, Harappan sites contain many such altars, a fact that supplies
a link between Vedic literature and Harappan archaeology. It serves also to show that the
vedic literature could not have been brought in by any invaders - they were needed for
building the altars that are very much part of the Harappan archaeology! The
sulba-sutra
are the oldest mathematical texts known.
A careful comparison of the sulba-sutras with the mathematics of
Egypt and old Babylonia led Seidenberg to conclude: "... the elements of ancient
geometry found in Egypt and old Babyloniastem from a ritual system of the kind found in
the Sulba-sutras." What is interesting is that the origins of ancient mathematics are
to be found in religion and ritual. So the great engineering feats of the Harappans can be
seen as secular off-shoots of the religious mathematics found in vedic literature. This can
in a way be compared to the history of books and publishing, The first books printed were
Bibles, like the Gutenberg bible; but the technique of printing soon transcended its
original niche and led to an explosion of knowledge that made possible the European
renaissance. similarly, the 'ritual mathematics' in the sulba-sutras led eventually to the
purely secular achievements of the Harappans like city planning and the design
of harbours.
So the vedic civilisation ended well before 2000 BC, with the ending of the Harappans
following the Great Drought. The next question is, when did it actually begin.
Here we cannot be certain although some experts on Vedic astronomy
claim to be able to find statements in the Rig Veda that point to dates like 6500 BC and
beyond. I feel it safer at this time to be conservative and stick to reliable
archaeological evidence. Although some sites dating to almost 7000 BC have been found, I
believe that a lot more supporting data must be found before such dates can be accepted.
But thanks to new data made available by the French SPOT satellite and the Indo-French
field study, we can definitely conclude that the Rig-Veda describes the geography of North
India as it was long before 3000 BC. The clinching evidence is provided by the fate of the
Saraswati river. It is well known that in the Rig Veda, the greatest and the holiest of
rivers was not the Ganga, but the now dry Saraswati. The Ganga is mentioned only once
while the Saraswati is mentioned some 50 tomes. There is a whole hymn devoted to her.
Extensive research by the late Dr. Wakankar has shown that the Saraswati changed her
course several times, going completely dry around 1900 BC.
This date may now have to be moved back by a few centuries
in light of what we now know about the disappearance of the neighbouring
Akkadians. In any
event we know now which Dr. Wakankar did not, that the Saraswati described in the Rig Veda
belongs to a date long before 3000 BC. The Rig Veda calls the Saraswati the greatest of
rivers (Naditame) that flowed from "the mountain to the sea". The latest
satellite data combined with field archaeological studies have shown that the Rig Vedic
Saraswati had stopped being a perrennial river long before 3000 BC. As Paul-Henri Francfort
of CNRS, Paris recently observed, "...we now know, thanks to the field work of the
Indo-French expedition that when the proto historic people settled in this area, no large
river had flowed there for along time." The proto historic people he refers to are
the early Harappans of 3000BC. But satellite 'photos show that a great prehistoric river
that was over 7 kilometers wide did indeed flow through the area at one time. This was the
Saraswati described in the Rig Veda.
Numerous archaeological sites have also been located along the
course of this great prehistoric river thereby confirming Vedic accounts. The great
Saraswati that flowed "from the mountain to the sea" is now seen to belong to a
date long anterior to 3000 BC. This means that the Rig Veda describes the geography of
North India long before 3000BC. This is further supported by the fact that the Drishadvati
river, also described in the Rig Veda, had itself gone dry long before 3000 BC. All this
shows that the Rig Veda must have been in existence no later than 3500 BC. There is other
evidence from metallurgy and astronomy that lend further support for this date.
What does this all mean? In our book, Vedic Aryans and the
Origins of Civilisation, David Frawley and I have shown that the Rig Veda belongs to an
earlier layer of civilisation before the rise of the civilisation of Egypt,
Mesopotamia,
and the Indus Valley (Harappa). This calls for a fundamental change in our idea of
Mesopotamia as the cradle of civilisation. In the same book, on the basis of ecology and
ancient literature, it is also suggested that the Rig Vedic aryans were the beneficiary of
an age of abundance in north India, brought about by the melting of the ice caps at the
end of the last Ice Age. The last Ice age ended in about 8000 BC. For the next several
thousand years, many areas that are now arid, like Rajasthan, Sind, Baluchistan - were
fertile and supported agriculture. This of course was due to the discharge of waters in
the form of numerous streams from melting ice caps. This is apparent from the French
satellite study. In the course of time, the ice caps accumulated during the long ice age
came to be depleted and aridity began to spread across the sub continent. This
of course
culminated in the great drought of 2200 BC that wrought havoc with the civilisations of
the ancient world.
In summary, all this new evidence, when examined in the light
of science, gives a totally different picture of the ancient world. The rise and fall of
the Vedic civilisation of which the Harappan was a part can be seen to have resulted from
the vagaries of nature, inseparably bound to the boom and bust ecological cycle that
followed the last ice age. The vedic age and more specifically the Rig Veda were the
beneficiaries of nature's bounties - a unique age in water abundance in the wake of the
last ice age. Its end was also brought about by nature in the form of a killing drought.
The Harappan civilisation was its twilight. And this is the verdict of science - what
nature giveth, nature also taketh away.
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