India's First Cities
The Indus-Sarasvatī civilisation
Say when this civilisation ran and why it carries four different names, place its main cities on the modern map, and follow the two rivers its sites grew along.
Archaeologists have given this civilisation several names — Indus, Harappan, Indus-Sarasvatī and Sindhu-Sarasvatī — and the chapter uses them interchangeably. Its people are called Harappans, after the city of Harappa in what is today Pakistan's Punjab, which was the first of its cities to be excavated, back in 1920–21. It is one of the oldest civilisations in the world, and its rise is also called the First Urbanisation of India.
Two rivers, not one
The plains of the Punjab and Sindh are watered by the Indus and its five main tributaries — a tributary being a river that flows into a larger river or lake, as the Yamuna flows into the Ganga. A little further east another river, the Sarasvatī, once ran from the foothills of the Himalayas through Haryana, Punjab, and parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Today it is called the Ghaggar in India and the Hakra in Pakistan, and it is seasonal: it flows in the rainy season and not at other times of year.
Have a play
The two river systems, and where the sites cluster along them.
Tap any part of the picture.
Worked example
Why does the chapter say the old name Indus Valley civilisation is obsolete?
Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, the first two cities found, both lie in the Indus plains.
A name gets fixed by the first evidence, and the first evidence here came from one river system.
Try it together
Now put the civilisation on the calendar.
In this region villages grew into towns from about 3500 BCE, and the towns grew into cities around 2600 BCE. The timeline in the chapter marks the span of the civilisation itself.
1.The timeline gives the civilisation's period as running from about 2600 BCE to a later date. Which year BCE does it end at? Answer with a number.
Have a go
Your turn: what is the word for a river that flows into a larger river or lake — as the Yamuna flows into the Ganga?
Hint: The Indus has five main ones.
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.