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Indus Valley Archaeology

No one knew of the existence of this urban society until the 1920s, when archaeological work started. Though the first Harappan sites were discovered in 1920-21 by archaeologists Dr. D.R. Sahni and Dr. R.D. Banerjee (Harappa in Punjab and Mohenjo-Daro in Sind - both in Pakistan now), fresh sites are still being unearthed, ading insight into the rich culture of the Harappan civilization.

True to the haphazard ambiance of the country, the discovery of India's most ancient civilization literally happened by accident. British engineers in the mid-1800's, busy constructing a railway line between Karachi and Punjab, found ancient, kiln-baked bricks along the path of the track. This discovery was treated at the time as little more than a curiosity, but archaeologists later revisited the site in the 1920's and determined that the bricks were over 5000 years old. Soon afterward, two important cities were discovered: Harappa on the Ravi river, and Mohenjodaro on the Indus.

Harrapa is today a large village in the Sahiwal District of Punjab, 15 miles southwest of the district town. Archaeologists think that ancient Harappa was the urban center dominating the upper Indus region, much like Mohenjo-daro dominated the lower Indus Valley and Ganweriwala might have been the urban center for what is now Rajasthan. The site at Harappa was first briefly excavated by Sir Alexander Cunningham in 1872-73, two decades after brick robbers carried off the visible remains of the city. He found an Indus seal of unknown origin.

The first extensive excavations at Harappa were started by Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni in 1920. His work and contemporaneous excavations at Mohenjo-daro first brought to the world's attention the existence of the forgotten Indus Valley civilization as the earliest urban culture in the Indian subcontinent. His work was followed later in the decade by that of Madho Sarup Vats, also of the Archaeological Survey of India. Excavations by other archaeologists continued in the 1930's, and in 1946 Sir Mortimer Wheeler excavated the so-called fortification walls and found the first pre-Indus Valley civilization (Kot Dijian) deposits. After independence in 1947 and coming in District Sahiwal of Province of Punjab, Pakistan, Harappa was excavated by Mohammed Rafique Mughal of the Archaeological Survey of Pakistan in 1966.

The Archaeological Survey of India was directed by Mortimer Wheeler starting in 1944. Thakran notes that "Wheeler resumed excavation at Harappa in 1946. He discovered remains of an entirely new cultural complex, popularly known as "Cemetery H", superimposed upon Cemetery R-37, indicating altogether a new stock of people. This prompted Wheeler to correlate it with the Aryans who were supposed to have destroyed the forts of their predecessors. Although this was opposed by B.B.Lal immediately which, however, surely added a new dimension to the interpretation of such archaeological material, especially in the aftermath of the partition of India. ... The process of equating archaeological cultures with literary references began with Wheeler... However, only a few years later Lal was also found indulging in a similar exercise of comparing the PGW with the Mahabharata. He identified the modern place names with those mentioned in or being associated with the Mahabarata... "

Excavations in the early 1940s added a new cultural complex, the Painted Grey Ware (hereafter PGW), to the "black millennium" bracketed by the Harappa and Northern Black Polished Ware (hereafter NBPW), cultural strands. Excavations produced late Harappan and PGW remains (with a clear break in between) along with NBPW. Other sites presented Ochre Coloured Pottery (hereafter OCP) and PGW with a break in between. This led to the identification of a fivefold cultural sequence in the Upper Gangetic Valley, with gaps in between, beginning with OCP and succeeded by the late Harappan PGW, NBPW, historical and Gupta periods. Carbon-14 dating placed the PGW time span between C.800 and 300 BC.

The Harappan site of Kalibangan experienced the feel of spade from 1960-69 for nine seasons under the leadership of Lal. This brought out three very important aspects: beginning of habitation on virgin soil in the Early Harappan levels, the twin-mound system (citadel and lower mound), the characteristic feature of Mature Harappan towns; and the absence of Late Harappan remains.