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Localization Era (1900-1300 BC)

The earliest major civilization was that of the Mohenjo-Daro and Harappan culture. This first of the great Indus civilizations lasted over athousand years, from 2500 BC to 1500 BC. In February 2009 new finds at an Indus Valley Civilization site in Pakistan, dated to about 2000 BC through radiocarbon dating done at the Dutch University of Groningen, linked the site to the city of Mohenjo-daro. The finds seemed to indicate that Mohenjo-Daro flourished longer than previously thought.

The renowned archeologist, S.R. Rao, probably the foremost authority on Harappan archeology 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..."

The Indus Valley Civilisation collapsed in the middle of the second millennium BCE and was followed by the Vedic Civilisation, which extended over much of northern India and Pakistan. Successive empires and kingdoms ruled the region from the Achaemenid Persian empire around 543 BCE, to Alexander the Great in 326 BCE and the Mauryan empire. The Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab from 184 BCE, and reached its greatest extent under Menander, establishing the Greco-Buddhist period with advances in trade and culture. The city of Taxila (Takshashila) became a major centre of learning in ancient times - the remains of the city, located to the west of Islamabad, are one of the country's major archaeological sites.

Harappan civilization steadily declined after 1900 BCE, perhaps owing to ecological factors such as salt buildup in the soil and persistent drought. Some have suggested that cholera was responsible for the decentralization and migration of the Harappan civilization. A more compelling argument for the migration of the Harappan civilization, however, is drought. Satellite images of northern India and Pakistan show the ancient course of the Sarasvati River, which dried up during the global climatic change climaxing in the great drought of 2200 to 2000 BCE. Severe aridity and wind turbulence led to the abandonment of great civilizations from the Aegean Sea, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and northern India. The Harappan civilization, originally clustered along the length and tributaries of the Sarasvati, migrated east toward the Ganga, with "asynchronous but sustained abandonment of different cities". In the Localization Era (1900-1300 BC) witnesssed unbroken continuity in several cultural expressions but there is neither writing nor the use of standardized weights. Evidently, this was a consequence of a breakdown of long distance trade.

Harappan civilization steadily declined after 1900 BCE, perhaps owing to ecological factors such as salt buildup in the soil and persistent drought. The Punjab site called Harappa was a 150-hectare site. Water is an important part of, not only the modern picture, but the ancient picture. The extreme irrigation situation in that part of Pakistan has created problems, as the over-irrigation has caused an extreme salt problem. So the water is extremely mineral-laden; it’s very difficult to drink. Even Pakistanis that part of the country get sick when they drink the water, because everything is full of salt. Mohenjo-daro had the same kind of problem. All of the major sites are along rivers. So in Mohenjo-daro, for example, UNESCO has spent tons of money trying to solve this problem there, as well. Everything from planting trees that are supposed to draw the salt out of the ground, and that sort of thing. The whole idea about what was the Indus civilization and what happened to it is tied to water. Did the rivers dry up, and that’s why everything ended?

The distribution of settlements in ancient societies is commonly linked to the courses of large river systems. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation (4800-3500BP) is no exception, with the major sites of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro located along the Indus river system. However, the largest collection of Harappan archaeological sites are associated with the postulated surface trace of a large palaeo-river channel in the drainage divide tract between the Ganges and Indus river systems, where no major river currently flows. It has been proposed that this palaeo-channel was occupied by a major river sourced in the Himalaya, and that this river provided water resources to sustain the extensive Harappan sites located along its ancient course.

In North-western India (Rajasthan) there is lake level, anthropological and other evidence of higher-than-present rainfall at around 5,000 years ago. Alekseeva suggested in 1991, on the basis of palaeochannels of rivers, that precipitation in winter exceeded the present by about 200-300mm at around 5,000-4,000 years ago. A figure of 500mm greater was suggested by Singh et al. in 1974, who on the basis of plant fossils and the molluscan fauna reconstruct a savanna-grass steppe environment for Rajasthan at that time, in contrast to the present semi-desert. Hyams in 1976 mentioned vertebrate fossil evidence from Sind, in the lower Indus Valley, indicating a rainforest or rainforest-savanna environment during the mid-Holocene (though the forest was presumably restricted to riverine borders).

An extensive system of flood control levees were produced along the 1000 mile length of the Indus controlled by this culture. Possibly this civilization was largely destroyed by the Aryan invasion chronicled in the Rigveda. And with the arrival of Indra, the Aryan god of war, civilization and the written work disappeared from the Indus plain. In about 500 BC the Jumna River was diverted bytectonic activity from the Indus to Ganges drainage, but no civilization marked its passing. After the passage of Alexander the Great in 326 BC, a succession of empires and kingdoms ruled parts of the Indus plain, but never approached social development on the scale of the Harappan culture. The Mauryan dynasty was followed by the Bactrians, who in turn were overrunby the Scytho-Parthians in the first century BC. The Parthians remained, with their city of Taxila until about 450 AD, when the kingdom was destroyed by the Ephthalites, or White Huns. The first Muslim-Hindu War occurred in 711-12 AD in the lower Irdus plain. Sind fell to Muslims in the eighth century, but the conquest of the Punjab was not completed until the eleventh cenlury. Repeated wars extended Islamic territory into Hindustan until the Sultanaie of Dehli was established in 1206. The Samma-Rajputs accepted Islam between 1351 and 1517.