INDIAN HISTORY SERIES

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

HARAPPAN SEALS

Steatite

Square – Animal and Inscription

Rectangular – Inscription only

Stamping of bags

Ownership (authentication)

Animal most encountered - humpless bull

HARAPPAN SCRIPT

Pictographic - Boustrophedon

Birds, fishes, varieties of human form

Fish - most represented in pictographs

Signboard inscription bearing

10 pictographs - Dholavira

POLITICAL CONDITIONS

No clear cut evidence

Well planned cities & excellent drainage system -

municipal govt

Fortified citadel - monarchial form of govt

RELIGION

Mother goddess

Male deity - Pashupati shiva

Female sex organs - Yoni worship

Pipal tree and animals - pigeon, humpless bulls

Believed in ghosts and evil forces

Yoga and meditation

Worshipped fertility symbols - round stones,

pierced stones

TERRACOTTA FIGURINES

Made of baked clay

Male and female figurines

Pride of place - great humpless bulls

New techniques in handicraft - camelian

products, seal carving

Metallurgy - copper, bronze, lead, tin

IMAGES

Metal and stone

Metal - bronze image of nude dancing girl with

right hand at hip

Stone - steatite image of bearded man at

mohenjodaro

POTTERY

Use of potters wheel

Glazed pottery (mosaic glass)- first of its kind in

world (glass and glaze are chemically the same>>

idea of glass making)

Plain (red) and painted (red and black)

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

First doubling from 1,2,4,8 to 64 and then in

decimal multiples of 16

Foot - 37.6 cm

Cubit - 51.8 to 53.6

BURIAL PRACTICES

3 forms (CPF)

Complete burials

Fractional burials

Post-cremation burials

Surkotada - pot burial

Harappa - graves east-west axis

FOOD

Wheat, barley, dates, pork, beef, mutton, poultry

Milk and vegetables

DRESS AND ORNAMENTS

Cotton and wool

Two types - one to cover upper and one to cover

lower portions

Ornaments - gold, silver, ivory and copper, lapis

louzi

PUBLIC BUILDINGS

Fortified citadels

Large pillared hall

Great granary (3G) - FCI

Great bath

Public granary

HOUSEHOLD ARTICLES

Vessels of copper, bronze, silver and painted

pottery

Glazed indus pottery

Game of dice

WEAPONS

Maces, axes, spears, bows, arrows

Defensive weapons - unknown

Preparation of weapons - copper, bronze and

stone

SPECIAL FEATURES OF SOME HARAPPAN SITES

HARAPPA:

First Indus site to be discovered - dayaramsahani (HD)

2 rows of 6 granaries

Largest no. of wheat grains

Red sandstone tarso of nude male

Burial practices - R 37, cemetry H type (fractional burial

MOHENJODARO

Second site to be discovered - R.D.Banarjee (MB)

Great granary (3G)

Great bath

Multi pillared assembly hall

First street

MOHENJODARO

Pasupati seal

Bronze image of dancing girl with right hand on

hip

Steatite image of bearded man

3 cylindrical seals of mesopotamia

Outbreak of malaria (malnutrition, gender

differences)

LOTHAL

s.r.rao

Artificial dockyard

World's first tidal port

Mini harappa

Double burial

LOTHAL

Cultivation of rice

Manchester of harappan civilization for its cotton

(3C’s) – famous for cotton

Copper furnaces (burning – good conductor of

electricity)

Chess game

Fire altar

CHANHUDARO

Majumdar (CM)

Indus city without citadel (CCC)

Lancashire of india (famous for cotton)

Flooded more than once

Largest number of copper settlements

Lipstick

Cat's fooprint

KALIBANGAN

B.B.lal and k.ghosh

Word - black bangles

Earliest ploughed field

Mixed cropping

Cylindrical seal

7 fire altars

Bones of animals

SURKOTADA

Joshi

Bones of horse

Pot burial

DHOLAVIRA

r.s bhist Largest of all indus settlements Middle town – dam, reservoir, stadium (3 stage

planning ) 10 alphabet signboard Traces of dam Destroyed by earthquake Biggest state found in india Water reservoir

Stadium

Banwali Barley grains Oval shaped settlements

Daimabad :

Dhavalikar Largest no. of bronze items Bronze chariot, rhino, elephant, bull

Kot diji:

Ghurey Largest no. of stone implements Destroyed by fire

INDIAN HISTORY TEST SERIES

Topic: INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

Objective type

Plz mention the reason why you are selecting the option (a) or (b) or (c) or (d)

Plz mention the reason how you eliminated the other options

Write down one brainstorming key point for every option

NO TIME LIMIT

READ THE QUESTION 2-3

TIMES

IDENTIFY THE KEYWORDS

JUST THINK AND SELECT

THE OPTION

The Harappan Civilization was mainly

concentrated in

(a) Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat

(b) Punjab, Rajasthan and UP

(c) Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi

(d) Gujarat, Haryana and Western UP

Which one of the following is not one of the

Harappan sites related to Maritime activities of

the Harappan People?

(a) Lothal

(b) Balakot

(c) Sokta Kob

(d) Desalpur

At which of the following places has a dockyard

connected to the Gulf of Cambay ?

(a) Lothal

(b) Suktagendor

(c) Amri

(d) Chanhudaro

The site that played the role of Harappan

Trading station was:

(a) Harappa

(b) Kalibangan

(c) Lothal

(d) Surkotda

Which of the following is not one of the proofs of

maritime activities of the Indus valley people?

(a) The discovery of a dockyard at Lothal

(b) The drawing of a ship on a seal

(c) Discovery of a large number of articles which

were not produced or found in the country

(d) Commercial links of the Harappans with the

West Asian Countries

Which of the following was not a feature of

Internal Trade of the Harappans?

(a) Trade was multifaceted

(b) It was operated on regional as well as inter-

regional level

(c) It had a guild system coupled with nomadic

trade

(d) It was purely a barter trade

The Harappan people conducted brisk trade with

(a) Afghanistan

(b) Mesopotamia

(c) Bahrain

(d) All the above

Which of the following does not indicate close links between the Indus Valley and other contemporary West Asian Civilizations ?

(a) Indus valley seals had been found from Sumer, Elam and Mesopotamia

(b) Trade between the Indus Valley and Sumer was carried on by land (through Baluchisthan) and partly by sea

(c) Literary and Archaeological evidence of brisk trade between Harappan and Mesopotamian towns

(d) Harappan economy was dependent on imports from West Asia

The Harappan site located near the Iranian

border is

(a) Surkotda

(b) Suktagendor

(c) Kotla Nihangkhan

(d) Alamgirpur

Which of the following was not a contemporary of

the Harappan civilization ?

(a) Egypt

(b) Mesopotamia

(c) Sumer

(d) Greek

Which of the following is not a feature of Lothal?

(a) Discovery of a dockyard

(b) Rectangular and circular fire-altars for animal

sacrifice

(c) Depiction of a ship on seal

(d) Evidence of the use of polugh

Four outposts of the Harappan civilization are

(a) Manda in the North, Daimabad in the south,

Hulas and Alamgirpur in the east and

Suktagendor in the west

(b) Manda in the east, Daimabad in the south, Hulas

in the North and Surkotda in the west

(c) Manda in north, Alamgirpur in the east,

Shoturghai in the west and Daimabad in the

south

(d) Alamgirpur in the North, Kaitha in the South,

Manda in the East and Kuntasi in the west

Harappan civilization roughly extended over an

area of:

(a) 1.3 million sq.km

(b) 2.5 million sq.km

(c) 0.75 million sq.km

(d) 0.65 million sq.km

Which of the following was not essentially a

Harappan port

(a) Lothal

(b) Balakot

(c) Suktagendor

(d) Surkotada

Which of the following was not a major industrial

town of the Harappan civilization?

(a) Lothal

(b) Chanhudaro

(c) Harappa

(d) Kalibangan

Harappan people had closest external contacts

with

(a) Bahrain

(b) Iran

(c) Mesopotamia

(d) Egypt

The entry port for trade between Indus trading

centres and Mesopotomia was

(a) Elam

(b) Oman

(c) Bahrain

(d) Afghanisthan