History & Culture
Prehistory and the Indus Valley Civilisation
GS Paper I
Prehistory and the Indus Valley — Quick Revision
One-page UPSC revision of Stone Age, Chalcolithic and Harappan India — stages, tools, key sites with rivers and finds, features and decline.
SyllabusGS I · Indian culture — art forms, literature and architecture from ancient to modern times
A last-week sheet for the earliest chapter of Indian history. Prelims turns almost every row here into a “correctly matched” pair.
Stone Age at a Glance
| Stage | Tools | Signature sites |
|---|---|---|
| Lower Palaeolithic | Hand axes, cleavers, choppers | Soan valley, Attirampakkam, Hunsgi, Belan valley |
| Middle Palaeolithic | Flakes — scrapers, borers | Nevasa (Pravara), Narmada valley |
| Upper Palaeolithic | Blades, burins | Belan valley, Kurnool caves, Bhimbetka |
| Mesolithic | Microliths | Bagor, Adamgarh, Langhnaj, Sarai Nahar Rai |
| Neolithic | Polished stone tools; pottery | Mehrgarh, Burzahom, Gufkral, Chirand, Koldihwa |
Neolithic and Chalcolithic “What Was Found Where”
| Site | Find |
|---|---|
| Mehrgarh (Baluchistan) | Earliest farming and herding in the subcontinent |
| Burzahom (Kashmir) | Pit dwellings; dogs buried with masters |
| Chirand (Bihar) | Bone tools |
| Koldihwa (UP) | Early rice |
| Piklihal, Utnur | Ash mounds (southern Neolithic) |
| Ahar (Rajasthan) | Tambavati; Ahar-Banas Chalcolithic culture |
| Inamgaon (Maharashtra) | Jorwe culture; urn burials of children under floors |
| Daimabad (Maharashtra) | Bronze chariot, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo |
Harappan Sites — the Master Table
| Site | Where | River | Remember it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harappa | Punjab, Pakistan | Ravi | First excavated (1921, Daya Ram Sahni) |
| Mohenjo-daro | Sindh, Pakistan | Indus | Great Bath, dancing girl, priest-king, Pashupati seal |
| Chanhudaro | Sindh, Pakistan | Indus | No citadel; bead workshop |
| Kalibangan | Rajasthan | Ghaggar | Ploughed field; fire altars |
| Lothal | Gujarat | Bhogava | Dockyard; bead factory |
| Dholavira | Gujarat (Kutch) | Mansar–Manhar streams | Three-part city; reservoirs; signboard; UNESCO 2021 |
| Rakhigarhi | Haryana | Ghaggar basin | Among the largest sites; ancient DNA study (2019) |
| Banawali | Haryana | Ghaggar basin | Terracotta plough model |
| Ropar | Punjab, India | Sutlej | Dog buried with human |
| Alamgirpur | Uttar Pradesh | Hindon | Easternmost |
| Sutkagen Dor | Baluchistan | Dasht | Westernmost |
| Daimabad | Maharashtra | Pravara | Southernmost |
High-yield facts
- Bricks in a standard 4:2:1 ratio; weights in a binary series; seals of steatite, unicorn the commonest motif.
- Script: undeciphered, mostly right to left, around 400 signs (estimates vary).
- Trade partners in Mesopotamian texts: Meluhha (Harappan region), Dilmun (Bahrain), Magan (Oman).
- Not Harappan: iron, temples (none identified), a confirmed horse.
- Decline from c. 1900 BCE — gradual, multi-causal; Wheeler’s invasion theory rejected.
Traps to Avoid
- Harappa and Mohenjo-daro are in Pakistan; Rakhigarhi and Dholavira are in India.
- Chanhudaro lacks a citadel; Dholavira has three divisions — both are exceptions to the two-part plan.
- Chalcolithic cultures outside the Harappan zone were rural, not urban.
- Mehrgarh is Neolithic and lies in Pakistan, not India.
Related Topics
- The Harappan Civilisation
- Stone Age and Chalcolithic Cultures
- Prehistory and the Indus Valley — practice questions
- Vedic and Later Vedic Age
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