The Mystery of India's Lost Civilization

DID YOU KNOW? On February 19, 1931, New Delhi becomes the capital of India. When the British built a railway through Harappa in northwest colonial India (now the Pakistani Punjab) in the 1850s, they took scattered bricks near the tracks to fill the space under the railroad ties. The discovery of unique, inscribed seals inspired serious excavations beginning in 1876. By 1950, archaeologists had traced the origins of the bricks to a 5,000-year-old city that had harbored some 50,000-80,000 people, unrecorded in the texts of ancient India. We now know that Harappa was just one of many urban centers spread across the Punjab, Indus River Valley, and possibly beyond. This sprawling megalopolis, which emerged circa 3500 BC and flourished between 2500 and 1500 BC, was perhaps the largest of all ancient civilizations. Variously referred to as the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) or Harappan Civilization (after its first discovered city), it includes the large city discovered at Mohenjodaro in the 1920s. Harappan artifacts have been found as far away as Bombay, New Delhi, Gujarat, northern Afghanistan, Iraq (Mesopotamia), and the Iranian border--signs of substantial trade and possibly emigration. Because its written language still resists decoding, archeologists must look to excavated structures and artifacts for clues to culture, commerce, and society. Harappa's seals, toys, pottery, and detailed human figurines are beautiful, but shed meager light on these basic subjects. Equally little is known about Harappan religion, although the mythic figures on some seals bear similarities to Hindu gods. The culture seems to have persisted unchanged by outside influences until its rapid decline. Although Harappan society collapsed over a 200-year span starting about 1,700 BC, the causes elude scholars. Only a short, indefensible wall surrounds Harappa, with little evidence of an army, so destructive nomadic invaders seem a plausible factor. India's ancient Rig Veda texts describe warlike nomads (termed "Aryans") who drove darker-skinned farming peoples (termed "Dravidians") from northern to southern India. But it is also possible that Harappans themselves were the India-invading "Aryan" authors of the Vedas, driven east and south by population pressures, desertification of farmlands, and anonymous invaders.