Economic Life of the Indus Civilization

The economic life of the Indus Civilization, which flourished from approximately 3300 to 1300 BCE on the Indian subcontinent, was characterized by advanced urban planning, trade networks, and agricultural practices. Centered around the Indus River Valley, this ancient civilization displayed a remarkable level of economic sophistication.

Agriculture was the backbone of their economy; the Indus people grew crops such as wheat, barley, and cotton. To support their agricultural activities, they developed a sophisticated irrigation system, including canals and reservoirs.

Trade played a key role in their economic prosperity. The Indus people engaged in long-distance trade with regions as far away as Mesopotamia, exchanging goods such as ceramics, textiles, and metals. This trade was facilitated by the impressive urban centers of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, which were carefully planned and organized.

The economic life of the Indus civilization was marked by a complex system of weights and measures, testifying to their advanced economic management. While its decline remains a mystery, its economic achievements continue to fascinate archaeologists and historians, shedding light on the economic prowess of this ancient civilization.

Economic Life of the Indus Civilization

Historical Topic	Economic Life of the Indus Civilization
Camel bones	Kalibangan
Real horse bones	Ropar
Crops	Wheat, Barley
Port	Lothal
Lapis lazuli	Badakhshan

Introduction to the Economic Life of the Indus Civilization

The Harappan economy was based on irrigated surplus agriculture, livestock rearing, proficiency in various crafts, and brisk internal and external trade. Here we will analyze various aspects of the Harappan economy, especially agriculture, crafts and industry, trade, and commerce.

Livestock

(i) A considerable amount of information on animal husbandry is available in the mature Harappan period. The range of domesticated animals or wild animals used for food is quite large. Besides sheep and goats, there is, as we have seen, repeated evidence of the predominant role of Indian humped cattle (Bos indicus). One of these is depicted on Harappan seals (along with a humpless bull of the Bos primigenius variety) and is undoubtedly the ancestor of the tribe that still breeds in parts of western India and Sindh. Another species whose bones are often found in more than one place is the Indian goat (Sus cristatus), which must have been either domesticated or regularly hunted. Bones of the buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) are less common and seem to indicate that the buffalo was not yet considered a domesticated species at this time. Even rare are the bones of an elephant and a camel, but as the former is a fairly common motif on seals where it appears to be caparisoned, it can be assumed that the Indian elephant was already domesticated. Camel bones are reported in Kalibangan. Pig bones are also regularly found, suggesting that pigs were kept in orbit around the settlements. Among the birds, the bones of domestic fowl are notable.

(ii) There is also a wide variety of wild animals that were undoubtedly hunted for food; these include the sambar deer (Rusa unicolor), spotted deer and hog deer, and several species of turtles. The horse is more of a mystery to scientists. Bhola Nath in 1963 identified horse remains from an unworked collection from Harappa. He also obtained the bones of a real horse from Ropar. A. K. Sharma collected skeletal remains from Kalibangan. In 1938, Mackay noted that he had discovered a clay model of a horse from Mohenjodaro. A horse jaw is also recorded from this locality. A terracotta horse figurine was recovered from the third phase of Lothal. A horse’s tooth was also found in Lothal. The Kalibangan material includes an upper molar, a fragment of the diaphysis of the distal end of the femur, and the distal end of the left humerus. From the early Harappan site of Rana Ghundai, Ross reported several horse teeth, although Zeuner disagreed with the identification. Surkotada brought quite a few horse bones from the surface level. At Nausharo, Jarrige found many terracotta figurines of this animal. Dholavira also provided small specimens of this animal. Despite these findings, no complete horse bones have been found anywhere, and it is currently difficult to say whether the horse was known to the Harappans as a domesticated animal.

Agriculture

(i) The Indus Valley Civilization cultivated various crops. Since most Harappan settlements were located along fertile rivers with assured irrigation, agriculture must have been the backbone of Harappan civilization. Depending on the climate, soil fertility, and irrigation facilities, different crops were grown in different Harappan settlements.

(ii) Wheat is frequently recorded, apparently of three varieties, common wheat (Triticum compactum), Indian dwarf wheat (Triticum sphaerococcum), and tricitum aestivum. Hardly (Hordeum vulgare), probably a small-seeded six-rowed variety, has also been found at both Harappa and Mohenjodar. Both wheat and barley were found in Kalibangan, and two other varieties of Hordeum nudum vulgare and Hordeum sphaerococcum were also recorded. Chanhudaro and Naushahro and indeed these two crops must have been the most important in all the Harappan sites. Other crops include dates and varieties of legumes such as field peas, sesame, and mustard were grown probably for oil (lentils from Nausharo, chickpeas from Kalibangan peas from Harappa). Another very significant discovery is a series of millets: elenisne coracana, finger millet, and ragi, from the lowest levels of Rojdi; bajra, (pennisetum typhoideum) from Babar Kot in Saurashtra and a little later sorghum, jawar (sorghum bicolor) probably all present as introductions from Africa.

(iii) Unfortunately, no excavations have so far revealed evidence of that quintessential Indian crop—sugarcane, though its presence is to be expected. At Lothal and Rangpur, rice husks and spikelets were found embedded in clay and pottery. Another very interesting find was a fragment of woven cotton fabric in Mohenjodar. The plant belonged to one of the coarser Indian varieties closely related to the gossypium arboreum, and the fiber was said to have been dyed with madder, a native of India. The prehistory of the textile industry is necessarily elusive, as much evidence disappears unless climatic conditions favor its survival, but we have already noted the presence of cotton at Mehrgarh Civilization some two thousand years before the Mohenjodar finds.

That woven textiles were already common in the Indus Civilization and that the craft for which India is famous was already at a mature stage of development must be inferred from these finds and occasional impressions of textiles on earthenware, pottery, and faience from the Harappan site.

A whole class of small earthenware vessels was created on a cloth bag filled with sand or other suitable material, which left a textile impression on the inside of the vessel. The discovery of Indus seals suggests that traders from India were indeed based in Mesopotamia, and their main commodity was probably cotton.

(iv) There is still relatively little evidence of actual tools used in agriculture. It seems likely that this already ancient practice was followed during the advanced Indus period as well. There is some very interesting evidence from Kalibangan where the surface of the field still retained traces of furrows spread out in two directions at right angles to each other. Marks indicate that a wooden plow or “ard” was used. This finding therefore provides an interesting suggestion that agricultural practices such as plowing fields were practiced even during the early Harappan phase.

Trade

(i) In the Harappan civilization, an elaborate social structure and standard of living had to be maintained by a highly developed system of communication and trade. To what extent trade provided basic necessities such as food, and to what extent it was merely a means of obtaining luxury goods, are important questions. There can be no doubt, however, that with the onset of the full urbanism of the Advanced Indus period, the volume of trade and interaction, both within and outside the Harappan economic circle, must have increased in scale and variety to an entirely unprecedented degree.

(ii) In some cases, common products were distributed throughout the state. From the limestone hills at Rohri and Sukkur (Sakhar) came knots of fine and finished flint blades, which were worked in extensive factories in the vicinity. They were then doubtless transported by river wherever possible to form a uniform part of the equipment at Harappa, Mohenjodar, Lothal, Rangpur, Kot Diji, and Kalibangan. Balakot near Las Bela on the coast of Baluchistan and Chanhudaro were centers for shell-work and bangle-making: Lothal and Chanhudaro were centers for carnelian bead-making, etc.

(iii) It is safe to assume that many other specialized products such as weights, seals, copper artifacts, etc. were equally the work of urban craft groups and were similarly disseminated throughout the Harappan state. A look at the finds from Mohenjodaro is enough to recognize the presence of specialized groups of artisans-potters, copper and bronze workers, stone masons, builders, bricklayers, seal cutters, bead makers, faience workers, etc. Other groups are implicitly scribes, priests, administrators, sweepers, farmers, caravan leaders, and of course merchants.

(iv) Cities like Mohenjo Daro, Harappa, and Lothal were important centers of metallurgy, producing tools and weapons as well as kitchen utensils and art objects for wide distribution. Rice appears to have been introduced into the Punjab from Gujarat. Lothal and Surkotada filled a large gap in the growing demand for cotton in the expanding villages of Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Banwali, etc., as the supply of local agricultural produce was limited. Ivory, lapis, turquoise, and silver objects, found in extremely limited quantities at Gujarat sites, apparently came from the Punjab and the sites of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. Shells of various varieties were exported from Balakot and Lothal to places in Baluchistan and also to the Indus. On the other hand, internal trade also took place based on individual transactions. Dates and shilajeet (a Himalayan medicinal, etc.) found at Mohenjodar represent items that may have come from one or the other nomadic trade.

Foreign trade

(i) The finding of Harappan seals and seals at many West Asian sites confirms some kind of trade contact between India and its Western neighbors. Lothal, Surkotada, and Balakot were some of the important commercial coastal cities from where it could find its way to Mesopotamia and other West Asian places. Most of the Harappan cities excavated so far give the appearance of material prosperity, which seems to be the result of growing overseas and inland trade.

(ii) Harappan traders had to export and import a variety of commodities from the West and Central Asian regions. The goods must have included items for internal consumption, such as stone blades and possibly seals, as well as beads and other items for trade or exchange with barbarian people who lay outside the empire. Again they had to carry back to Mohenjodar and other urban centers articles of trade or raw materials coming from the coastal provinces or neighboring territories. Although there is much evidence that Indian merchants or caravan leaders carried their trade far beyond the borders of the empire and established contacts with other peoples, either still in a state of barbarism or belonging to contemporary civilizations, they also had another function: connecting the city and the countryside.

(iii) Gold was almost certainly an import, and the presence of clusters of Neolithic culture settlements contemporary with the Harappan civilization around the goldfields of North Karnataka suggests an important source. Silver was probably imported from Afghanistan or Iran. There may have been several sources of copper: mainly from around Khetri in Rajasthan; other sources were possibly southern India towards the east and Baluchistan and Arabia towards the west. Lead may come from eastern or southern India. Lapis lazuli, though rare, could only have come from the Badakhshan region of northeastern Afghanistan, turquoise from central Asia or Iran, and fuchsite from northern Karnataka. Alabaster could have come from many sources both east and west (but the extensive production of alabaster vessels at contemporary Shahr-i-Sokhta suggests a likely source); the amethyst probably came from Maharashtra; agates, chalcedony, and carnelian from Saurashtra and western India, jade from Central Asia. A dramatic indication of the extent of such commercial activity by the Harappans, even beyond their own borders, came from the discovery of a small settlement or colony in northeastern Afghanistan at Shortughai. The site is not far from the lapis lazuli mines of Badakshan, and the large amount of lapis discovered at the site clearly indicates that this was one of the reasons for establishing this Harappan trading base beyond the high passes of the Hindukush.

(iv) There are two kinds of evidence, archaeological and literary, of trade with other civilized states, especially with the cities of Mesopotamia. Of the former, we may mention the articles imported from the Indus and exported in return. The most convincing sign of the presence of Indus traders is the discovery of about two dozen seals, either Harappan, or copying Harappan, or Middle Persian Gulf types, from Susa and the cities of Mesopotamia. A more definite indication of foreign trade comes from Lothal, where a circular button seal of a distinctive type has been discovered. It belongs to the “Persian Gulf” class of seals, otherwise known from excavations in the port of Bahrain and occasionally found in Mesopotamian cities, especially Ur. Places in the Persian Gulf such as Bahrain and Failaka near Kuwait were undoubtedly havens for maritime trade between Mesopotamia and outlying regions, and these seals therefore provide very convincing evidence of some sort of trading activity. Lothal also comes from loaf-shaped copper ingots, which can be compared to ingots found on the islands of the Persian Gulf and in Susa.

Means of transport

(i) Discussion of trade focuses attention on modes of transport. Several depictions of ships are found on seals or as graffiti at Harappa, Mohenjodar, etc. and a terracotta model of a ship with a stamped socket for a mast and eye holes for rigging is from Lothal. Evidence for maritime trade and contact during the Harappan period is largely circumstantial or inferred from Mesopotamian texts. A considerable amount of wares of Indus origin have been found in Mesopotamia, and there are also many inscriptional references to Meluhha, the ships of Meluhha, and the men of Meluhha. That Meluhha was located near the mouth of the Indus in coastal India or Pakistan is now generally accepted.

(ii) The second type of river transport would be river transport, including ferries for easy river crossings and larger ships for transporting goods from production sites to cities. This trade must have been supplemented by maritime trade and may have overlapped with it. The movement of stone artifacts from Sakkhar where there is a clear indication that the blades were taken to a nearby river bank where they were loaded onto boats and taken to Mohenjodar. A dense mass of finished stone artifacts was discovered in the river, probably a place of embarkation or perhaps a place where some loaded vessel sank. This is a good example of the role of river transport.

(iii) There is ample evidence of inland travel across the plains from terracotta models of bullock carts, to all intents and purposes identical to those of modern times. Further, chariot tracks were found on the roads of the cities, indicating that the wheel span of the Indus chariots was also somewhat different from their modern descendants. From Harappa and Chanhudar come copper or bronze models of carts with seated drivers, as well as almost identical models of small carts of the modern ‘Akka’ or ‘ekka’ type, still common in the Punjab. These have a framed canopy above the body in which the passengers sit. On longer journeys and through rougher and more wooded countryside, there can be no doubt that ox caravans would have been the main means of transport. Such caravans continued to be the main means of transport in large parts of the subcontinent until the advent of railways and automobile transport.

Conclusion

The economy of the Indus Valley Civilization was largely based on agriculture and animal husbandry. The land they lived in was relatively fertile and rich in vegetation. It received a large amount of rainfall which helped the people to grow wheat, barley, peas, mustard, etc. They also domesticated animals like cows, buffaloes, goats, pigs etc. The people of the Indus Valley Civilization had high skills in arts and crafts. Evidence such as large granaries and weights and measures indicate that they were involved in trade and export.

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