Answer to Question #224417 in History for Sulaiman Ahmed

Question

“Harappan civilization is the first known urban culture in India”. Explain this statement with valid examples

Answer 1

Indus civilization, also known as Indus valley civilization or Harappan civilization is the earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent. It is believed to have started about 2500–1700 BCE, though the southern sites may have lasted later into the 2nd millennium BCE. Among the world’s three earliest civilizations—the other two are those of Mesopotamia and Egypt—the Indus civilization was the most extensive.

The following are examples that show that Harappan civilization is the first known urban culture in India;

Many crafts including, "shell working, ceramics, and agate and glazed steatite bead making" were practiced and the pieces were used in the making of necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments from all phases of Harappan culture.

In the case of trade and transportation, the Indus civilization’s economy appears to have depended significantly on trade, which was facilitated by major advances in transport technology and this makes us believe that Harappan civilization was the first culture in India because it has been the first civilization to use wheeled transport.

In conclusion, research by J. Bates et al. (2016) confirms that Indus populations were the earliest people to use complex multi-cropping strategies across both seasons, growing foods during summer (rice, millets, and beans) and winter (wheat, barley, and pulses), which required different watering regimes and this makes Harappan civilization to be the first known urban culture in India.