The Indus Valley Civilization is one of the greatest civilizations of the mankind which flourished for over 1000 years before it started to decline. The IVC was a vast civilization of Indian subcontinent that gave various new ideas for the future generation. For example, they were the first to use the flush toilets in the world. The peoples of IVC invented the game of chess. They lived in the well-planned cities and that type of layout of cities are still used by the peoples of modern-world. But after various factors this great civilization started to decline around the 1900 century BC.
Also Read : Indus Valley Civilization – The Origin
IVC Indus Valley Civilization – Seal and Layout of Cities
IVC – Indus Valley Civilization – Living Pattern
Indus Valley Civilization – Nature and Character
Background
Many scholars gave different opinions about the decline of IVC that resulted in the development of different theories about the decline of the great Indus Valley Civilization. We will discuss them in detail in this post. There are various reasons of the controversy about the decline of the IVC that result in conflict of views and different types of evidences of their decline also gave rise to such controversies.
Theory of Sudden Decline / Foreign (Aryans) Invasion
According to this theory, the foreigners i.e.; Aryans was behind the decline of the IVC. as per this theory, Aryans attacked the IVC and brutally murdered or massacred the peoples of this great civilization. This theory was put forward the scholars like R.E. Mortimer, Wheeler, V. Gordan Childe and Stuart Pigget.
Supporting Evidences:
The archeologists have discovered various archeological evidences and from the texts of the Vedic Aryans which supported the theory of Aryan invasion. According to archeologists, there are 37 skeletons discovered from the different locations of the IVC. Some of the evidences were founded from the streets, some found near the well and 13 skeletons have been discovered from a single room of IVC. These skeletons indicates that they were attacked from a sharp-edge weapons.
At the city of Mohenjo-Daro, the archeological evidences indicates that they peoples were massacred when they running for saving their lives. In Rigveda, Indra was mentioned as Purandar and Varatrahana. The Purandar is basically referred to the destroyer of fortified settlements. Varatrahana is referred to the slayer of demon Varata. This demon was restricting the flow of water and this was referred to dams of IVC which were used for the irrigation purposes.
The destruction of these dams caused the sudden flood in the river of IVC that result in the sudden destruction of the great IVC as described by the scholars.
Critical Analysis of Theory of Sudden Invasion
By critically analyzing these evidences it is suggested that this theory is lack of practicality and there are certain limitations. The skeleton found during the excavation from Mohenjo-Daro belonged to the different time periods because they were of different stratigraphic period. The wounds on the skeleton were partially healed when they people died founded in the report of forensic. This means that the wounds are not the reason of there deaths.
We have known that the Vedic Aryans came to Indian subcontinent around the c. 1500 BC and according to the archeological evidences most of the IVC was vanished out by the c. 1750 BC. Hence, there was around 250 years gap between the arrival and the decline of the both the civilizations. Hence, the theory of the foreign invasion did not prove the decline of IVC.
Other Views on the Decline of the IVC
According to Sir John Marshall, E. Meikey and S.R. Rao flood was responsible for the decline of IVC. They stated that as most of the settlements were located on the river banks. Hence, they were prone to the frequent floods. As per evidences, the Mohenjo-Daro faced flood for at least seven times.
According to the scholars like M.R. Sahni and B.L. Rice, the rivers were over flooded with water that resulted in the destruction of these settlements. According to M. Dimitriye, the civilization was destroyed by the physiochemical explosion, that caused massive fire and result in the burnt downing the cities, evidences discovered from Rakhigarhi.
According to the K.U.R. Kennedy, the civilization was destructed by the malaria epidemic, the evidences are discovered from the site of Mohenjo-Daro. According to the H.T. Lambrick, the civilization was destructed by changing in the course of the rivers. As per archeological evidences the site of Kalibangan was destructed by the change in course of the river Ghaggar.
According to the D.P. Agarwal and R.K. Sood, the civilization was destructed by the increasing in the aridity in the soil as due to over use of river water by IVC peoples was resulted in the increase in the aridity in soil. According to Robert Raikes, the civilization was destroyed by the tectonic disturbances as a massive earthquake hit the civilization, that caused the destruction.
But these failed to explain the cause of decline of IVC as factors like fire, flood, epidemic or earthquakes can only destroy only some settlements but destruction of such a large civilization is not possible because it was more than 1.4 square kms in size.
The theory of Gradual decline
The recent archeological excavation carried out the archeologists like M. Aurel Stein, Walter Afair Service, A.N. Ghosh, Mohammad Rafiq Mughal and Raymond and Bidget Alchin have revealed that the decline of IVC was a gradual phenomenon and ecological imbalance and climate change are the primary factors that are responsible for the decline of the IVC.
The IVC peoples did intensive farming for over 1000 years. The continuous use of land for the agriculture activities increases the aridity in soil. They burnt down the forests for their use. That process increases the carbon-dioxide level in the environment. That result in the global warming and caused serious climate impacts that resulted in the frequent rainfall, floods and droughts.
This change in the fertility of soil, rain etc. seriously impacted the civilization as it resulted in the decline of agriculture outputs that affected the surplus earlies generated by the IVC peoples. Till the combination art and craft, trade and commerce, and agriculture was going well, all was good was when it declining it resulted in decline of civilization and it was further strengthened by the decline of trade and commerce.
Role of External Trade in Decline of IVC
Around c. 1900 BC, the Mesopotamians stopped mentioning Meluha, which indicates the fall of the trade with Mesopotamians. Archeological evidences from the central Asia suggested that war like peoples were settled in this region around c. 2000 BC, whose presence obstructed the trade. Due decline in the trade activities the civilization was started to decline as the major urban centres were started to decline.
As a result, peoples of these cities started moving towards the central part of Indian subcontinent. Peoples also started to live in villages by abandoning the cities. Thus, the gradual shift from the urban centres to the villages and settlements at central India caused the decline of the IVC over the years.
Role of Conservatism of IVC in their decline
The IVC peoples have practiced the same techniques for over 500 years like pottery, seal, bronze making, toys, ornaments etc. They all like that the life of IVC got stagnate. Despite having close relation with the Mesopotamians, they did not learn the art of making of superior quality Bronze. This stagnation process did not allow them to evolve with time as a result caused decline of them.
Survival and Continuity of IVC
After flourishing for more than 1000 years, the great IVC was started to decline. But decline didn’t mean that all got destruct as many practices of the peoples of IVC were followed for years and many of them like burial practice still prevalent in our society. The decline of the civilization doesn’t mean the decline of peoples as only cities got decline but later villages got flourished in Indian subcontinent.
When the cities of IVC were not sufficient for the livelihood, then peoples only started to migrated to other regions by taking their beliefs, ideas, art and craft, and their culture with them. The decline of IVC was a long drown process which went over for more than 600 years.
The process of declining was started around c. 1900 BC and went up to c. 1300 BC. Many of the settlements continued to flourished as peoples take their ideas with them to different place. During this period various ideas were got assimilate with contemporary cultures that went for centuries. The process of decline had regional variations as first the settlements around the North-west regions started to decline, after that the settlements around the coastal area got decline.
Thus, these reasons help in flourishing the civilization for many years even after declining of the main settlements. Thus, there are different theories which tried to gave evidences of the decline of the IVC but most of them failed to do so. As only the theory of Gradual Decline got backing of most of the historians and archeologists.