The Story of Indian Civilizations

It began at 2300 BC, an advanced civilization in the Indus Valley with Mesopotamia. As in Mesopotamia, irrigation produced crop surpluses and required an advanced social and political system. The two major cities, Mohenjodaro (q.v.) and Harappa, had straight streets lined with large, two-story homes equipped with plumbing. The Indus peoples had written languages, used wheeled carts, and exhibited a high level of creativity in their art, jewelry, and toys.

Waves of tall, fair-haired Aryans from Central Asia destroyed the Indus cities between 1500 and 1200 BC, afterward setting in the Ganges Valley of northeast India. They spoke Sanskrit, and Indo-European language related to Persian, Greek, and Latin, Still nomadic, they fought in horse-drawn chariots and composed an epic literature, the Vedas.

Between 900 and 500 BC, the Indo-Aryan that is, people speaking Indic languages-settle into city-states under absolute monarchs. They depended on irrigated farming, including rice culture (possibly imported from Southeast Asia). Their Hindu religion, as embodied in the Vedas, provided for an elaborate caste system that stratified society.

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