Early Harappans and Indus-Sarasvati Civilization

by Deo Prakash Sharma and Madhuri Sharma

According to a scholar the Harappan Civilization is the gift of two rivers - the Indus and Sarasvati whose tributaries had played a dominant and decisive role in the origin of this bronze civilization.

As of now around 2658 Harappan and its associated sites have been reported, of which 1058 sites are located in the dried-up bank of the Sarasvati river. The Sarasvati was a mighty river between ca. 5000 and 1800 B.C. Around ca. 1800 B.C., due to neo-tectonic movements in the Himalayas, the river started drying up. It flowed down from the Himalayas to Adi Badri towards Desalpur in Gujarat.

This work is a collection of forty research papers contributed by the noted scholars and historians from India and abroad.

Volume-I contains nineteen papers which includes introduction, the origin of Harappan, and Early Harappan village chalcolithic cultures.
Volume-II covers on Indus Sarasvati Civilization and includes twenty-one papers on the Mature Indus Sarasvati Civilization which contain controversial and clashing views.

Available archaeological evidences suggest the Atharvavedic and Mature Harappan were contemporary and they had contacts with each other. The Atharvavedic people were the authors of the copper hoard culture. The nomenclature, either of Harappan, Indus or Indus Sarasvati civilization hardly matters as the meaning of these are the same. This has been confirmed on the basis of the available archaeological evidences.

Bound in two volumes, the papers with notes, references and bibliography are well illustrated and grouped in three parts, i.e., Introduction; Early Harappans; and Indus-Sarasvati Controversies.

About the Authors:

Deo Prakash Sharma was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship during 1983-84 and he meritoriously qualified himself for M.A. in Pre-historic Arachaeology with specialization in Palaeolithic-Mesolithic of the world from the Institute of Archaeology, London. He also participated in the excavations at Sussex and Pincenvent (France). He has published 136 papers and twelve books, a few of which are: Harappan Terracottas; Harappan Seals: Indus Script on its Way to Decipherment; Bharat evam Sindhu Sabhyata (in Hindi). At present, he is Head of the Harappan Collection, National Museum, New Delhi.

Madhuri Sharma did her M.A. in Ancient History. She passed Post-graduate diploma in Museology. She did some research work on Application of Statistics in Prehistoric Archaeology in Deccan College, Poon. She participate in excavations at Pangoraria, Chopani Mando and Bhardwaj-Ashram. She also participated in an International Seminar at Hong Kong University and she has published two books and sixty Research papers. Her important publication is 'Museum and Museology.' At present she is engaged in a research project on early metal Images of South Asia. She has done a project on documentation of Early Metal Images in Museums of U.P.