The Indus Valley Civilisation is the oldest civilization of Indian history. Its remains are found in Mohenjodaro and Harappa in Pakistan and Kalibangan, Lothal, and Sukortada and some other cities in India. Lothal was a prosperous seaport in Gujarat. One can see in these cities a process of continuous development in the form of cereal cultivation, animal husbandry, crafts, architecture and ideology. The firmness of construction in cities like Mohenjodaro is evident by the fact that it has survived the damages of time for over 5,000 years. The Indus Civilisation was firmly based on a prosperous agricultural economy. Apparently, the Indus region had a fertile soil and bountiful rain. Apart from the Indus, the Ravi and the Saraswati rivers, the Sutlej and the Beas flowed though the fertile region of the Indus Valley. Saraswati has since vanished due to climatic changes. The Vedas frequently refer to Saraswati river.
The Aryans
The highly urbanized people of the Indus Valley disappeared from the scene but the reasons behind this are not known yet. They were perhaps submerged by the migration of Aryans in India during 1500 B.C. through the mountains in the north–west. The Aryans, who were newcomers, learnt the use of iron and tamed their horses. This knowledge gave them a superiority in Warfare over the pre-Aryans, whom they defeated. In the course of time, a new pattern of life emerged from the blend of the two kinds of people.
The sports-loving Aryans developed a type of rural life which remains unchanged even to this day. They worshipped the sun, the moon and the rivers and composed songs in praise of them. The poems addressed to usha (dawn) are considered some of the finest in the world’s literature. Their spiritual efforts are preserved in the Vedas, the Upanishads and the two famous epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which have had a powerful impact on the people of India through the ages. Their contribution to science includes the decimal system of notation and the concept of zero. They also developed a system of medicine and surgery. The Aryans were founders of the sciences of Mathematics, Astronomy and Medicine which reached the west through the Arabs.
