Indus Valley Civilization is World's earliest urban civilization

Indus valley civilization thrived about 4500 years ago in the vast plains of Indus River and adjacent regions, in which are now parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and north-western part of India. It is one of the first world’s urban civilization was Indus valley civilization. The time period of this civilization was 3300BC to 1700BC. It was of the same period with the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Norte Chico.

Indus valley civilization, also known as Indus civilization or Harappan civilization is the earliest known urban civilization of Indian sub-continent. It was first discovered in 1921 in Punjab region of Harappa and then in 1922, Mohenjo-daro was discovered in Sindh region.

This civilization extended from east into the Ghaggar-Hakra river valley and then reaches Ganges-Yamuna. From west side, it is extended to the Makran coast of Baluchistan. It comprises of most of the region of Pakistan, extending from Baluchistan to Sindh, then extends to Indian state of Gujrat, Rajhistan, Punjab and Haryana. Recently, new Indus sites have been discovered in northern frontier part of Pakistan.

The largest settlement of Indus valley civilization was Mohenjo-daro. It was built on an architectural platform about 45 ft above the plain. There is another city located on the upper site of the valley which is called Harappa Civilization.

The main religions of Indus valley civilization were Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The people appread to worship one male God. There is most prominent depiction of Hindu God on Seal number 420.

People used to live in stone houses in these cities. There were 2 – 3 stories of these houses; all of them had sewage system. This sewage system was built of mud bricks and ran under the streets. The city of Mohenjo-daro had around 3,500 people. There were around 700 wells which were used to bring underground water to the surface.

Main occupation of Indus valley people was agriculture. They used to raise crops like wheat, peas, barley and bananas. The people who were rich used to keep servants.

There were two types of declines which caused the disintegration of Indus valley civilization; these were sudden decline and gradual decline. The main causes of declines were flood, ecological change, drought, change of river course and attack of Aryans.