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Gandhāra was an ancient Indo-Aryan Mahajanapada (Great Realm) situated in modern day
northern Pakistan, in the Peshawar valley and Potohar plateau. It encompassed the Peshawar
valley and Potohar plateau and extended to Jalalabad district of modern-day
Afghanistan. During the Achaemenid
period and Hellenistic period, its capital city
was Charsadda but later the capital city was moved to
Peshawar by the Kushan emperor Kanishka the Great in
about 127 CE.
Gandhara existed since the time of the Rigveda (c. 1500–
1200 BC), as well as the Zoroastrian Avesta, which
mentions it as Vaēkərəta, the sixth most beautiful place
on earth, created by Ahura Mazda. Gandhara was
conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century
BC. Conquered by Alexander the Great in 327 BC, it
subsequently became part of the Maurya Empire and
then the Indo-Greek Kingdom. As a center of Bactrian Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and
later, Greco-Buddhism, and famed for its local tradition of Gandhara (Greco-Buddhist) Art,
Gandhara attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century under the Kushan Empire.
Gandhara "flourished at the crossroads of Asia," connecting trade routes and absorbing cultural
influences from diverse civilizations; Buddhism thrived until 8th or 9th centuries CE,
when Islam first began to gain sway in the region.
The Persian term Shahi is used by historian Al-Biruni to refer to the ruling dynasty that took
over from the Kabul Shah and ruled the region during the period prior to Muslim conquests of
the 10th and 11th centuries. After it was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1001 AD, the
name Gandhara disappeared. During the Muslim period, the area was administered
from Lahore or from Kabul. During Mughal times, it was an independent district which included
the Kabul province.
NAME
Gandhara was known in Sanskrit as गन्धार gandhāra, in Avestan as Vaēkərəta, in Old
Persian as Para-upari-sena, in Chinese as 犍陀罗, and
in Greek as Παροπαμισάδαι Paropamisadae.
The Gandhari people are a tribe mentioned in the Rigveda, the Atharvaveda, and later Vedic
texts.[8] They are recorded in the Avestan-language of Zoroastrianism under the
name Vaēkərəta. The name Gāndhāra occurs later in the classical Sanskrit of the epics. One
proposed origin of the name is from the Sanskrit word gandha, meaning "perfume" and
"referring to the spices and aromatic herbs which they [the inhabitants] traded and with which
they anointed themselves."
GEOGRAPHY
The boundaries of Gandhara varied throughout history. Sometimes the Peshawar Valley
and Taxila were collectively referred to as Gandhara; sometimes the Swat
Valley (Sanskrit: Suvāstu) was also included. The heart of Gandhara, however, was always
the Peshawar Valley. The kingdom was ruled
fromcapitalsat Kapisa (Bagram).Pushkalavati (Charsadda), Taxila, Puruṣapura (Peshawar) and
in its final days from Udabhandapura(Hund) on the River Indus.
HISTORY
Stone age
Evidence of the Stone Age human inhabitants of Gandhara, including stone tools and burnt
bones, was discovered at Sanghao near Mardan in area caves. The artifacts are approximately
15,000 years old. More recent excavations point to 30,000 years before the present.
Vedic Gandhara
Gandhara was an ancient kingdom of the Peshawar Valley, extending between the Swat valley
and Potohar plateau regions of Pakistan as well as the Jalalabad district of
northeastern Afghanistan. In an archaeological context, the Vedic period in Gandhara
corresponds to the Gandhara grave culture.
The name of the Gandhāris is attested in the Rigveda (RV 1.126.7) and in ancient inscriptions
dating back to Achaemenid Persia. The Behistun inscription listing the 23 territories of King
Darius I (519 BC) includes Gandāra along with Bactria and Sattagydia (Θataguš). In the
book Histories by Herodotus, Gandhara is named as a source of tax collections for King Darius.
The Gandhāris, along with the Balhika (Bactrians), Mūjavants, Angas, and the Magadhas, are
also mentioned in the Atharvaveda (AV 5.22.14), as distant people. Gandharas are included in
the Uttarapatha division of Puranic and Buddhistic traditions. The Aitareya Brahmana refers to
King Sailusha of Gandhara who was a contemporary of Janaka, king of Videha.
The primary cities of Gandhara were Puruṣapura (Peshawar), Takṣaśilā (Taxila),
and Pushkalavati (Charsadda). The latter remained the capital of Gandhara down to the 2nd
century AD, when the capital was moved to Peshawar. An important Buddhist shrine helped to
make the city a centre of pilgrimage until the 7th century. Pushkalavati, in the Peshawar Valley,
is situated at the confluence of the Swat and Kabul rivers, where three different branches of the
River Kabul meet. That specific place is still called Prang (from Prayāga) and considered sacred;
local people still bring their dead there for burial. Similar geographical characteristics are found
at site of Prang in Kashmir and at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna, where the sacred
city of Prayag is situated, west of Benares. There are some legends in which the two rivers are
said to be joined here by the underground Sarasvati River, forming a triveṇī, a confluence of
three rivers. However, Rigvedic texts, and modern research, suggest that the path of the
Sarasvati River was very different. It ended in the ocean at Kachchh in modern Gujrat and not at
Prayag. The Gandharan city of Taxila was an important Buddhist and Hindu centre of learning
from the 5th century BC to the 2nd century.
Gandhara is mentioned in the Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, as a western
kingdom. Gandhara prince Shakuni was the root of all the conspiracies of Duryodhana against
the Pandavas, which finally resulted in the Kurukshetra War. Shakuni's sister was the wife of
the Kuru king Dhritarashtra and was known as Gandhari. Gandhara was in modern
Pakistan. Puskalavati, Takshasila (Taxila) and Purushapura (Peshawar) were cities in this
Gandhara kingdom. Takshasila was founded by Raghava Rama's brother Bharata. Bharata's
descendants ruled this kingdom afterwards. During epic period it was ruled by Shakuni's
father Suvala, Shakuni and Shakuni's son. Arjuna defeated Shakuni's son during his post-war
military campaign for Yudhishthira's Aswamedha Yagna.
Achaemenid Gandhara
The main Vedic tribes remaining in the Indus Valley by 550 BC were
the Kamboja, Sindhu, Taksas of Gandhara, the Madras and Kathas of the River
Chenab, Mallas of the River Ravi and Tugras of the River Sutlej. These several tribes and
principalities fought against one another to such an extent that the Indus Valley no longer had
one powerful Vedic tribal kingdom to defend against outsiders and to wield the warring tribes
into one organized kingdom. The area was wealthy and fertile, yet infighting led misery and
despair. King Pushkarasakti of Gandhara was engaged in power struggles against his local rivals
and as such the Khyber Pass remained poorly defended. King Darius I of the Achaemenid
Empiretook advantage of the opportunity and planned for an invasion. The Indus Valley was
fabled in Persia for its gold and fertile soil and conquering it had been a major objective of his
predecessor Cyrus The GreatIn 542 BC, Cyrus had led his army and conquered the Makran coast
in southern Balochistan. However, he is known to have campaigned beyond Makran (in the
regions of Kalat, Khuzdar, Panjgur) and lost most of his army in the Gedrosian
Desert (speculated today as the Kharan Desert).
In 518 BC, Darius led his army through the Khyber Pass and southwards in stages, eventually
reaching the Arabian Sea coast in Sindh by 516 BC. Under Persian rule, a system of centralized
administration, with a bureaucratic system, was introduced into the Indus Valley for the first
time. Provinces or "satrapy" were established with provincial capitals:
Gandhara satrapy, established 518 BC with its capital at Pushkalavati (Charsadda).
Gandhara Satrapy was established in the general region of the old Gandhara grave culture, in
what is today Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. During Achaemenid rule, the Kharosthi alphabet, derived
from the one used for Aramaic (the official language of Achaemenids), developed here and
remained the national script of Gandhara until 200 AD.
The inscription on Darius' (521–486 BC) tomb at Naqsh-i-Rustam near Persepolis records
Gadāra (Gandāra) along with Hindush (Hənduš, Sindh) in the list of satrapies. By about 380 BC
the Persian hold on the region had weakened. Many small kingdoms sprang up in Gandhara. In
327 BC, Alexander the Great conquered Gandhara as well as the Indian satrapies of the Persian
Empire. The expeditions of Alexander were recorded by his court historians and
by Arrian (around AD 175) in his Anabasis Alexandri and by other chroniclers many centuries
after the event.
Sir Mortimer Wheeler conducted some excavations there in 1962, and identified
various Achaemenid remains.
Macedonian Gandhara
In the winter of 327 BC, Alexander invited all the chieftains in the remaining five Achaemenid
satraps to submit to his authority. Ambhi, then ruler of Taxila in the former Hindush satrapy
complied, but the remaining tribes and clans in the former satraps of Gandhara, Arachosia,
Sattagydia and Gedrosia rejected Alexander's offer.
The first tribe they encountered were the Aspasioi tribe of the Kunar Valley, who initiated a
fierce battle against Alexander, in which he himself was wounded in the shoulder by a dart.
However, the Aspasioi eventually lost and 40,000 people were enslaved. Alexander then
continued in a southwestern direction where he encountered the Assakenoi tribe of
the Swat & Buner valleys in April 326 BC. The Assakenoi fought bravely and offered stubborn
resistance to Alexander and his army in the cities of Ora, Bazira (Barikot) and Massaga. So
enraged was Alexander about the resistance put up by the Assakenoi that he killed the entire
population of Massaga and reduced its buildings to rubble – similar slaughters followed in Ora.
A similar slaughter then followed at Ora, another stronghold of the Assakenoi. The stories of
these slaughters reached numerous Assakenians, who began fleeing to Aornos, a hill-fort
located between Shangla and Kohistan. Alexander followed close behind their heels and
besieged the strategic hill-fort, eventually capturing and destroying the fort and killing everyone
inside. The remaining smaller tribes either surrendered or like the Astanenoi tribe
of Pushkalavati (Charsadda) were quickly neutralized where 38,000 soldiers and 230,000 oxen
were captured by Alexander. Eventually Alexander's smaller force would meet with the larger
force which had come through the Khyber Pass met at Attock. With the conquest of Gandhara
complete, Alexander switched to strengthening his military supply line, which by now stretched
dangerously vulnerable over the Hindu Kush back to Balkh in Bactria.
After conquering Gandhara and solidifying his supply line back to Bactria, Alexander combined
his forces with the King Ambhi of Taxila and crossed the River Indus in July 326 BC to begin the
Archosia (Punjab) campaign. Alexander founded several new settlements in
Gandhara, Punjab and Sindh.[21] and nominated officers as Satraps of the new provinces:
In Gandhara, Oxyartes was nominated to the position of Satrap by Alexander in 326 BC.
Maurya arrival to Gandhara
Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty, is said to have lived in Taxila when
Alexander captured the city. According to tradition, he trained under Kautilya, who remained
his chief adviser throughout his reign. Supposedly using Gandhara and Vahika as his base,
Chandragupta led a rebellion against the Magadha Empire and ascended the throne
at Pataliputra in 321 BC. However, there are no contemporary Indian records of Chandragupta
Maurya and almost all that is known is based on the diaries of Megasthenes, the ambassador of
Seleucus at Pataliputra, as recorded by Arrian in his Indika. Ambhi hastened to relieve
Alexander of his apprehension and met him with valuable presents, placing himself and all of
his forces at his disposal. Alexander not only returned Ambhi his title, and the gifts, but he also
presented him with a wardrobe of: "Persian robes, gold and silver ornaments, 30 horses and
1000 talents in gold". Alexander was emboldened to divide his forces, and Ambhi
assisted Hephaestion and Perdiccas in constructing a bridge over the Indus where it bends at
Hund (Fox 1973), supplied their troops with provisions, and received Alexander himself, and his
whole army, in his capital city of Taxila, with every demonstration of friendship and the most
liberal hospitality.
On the subsequent advance of the Macedonian king, Taxiles accompanied him with a force of
5000 men and took part in the battle of the Hydaspes River. After that victory he was sent by
Alexander in pursuit of Porus, to whom he was charged to offer favourable terms, but narrowly
escaped losing his life at the hands of his old enemy. Subsequently, however, the two rivals
were reconciled by the personal mediation of Alexander; and Taxiles, after having contributed
zealously to the equipment of the fleet on the Hydaspes, was entrusted by the king with the
government of the whole territory between that river and the Indus. A considerable accession
of power was granted him after the death of Philip (son of Machatas); and he was allowed to
retain his authority at the death of Alexander himself (323 BC), as well as in the subsequent
partition of the provinces at Triparadisus, 321 BC. Later Ambhi was deposed and killed
by Chandragupta Maurya, emperor of the Mauryan Empire. Gandhara was acquired from
the Greeks by Chandragupta Maurya.
After a battle with Seleucus Nicator (Alexander's successor in Asia) in 305 BC,
the Mauryan Emperor extended his domain up to and including present Southern Afghanistan.
With the completion of the Empire's Grand Trunk Road, the region prospered as a center of
trade. Gandhara remained a part of the Mauryan Empire for about a century and a half.
Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta, was one of the greatest Indian rulers. Like his
grandfather, Ashoka also started his career in Gandhara as a governor. Later he supposedly
became a Buddhist and promoted this religion in his empire. He built many stupas in Gandhara.
Mauryan control over the northwestern frontier, including the Yonas, Kambojas, and the
Gandharas, is attested from the Rock Edicts left by Ashoka. According to one school of scholars,
the Gandharas and Kambojas were cognate people. It is also contended that
the Kurus, Kambojas, Gandharas and Bahlikas were cognate people and all had Iranian
affinities, or that the Gandhara and Kamboja were nothing but two provinces of one empire
and hence influencing each other's language. However, the local language of Gandhara is
represented by Panini's conservative bhāṣā ("language"), which is entirely different from the
Iranian (Late Avestan) language of the Kamboja that is indicated by Patanjali's quote of
Kambojan śavati 'to go' (= Late Avestan šava(i)ti).
Graeco-Bactrians, Sakas, and Indo-Parthians
The decline of the Empire left the sub-continent open to Greco-Bactrian invasions. Present-day
southern Afghanistan was absorbed by Demetrius I of Bactria in 180 BC. Around about 185 BC,
Demetrius invaded and conquered Gandhara and the Punjab. Later, wars between different
groups of Bactrian Greeks resulted in the independence of Gandhara from Bactria and the
formation of the Indo-Greek kingdom. Menander I was its most famous king. He ruled from
Taxila and later from Sagala (Sialkot). He rebuilt Taxila (Sirkap) and Pushkalavati. He became a
Buddhist and is remembered in Buddhist records for his discussions with the great Buddhist
philosopher, Nāgasena, in the book Milinda Panha.
Around the time of Menander's death in 140 BC, the Central Asian Kushans overran Bactria and
ended Greek rule there. Around 80 BC, the Sakas, diverted by their Parthian cousins from Iran,
moved into Gandhara and other parts of Pakistan and Western India. The most famous king of
the Sakas, Maues, established himself in Gandhara.
By 90 BC the Parthians had taken control of eastern Iran and, around 50 BC, they put an end to
the last remnants of Greek rule in today's Afghanistan. Eventually an Indo-Parthian dynasty
succeeded in taking control of Gandhara. The Parthians continued to support Greek artistic
traditions. The start of the Gandharan Greco-Buddhist art is dated to about 75–50 BC. Links
between Rome and the Indo-Parthian kingdoms existed.
There is archaeological evidence that building techniques were transmitted between the two
realms. Christian records claim that around AD 40 Thomas the Apostle visited the Indian
subcontinent and encountered the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares.
Kushan Gandhara
The Parthian dynasty fell about 75 to another group from Central Asia. The Kushans, known
as Yuezhi in China . to be ethnically Asii) moved from Central Asia to Bactria, where they stayed
for a century. Around 75, one of their tribes, the Kushan (Kuṣāṇa), under the leadership of
Kujula Kadphises gained control of Gandhara and other parts of what is now Pakistan.
The Kushan period is considered the Golden Period of Gandhara. Peshawar Valley and Taxila
are littered with ruins of stupas and monasteries of this period. Gandharan art flourished and
produced some of the best pieces of sculpture from the Indian subcontinent. Many monuments
were created to commemorate the Jatakas.
Gandhara's culture peaked during the reign of the great Kushan king Kanishka the Great (128–
151). The cities of Taxila (Takṣaśilā) at Sirsukh and Peshawar were built. Peshawar became the
capital of a great empire stretching from Gandhara to Central Asia. Kanishka was a great patron
of the Buddhist faith; Buddhism spread to Central Asia and the Far East across Bactria
and Sogdia, where his empire met the Han Empire of China. Buddhist art spread from Gandhara
to other parts of Asia. Under Kanishka, Gandhara became a holy land of Buddhism and
attracted Chinese pilgrims eager to view the monuments associated with many Jatakas.
In Gandhara, Mahayana Buddhism flourished and Buddha was represented in human form.
Under the Kushans new Buddhists stupas were built and old ones were enlarged. Huge statues
of the Buddha were erected in monasteries and carved into the hillsides. Kanishka also built a
great 400-foot tower at Peshawar. This tower was reported by Chinese monks Faxian, Song
Yun, and Xuanzang who visited the country. This structure was destroyed and rebuilt many
times until it was finally destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century.
Hepthalite Invasion
The Hephthalite Huns captured Gandhara around 451, and did not adopt Buddhism, but in fact
"perpetrated frightful massacres." Mihirakula became a "terrible persecutor" of the religion.
During their rule, Hinduism revived itself and the Buddhist Gandharan civilization declined.
The travel records of many Chinese Buddhist pilgrims record that Gandhara was going through
a transformation during these centuries. Buddhism was declining, and Hinduism was
rising. Faxian traveled around 400, when Prakrit was the language of the people, and Buddhism
was flourishing. 100 years later, when Song Yun visited in 520, a different situation was
described: the area had been destroyed by the White Huns and was ruled by Lae-Lih, who did
not practice the laws of the Buddha. Xuanzang visited India around 644 and found Buddhism on
the wane in Gandhara and Hinduism in the ascendant. Gandhara was ruled by a king from
Kabul, who respected Buddha's law, but Taxila was in ruins, and Buddhist monasteries were
deserted.
Kabul Shahi
After the fall of the Sassanid Empire to the Arabs in 644, today's Afghanistan region and
Gandhara came under pressure from Muslims. But they failed to extend their empire to
Gandhara. Gandhara was first ruled by local kings who later expanded their kingdom onto an
empire.
Gandhara was ruled from Kabul by Kabulshahi for next 200 years. Sometime in the 9th century
the Kabul Shahi replaced the Shahi. Based on various Muslim records it is estimated this
occurred in 870. According to Al-Biruni (973–1048), Kallar, a Brahmin minister of the
Kabulshahi, founded the Shahi dynasty in 843. The dynasty ruled from Kabul, later moved their
capital to Udabhandapura. They built great temples all over their kingdoms. Some of these
buildings are still in good condition in the Salt Range of the Punjab.
Decline
Jayapala was the last great king of this dynasty. His empire extended from west of Kabul to the
river Sutlej. However, this expansion of Gandhara kingdom coincided with the rise of the
powerful Ghaznavid Empire under Sabuktigin. Defeated twice by Sabuktigin and then
by Mahmud of Ghazni in the Kabul valley, Jayapala gave his life on a funeral pyre. Anandapala, a
son of Jayapala, moved his capital near Nandana in the Salt Range. In 1021 the last king of this
dynasty, Trilochanapala, was assassinated by his own troops which spelled the end of
Gandhara. Subsequently, some Shahi princes moved to Kashmir and became active in local
politics.
The city of Kandahar in Afghanistan is said to have been named after Gandhara. According to
H.W. Bellow, an emigrant from Gandhara in the 5th century brought this name to modern
Kandahar. Faxian reported that the Buddha's alms-bowl existed in Peshawar Valley when he
visited around 400 (chapter XII). In 1872 Bellow saw this huge begging bowl (seven feet in
diameter) preserved in the shrine of Sultan Wais outside Kandahar. When Olaf Caroe wrote his
book in 1958 (Caroe, pp. 170–171), this relic was reported to be at Kabul Museum. The present
status of this bowl is unknown.
Al Biruni writing c. 1030 CE, reported on the devastation caused during the conquest of
Gandhara and much of northwest India by Mahmud of Ghazni following his defeat of Jayapala
in the Battle of Peshawar at Peshawar in 1001:
Now in the following times no Muslim conqueror passed beyond the frontier of Kâbul and the
river Sindh until the days of the Turks, when they seized the power in Ghazna under the Sâmânî
dynasty, and the supreme power fell to the lot of Nâṣir-addaula Sabuktagin. This prince chose
the holy war as his calling, and therefore called himself al-Ghâzî ("the warrior/invader"). In the
interest of his successors he constructed, in order to weaken the Indian frontier, those roads on
which afterwards his son Yamin-addaula Maḥmûd marched into India during a period of thirty
years and more. God be merciful to both father and son ! Maḥmûd utterly ruined the prosperity
of the country, and performed there wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus became like
atoms of dust scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their
scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towards all Muslims. This is
the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country
conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot yet reach, to Kashmir,
Benares, and other places. And there the antagonism between them and all foreigners receives
more and more nourishment both from political and religious sources
During the closing years of the tenth and the early years of the succeeding century of our
era, Mahmud the first Sultan and Musalman of the Turk dynasty of kings who ruled at Ghazni,
made a succession of inroads twelve or fourteen in number, into Gandhar – the
present Peshwar valley – in the course of his proselytizing invasions of Hindustan.
Fire and sword, havoc and destruction, marked his course everywhere. Gandhar which was
styled the Garden of the North was left at his death a weird and desolate waste. Its rich fields
and fruitful gardens, together with the canal which watered them (the course of which is still
partially traceable in the western part of the plain), had all disappeared. Its numerous stone
built cities, monasteries, and topes with their valuable and revered monuments and sculptures,
were sacked, fired, razed to the ground, and utterly destroyed as habitations.
Rediscovery
By the time Gandhara had been absorbed into the empire of Mahmud of Ghazni, Buddhist
buildings were already in ruins and Gandhara art had been forgotten. After Al-Biruni, the
Kashmiri writer Kalhaṇa wrote his book Rajatarangini in 1151. He recorded some events that
took place in Gandhara, and provided details about its last royal dynasty and
capital Udabhandapura.
In the 19th century, British soldiers and administrators started taking an interest in the ancient
history of the Indian Subcontinent. In the 1830s coins of the post-Ashoka period were
discovered, and in the same period Chinese travelogues were translated. Charles
Masson, James Prinsep, and Alexander Cunningham deciphered the Kharosthi script in 1838.
Chinese records provided locations and site plans for Buddhist shrines. Along with the discovery
of coins, these records provided clues necessary to piece together the history of Gandhara. In
1848 Cunningham found Gandhara sculptures north of Peshawar. He also identified the site of
Taxila in the 1860s. From then on a large number of Buddhist statues were discovered in the
Peshawar valley.
Archaeologist John Marshall excavated at Taxila between 1912 and 1934. He discovered
separate Greek, Parthian, and Kushan cities and a large number of stupas and monasteries.
These discoveries helped to piece together much more of the chronology of the history of
Gandhara and its art.
After 1947 Ahmed Hassan Dani and the Archaeology Department at the University of
Peshawar made a number of discoveries in the Peshawar and Swat Valley. Excavation of many
of the sites of Gandhara Civilization are being done by researchers from Peshawar and several
universities around the world
LANGUAGE
The Gandharan Buddhist texts are both the earliest Buddhist as well as Asian manuscripts
discovered so far. Most are written on birch bark and were found in labelled clay
pots. Panini has mentioned both the Vedic form of Sanskrit as well as what seems to
be Gandhari, a later form of Sanskrit, in his Ashtadhyayi.
Gandhara's language was a Prakrit or "Middle Indo-Aryan" dialect, usually called Gāndhārī. The
language used the Kharosthi script, which died out about the 4th century.
However, Punjabi, Hindko, and Kohistani, are derived from the Indo-Aryan Prakrits that were
spoken in Gandhara and surrounding areas. However, a language shift occurred as the ancient
Gandharan culture gave way to Iranian invaders from Central Asia
BUDDHISM
Mahāyāna Buddhism
Mahāyāna Pure Land sūtras were brought from the Gandhāra region to China as early as 147
CE, when the Kushan monk Lokakṣemabegan translating some of the first Buddhist sūtras into
Chinese. The earliest of these translations show evidence of having been translated from the
Gāndhārī language. Lokakṣema translated important Mahāyāna sūtras such as
the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, as well as rare, early Mahāyāna sūtras on topics such
as samādhi, and meditation on the buddha Akṣobhya. Lokaksema's translations continue to
provide insight into the early period of Mahāyāna Buddhism. This corpus of texts often includes
and emphasizes ascetic practices and forest dwelling, and absorption in states of meditative
concentration:
Paul Harrison has worked on some of the texts that are arguably the earliest versions we have
of the Mahāyāna sūtras, those translated into Chinese in the last half of the second century CE
by the Indo-Scythian translator Lokakṣema. Harrison points to the enthusiasm in the Lokakṣema
sūtra corpus for the extra ascetic practices, for dwelling in the forest, and above all for states of
meditative absorption (samādhi). Meditation and meditative states seem to have occupied a
central place in early Mahāyāna, certainly because of their spiritual efficacy but also because
they may have given access to fresh revelations and inspiration.
Some scholars believe that the Mahāyāna Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra was compiled in the
age of the Kushan Empire in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, by an order
of Mahīśāsaka bhikṣus which flourished in the Gandhāra region. However, it is likely that the
longer Sukhāvatīvyūha owes greatly to the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda sect as well for its
compilation, and in this sūtra there are many elements in common with the
Lokottaravādin Mahāvastu. There are also images of Amitābha Buddha with
the bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta which were made in Gandhāra during
the Kushan era.
The Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa records that Kaniṣka of the Kushan Empire presided over the
establishment of the Mahāyāna Prajñāpāramitāteachings in the northwest. Tāranātha wrote
that in this region, 500 bodhisattvas attended the council at Jālandhra monastery during the
time of Kaniṣka, suggesting some institutional strength for Mahāyāna in the northwest during
this period. Edward Conze goes further to say that Prajñāpāramitā had great success in the
northwest during the Kushan period, and may have been the "fortress and hearth" of early
Mahāyāna, but not its origin, which he associates with the Mahāsāṃghika branch of Buddhism.
Textual Finds
The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Lokottaravāda monastery in the 7th century CE,
at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. The site of this monastery has since been rediscovered by
archaeologists. Birchbark and palm leaf manuscripts of texts in this monastery's collection,
including Mahāyāna sūtras, have been discovered at the site, and these are now located in
the Schøyen Collection. Some manuscripts are in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script,
while others are in Sanskrit and written in forms of the Gupta script. Manuscripts and
fragments that have survived from this monastery's collection include the following source
texts:
Teachings of Buddha
After attaining nirvana , Lord Buddha started teaching the way of life to people. Near the city of Benares, he shared
his first teachings to five holy men and they immediately understood his teachings and agreed to follow Lord
Buddha . For forty-five years, Buddha along with his disciples started spreading Buddha’s wisdom and teachings in
India. The teachings of Lord Buddha are also known as Dhamma . Let’s see some of the important teachings Lord
Buddha has left behind for the sake of humanity.
During his enlightenment , Buddha found answer to three universal questions and he explained these answers and
truth in a simple way for his disciple.
What are the cause of these suffering? Why do we feel pain? Why do people suffer?
These are the result of greed or wanting more, ignorance, wrong idea of pleasure.
In order to end these suffering, one must be able to cut off their greed, idea of having pleasure. One must learn and
have knowledge to cut off their ignorance.
The first way to end these suffering is changing one’s views and must try to live in a natural way and must possess
peaceful mind. The state when one ends their suffering and live a peaceful way is known as Nirvana. This is the
highest goal and aim of Buddhism and Buddha tries to spread his knowledge to people so that they can end their
suffering.
The path to end the suffering, is called Noble Eightfold path or Middle way.
The path to ending the suffering of people is known as Noble Eightfold Path or Middle Way. Noble Eightfold Path is
one of the principal teachings of Buddha. These teachings of Buddha described the way leading to a acessation
of dukkha and the state of self-awakening. The Noble Eightfold path is described below:
1. Right View:
What is right view?
Knowledge about the cause of suffering, knowledge to end the cause of suffering, knowledge to way of path to end
the suffering. This is called right view.
2. Right Intention:
Right intention can also be called as “right thought”. Understanding the right view, one should be able to differentiate
between right intention and wrong intention. One should be resolved to be free from ill will is what right intention will
teach you.
3. Right Speech:
One should always keep themselves from lying and ill speech. One should make best use of their speech and
abandon false speech and always speak truth.
4. Right Conduct:
Never hurting others, criticizing others, well behaving, are the right conduct. One should never conduct any actions
that may harm others.
5. Right Livelihood
"Do not earn your living by harming others. Do not seek happiness by making others unhappy."
The Buddha.
One should never choose living where his way of living may directly or indirectly harm others.
6. Right Effort
Right effort can also be called “right endeavor”. One should always try to take any action on the goodwill of people.
7. Right Mindfulness
People must constantly keep their mind to phenomena that may affect the body and mind. This means one must be
aware of their thoughts, words, and action.
8. Right Concentration
Also known as “right meditation”, Right concentration teach people to concentrate and focus one thing or object at a
time. Thus leading quiet and peaceful mind.
Following these 8 Noble Eightfold Path, one can cultivate their wisdom and thus leading to the path to attain
“nirvana”.
Lord Buddha establishes the three refuges for people to follow his teachings. A refuge is the place where people can
rely on and go to for the purpose of safety. The three refuges that Lord Buddha establishes are as follows:
In Buddhism , Lord Buddha himself establishes five most important rules and called them Five Percepts.
Avoid Killing
Avoid taking anything which is not yours
Avoid sexual misconduct
Avoid lying
Avoid any false drinks
These are some of the teachings; Lord Buddha himself has passed down for the sake of humanity and for their well
beings. Every Buddhists have studied these teachings and practice them and swore never to make any mistakes and
blunder.
The Triple Gem
1. The Buddha — The self awakened one. The original nature of the Heart;
2. The Dhamma — The Teaching. The nature of reality;
3. The Sangha — a. The Awakened Community. b. Any harmonious assembly. c. All Beings.
All Buddhist teachings flow from the Four Noble Truths. Particularly emphasised in the Theravada.
1. I vow to rescue the boundless living beings from suffering; (Link to 1st Truth)
2. I vow to put an end to the infinite afflictions of living beings; (Link to 2nd Truth)
3. I vow to learn the measureless Dharma-doors; (Link to 4th Truth)
4. I vow to realise the unsurpassed path of the Buddha. (Link to 3th Truth)
Foundation of the Mahayana Path, these vows say. 'Whatever the highest perfection of the human heart-
mind may I realise it for the benefit of all that lives!'
Alternate meanings are given as the original Pali has shades of meaning not available in one English
word.
I undertake to:
Paramita means gone to the other shore, it is the highest development of each of these qualities.
1. Giving or Generosity; *
2. Virtue, Ethics, Morality; *
3. Renunciation, letting go, not grasping;
4. Panna or Prajna "Wisdom" insight into the nature of reality; *
5. Energy, vigour, vitality, diligence; *
6. Patience or forbearance; *
7. Truthfulness;
8. Resolution, determination, intention;
9. Kindness, love, friendliness;
10. Equanimity.
* In Mahayana Buddhism, 6 are emphasised, they are, numbers l., 2., 4., 5., 6., Samadhi (see Path) & 4.
Full development of these four states develops all of the Ten Paramita.
1.Faith, Confidence;
2. Energy, Effort;
3. Mindfulness;
4. Samadhi;
5. Wisdom.
1. Anicca — Impermanent;
2. Dukkha — Unsatisfactory, stress inducing;
3. Anatta — Insubstantial or Not-self.
All compounded and conditioned things, all phenomena are impermanent. Because of this they give rise
to Stress and Affliction and because of this they are Not-self What we call "self " is a process not a 'thing".
There was a single state, given the similarity in artefacts, the evidence for planned
settlements, the standardised ratio of brick size, and the establishment of settlements near
sources of raw material.
There was no single ruler but several cities like Mohenjo-daro had a separate ruler, Harappa
another, and so forth.
Harappan society had no rulers, and everybody enjoyed equal status.
TECHNOLOGY
The people of the Indus Civilisation achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and
time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. A
comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation across the Indus territories. Their
smallest division, which is marked on an ivory scale found in Lothal in Gujarat, was
approximately 1.704 mm, the smallest division ever recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age.
Harappan engineers followed the decimal division of measurement for all practical purposes,
including the measurement of mass as revealed by their hexahedron weights.[91]
These chert weights were in a ratio of 5:2:1 with weights of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50,
100, 200, and 500 units, with each unit weighing approximately 28 grams, similar to the
English Imperial ounce or Greek uncia, and smaller objects were weighed in similar ratios with
the units of 0.871. However, as in other cultures, actual weights were not uniform throughout
the area. The weights and measures later used in Kautilya's Arthashastra (4th century BCE) are
the same as those used in Lothal.[92]
Harappans evolved some new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead,
and tin. The engineering skill of the Harappans was remarkable, especially in building docks.[93]
In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh, Pakistan, discovered
that the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, from the early Harappan periods, had
knowledge of proto-dentistry. Later, in April 2006, it was announced in the scientific
journal Nature that the oldest (and first early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of human
teeth in vivo (i.e., in a living person) was found in Mehrgarh. Eleven drilled molar crowns from
nine adults were discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Mehrgarh that dates from 7,500–9,000
years ago. According to the authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in
the early farming cultures of that region.[94]
A touchstone bearing gold streaks was found in Banawali, which was probably used for testing
the purity of gold (such a technique is still used in some parts of India).
AGRICULTURE
According to Gangal et al. (2014), there is strong archeological and geographical evidence that
neolithic farming spread from the Near East into north-west India, but there is also "good
evidence for the local domestication of barley and the zebucattle at Mehrgarh."[73][note 9]
According to Jean-Francois Jarrige, farming had an independent origin at Mehrgarh, despite the
similarities which he notes between Neolithic sites from eastern Mesopotamia and the western
Indus valley, which are evidence of a "cultural continuum" between those sites. Nevertheless,
Jarrige concludes that Mehrgarh has an earlier local background," and is not a "'backwater' of
the Neolithic culture of the Near East."[113] Archaeologist Jim G. Shaffer writes that the
Mehrgarh site "demonstrates that food production was an indigenous South Asian
phenomenon" and that the data support interpretation of "the prehistoric urbanisation and
complex social organisation in South Asia as based on indigenous, but not isolated, cultural
developments".[114]
Jarrige notes that the people of Mehrgarh used domesticated wheats and barley,[115] while
Shaffer and Liechtenstein note that the major cultivated cereal crop was naked six-row barley, a
crop derived from two-row barley.[116] Gangal agrees that "Neolithic domesticated crops in
Mehrgarh include more than 90% barley," noting that "there is good evidence for the local
domestication of barley." Yet, Gangal also notes that the crop also included "a small amount of
wheat," which "are suggested to be of Near-Eastern origin, as the modern distribution of wild
varieties of wheat is limited to Northern Levant and Southern Turkey.
The cattle that is often portrayed on Indus seals are humped Indian aurochs, that is similar
to Zebu cattle. Zebu cattle is still common in India, and in Africa. It is different from the
European cattle, and had been originally domesticated on the Indian subcontinent, probably in
the Baluchistan region of Pakistan
LANGUAGE
It has often been suggested that the bearers of the IVC corresponded to proto-
Dravidians linguistically, the break-up of proto-Dravidian corresponding to the break-up of
the Late Harappan culture.[118] Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola concludes that the uniformity of
the Indus inscriptions precludes any possibility of widely different languages being used, and
that an early form of Dravidian language must have been the language of the Indus
people.[119] Today, the Dravidian language family is concentrated mostly in southern India and
northern and eastern Sri Lanka, but pockets of it still remain throughout the rest of India and
Pakistan (the Brahui language), which lends credence to the theory.
According to Heggarty and Renfrew, Dravidian languages may have spread into
the Indian subcontinent with the spread of farming.[120]According to David McAlpin, the
Dravidian languages were brought to India by immigration into India from Elam.[note 11] In earlier
publications, Renfrew also stated that proto-Dravidian was brought to India by farmers from
the Iranian part of the Fertile Crescent,[121][122][123][note 12] but more recently Heggarty and
Renfrew note that "a great deal remains to be done in elucidating the prehistory of Dravidian."
They also note that "McAlpin's analysis of the language data, and thus his claims, remain far
from orthodoxy."[120] Heggarty and Renfrew conclude that several scenarios are compatible
with the data, and that "the linguistic jury is still very much out."
Between 400 and as many as 600 distinct Indus symbols[128] have been found on seals, small
tablets, ceramic pots and more than a dozen other materials, including a "signboard" that
apparently once hung over the gate of the inner citadel of the Indus city of Dholavira.
Typical Indus inscriptions are no more than four or five characters in length, most of which
(aside from the Dholavira "signboard") are tiny; the longest on a single surface, which is less
than 1 inch (2.54 cm) square, is 17 signs long; the longest on any object (found on three
different faces of a mass-produced object) has a length of 26 symbols.
While the Indus Valley Civilisation is generally characterised as a literate society on the
evidence of these inscriptions, this description has been challenged by Farmer, Sproat, and
Witzel (2004)[129] who argue that the Indus system did not encode language, but was instead
similar to a variety of non-linguistic sign systems used extensively in the Near East and other
societies, to symbolise families, clans, gods, and religious concepts. Others have claimed on
occasion that the symbols were exclusively used for economic transactions, but this claim
leaves unexplained the appearance of Indus symbols on many ritual objects, many of which
were mass-produced in moulds. No parallels to these mass-produced inscriptions are known in
any other early ancient civilisations.[130]
In a 2009 study by P. N. Rao et al. published in Science, computer scientists, comparing the
pattern of symbols to various linguistic scripts and non-linguistic systems, including DNA and a
computer programming language, found that the Indus script's pattern is closer to that of
spoken words, supporting the hypothesis that it codes for an as-yet-unknown language.[131][132]
Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel have disputed this finding, pointing out that Rao et al. did not
actually compare the Indus signs with "real-world non-linguistic systems" but rather with "two
wholly artificial systems invented by the authors, one consisting of 200,000 randomly ordered
signs and another of 200,000 fully ordered signs, that they spuriously claim represent the
structures of all real-world non-linguistic sign systems".[133] Farmer et al. have also
demonstrated that a comparison of a non-linguistic system like medieval heraldic
signs with natural languages yields results similar to those that Rao et al. obtained with Indus
signs. They conclude that the method used by Rao et al. cannot distinguish linguistic systems
from non-linguistic ones.[134]
The messages on the seals have proved to be too short to be decoded by a computer. Each seal
has a distinctive combination of symbols and there are too few examples of each sequence to
provide a sufficient context. The symbols that accompany the images vary from seal to seal,
making it impossible to derive a meaning for the symbols from the images. There have,
nonetheless, been a number of interpretations offered for the meaning of the seals. These
interpretations have been marked by ambiguity and subjectivity.[134]:69
Photos of many of the thousands of extant inscriptions are published in the Corpus of Indus
Seals and Inscriptions (1987, 1991, 2010), edited by Asko Parpola and his colleagues. The final,
third, volume, republished photos taken in the 1920s and 1930s of hundreds of lost or stolen
inscriptions, along with many discovered in the last few decades. Formerly, researchers had to
supplement the materials in the Corpus by study of the tiny photos in the excavation reports of
Marshall (1931), MacKay (1938, 1943), Wheeler (1947), or reproductions in more recent
scattered sources.
Edakkal caves in Wayanad district of Kerala contain drawings that range over periods from as
early as 5000 BCE to 1000 BCE. The youngest group of paintings have been in the news for a
possible connection to the Indus Valley Civilisation.
RELIGION
The religion and belief system of the Indus Valley people have received considerable attention,
especially from the view of identifying precursors to deities and religious practices of Indian
religions that later developed in the area. However, due to the sparsity of evidence, which is
open to varying interpretations, and the fact that the Indus script remains undeciphered, the
conclusions are partly speculative and largely based on a retrospective view from a much later
Hindu perspective.[135][136] An early and influential work in the area that set the trend for Hindu
interpretations of archaeological evidence from the Harappan sites[137] was that of John
Marshall, who in 1931 identified the following as prominent features of the Indus religion: a
Great Male God and a Mother Goddess; deification or veneration of animals and plants;
symbolic representation of the phallus (linga) and vulva (yoni); and, use of baths and water in
religious practice. Marshall's interpretations have been much debated, and sometimes disputed
over the following decades.
One Indus Valley seal shows a seated figure with a horned headdress, possibly tricephalic and
possibly ithyphallic, surrounded by animals. Marshall identified the figure as an early form of
the Hindu god Shiva (or Rudra), who is associated with asceticism, yoga, and linga; regarded as
a lord of animals; and often depicted as having three eyes. The seal has hence come to be
known as the Pashupati Seal, after Pashupati (lord of all animals), an epithet of
Shiva.[138][140] While Marshall's work has earned some support, many critics and even supporters
have raised several objections. Doris Srinivasan has argued that the figure does not have three
faces, or yogic posture, and that in Vedic literature Rudra was not a protector of wild
animals.[141][142] Herbert Sullivan and Alf Hiltebeitel also rejected Marshall's conclusions, with
the former claiming that the figure was female, while the latter associated the figure
with Mahisha, the Buffalo God and the surrounding animals with vahanas (vehicles) of deities
for the four cardinal directions.[143][144] Writing in 2002, Gregory L. Possehl concluded that while
it would be appropriate to recognise the figure as a deity, its association with the water buffalo,
and its posture as one of ritual discipline, regarding it as a proto-Shiva would be going too
far.[140] Despite the criticisms of Marshall's association of the seal with a proto-Shiva icon, it has
been interpreted as the Tirthankara Rishabhanatha by Jains and Vilas Sangave[145] or an
early Buddha by Buddhists.[137] Historians such as Heinrich Zimmer and Thomas
McEvilley believe that there is a connection between first Jain Tirthankara Rishabhanatha and
the Indus Valley civilisation.[146][147]
Marshall hypothesised the existence of a cult of Mother Goddess worship based upon
excavation of several female figurines, and thought that this was a precursor of the Hindu sect
of Shaktism. However the function of the female figurines in the life of Indus Valley people
remains unclear, and Possehl does not regard the evidence for Marshall's hypothesis to be
"terribly robust".[148] Some of the baetyls interpreted by Marshall to be sacred phallic
representations are now thought to have been used as pestles or game counters instead, while
the ring stones that were thought to symbolise yoni were determined to be architectural
features used to stand pillars, although the possibility of their religious symbolism cannot be
eliminated.[149] Many Indus Valley seals show animals, with some depicting them being carried
in processions, while others show chimeric creations. One seal from Mohenjo-daro shows a
half-human, half-buffalo monster attacking a tiger, which may be a reference to the Sumerian
myth of such a monster created by goddess Aruru to fight Gilgamesh.[150]
In contrast to contemporary Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations, Indus Valley lacks any
monumental palaces, even though excavated cities indicate that the society possessed the
requisite engineering knowledge.[151][152] This may suggest that religious ceremonies, if any, may
have been largely confined to individual homes, small temples, or the open air. Several sites
have been proposed by Marshall and later scholars as possibly devoted to religious purpose,
but at present only the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro is widely thought to have been so used, as
a place for ritual purification.[148][153] The funerary practices of the Harappan civilisation are
marked by their diversity, with evidence of supine burial, fractional burial (in which the body is
reduced to skeletal remains by exposure to the elements before final interment), and even
cremation
LATE HARAPPAN
Around 1900 BCE signs of a gradual decline began to emerge, and by around 1700 BCE most of
the cities had been abandoned. Recent examination of human skeletons from the site of
Harappa has demonstrated that the end of the Indus civilisation saw an increase in inter-
personal violence and in infectious diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis.[156][157]
According to historian Upinder Singh, "the general picture presented by the late Harappan
phase is one of a breakdown of urban networks and an expansion of rural ones." [158]
During the period of approximately 1900 to 1700 BCE, multiple regional cultures emerged
within the area of the Indus civilisation. The Cemetery H culture was in Punjab, Haryana,
and Western Uttar Pradesh, the Jhukar culture was in Sindh, and the Rangpur
culture(characterised by Lustrous Red Ware pottery) was in Gujarat.[159][160][161] Other sites
associated with the Late phase of the Harappan culture are Pirak in Balochistan, Pakistan,
and Daimabad in Maharashtra, India.[85]
The largest Late Harappan sites are Kudwala in Cholistan, Bet Dwarka in Gujarat,
and Daimabad in Maharashtra, which can be considered as urban, but they are smaller and few
in number compared with the Mature Harappan cities. Bet Dwarka was fortified and continued
to have contacts with the Persian Gulf region, but there was a general decrease of long-distance
trade.[162] On the other hand, the period also saw a diversification of the agricultural base, with
a diversity of crops and the advent of double-cropping, as well as a shift of rural settlement
towards the east and the south.[163]
The pottery of the Late Harappan period is described as "showing some continuity with mature
Harappan pottery traditions," but also distinctive differences.[164] Many sites continued to be
occupied for some centuries, although their urban features declined and disappeared. Formerly
typical artifacts such as stone weights and female figurines became rare. There are some
circular stamp seals with geometric designs, but lacking the Indus script which characterized the
mature phase of the civilisation. Script is rare and confined to potsherd inscriptions.[164] There
was also a decline in long-distance trade, although the local cultures show new innovations
in faience and glass making, and carving of stone beads.[165] Urban amenities such as drains and
the public bath were no longer maintained, and newer buildings were "poorly constructed".
Stone sculptures were deliberately vandalised, valuables were sometimes concealed in hoards,
suggesting unrest, and the corpses of animals and even humans were left unburied in the
streets and in abandoned buildings.[166]
During the later half of the 2nd millennium BCE, most of the post-urban Late Harappan
settlements were abandoned altogether. Subsequent material culture was typically
characterised by temporary occupation, "the campsites of a population which was nomadic and
mainly pastoralist" and which used "crude handmade pottery."[167] However, there is greater
continuity and overlap between Late Harappan and subsequent cultural phases at sites
in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, primarily small rural settlements.
ARYAN INVASION
In 1953 Sir Mortimer Wheeler proposed that the invasion of an Indo-European tribe from
Central Asia, the "Aryans", caused the decline of the Indus Civilisation. As evidence, he cited a
group of 37 skeletons found in various parts of Mohenjo-daro, and passages in the Vedas
referring to battles and forts. However, scholars soon started to reject Wheeler's theory, since
the skeletons belonged to a period after the city's abandonment and none were found near the
citadel. Subsequent examinations of the skeletons by Kenneth Kennedy in 1994 showed that
the marks on the skulls were caused by erosion, and not by violence.
In the Cemetery H culture (the late Harappan phase in the Punjab region), some of the designs
painted on the funerary urns have been interpreted through the lens of Vedic mythology: for
instance, peacocks with hollow bodies and a small human form inside, which has been
interpreted as the souls of the dead, and a hound that can be seen as the hound of Yama, the
god of death.[170][171] This may indicate the introduction of new religious beliefs during this
period, but the archaeological evidence does not support the hypothesis that the Cemetery H
people were the destroyers of the Harappan cities.
CONTINUITY
Archaeological excavations indicate that the decline of Harappa drove people
eastward.[182] According to Possehl, after 1900 BCE the number of sites in today's India
increased from 218 to 853. According to Andrew Lawler, "excavations along the Gangetic plain
show that cities began to arise there starting about 1200 BCE, just a few centuries after
Harappa was deserted and much earlier than once suspected."[176][note 17] According to Jim
Shaffer there was a continuous series of cultural developments, just as in most areas of the
world. These link "the so-called two major phases of urbanisation in South Asia".[184]
At sites such as Bhagwanpura (in Haryana), archaeological excavations have discovered an
overlap between the final phase of Late Harappan pottery and the earliest phase of Painted
Grey Ware pottery, the latter being associated with the Vedic Culture and dating from around
1200 BCE. This site provides evidence of multiple social groups occupying the same village but
using different pottery and living in different types of houses: "over time the Late Harappan
pottery was gradually replaced by Painted Grey ware pottery," and other cultural changes
indicated by archaeology include the introduction of the horse, iron tools, and new religious
practices.[85]
There is also a Harappan site called Rojdi in Rajkot district of Saurashtra. Its excavation started
under an archaeological team from Gujarat State Department of Archaeology and the Museum
of the University of Pennsylvania in 1982–83. In their report on archaeological excavations at
Rojdi, Gregory Possehl and M.H. Raval write that although there are "obvious signs of cultural
continuity" between the Harappan Civilisation and later South Asian cultures, many aspects of
the Harappan "sociocultural system" and "integrated civilization" were "lost forever," while the
Second Urbanisation of India (beginning with the Northern Black Polished Ware culture, c. 600
BCE) "lies well outside this sociocultural environment"
POST-HARAPPAN
Previously, scholars believed that the decline of the Harappan civilisation led to an interruption
of urban life in the Indian subcontinent. However, the Indus Valley Civilisation did not disappear
suddenly, and many elements of the Indus Civilisation appear in later cultures. The Cemetery H
culture may be the manifestation of the Late Harappan over a large area in the region
of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, and the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture its
successor. David Gordon White cites three other mainstream scholars who "have emphatically
demonstrated" that Vedic religion derives partially from the Indus Valley Civilisations.[186]
As of 2016, archaeological data suggests that the material culture classified as Late Harappan
may have persisted until at least c. 1000–900 BCE and was partially contemporaneous with
the Painted Grey Ware culture.[184] Harvard archaeologist Richard Meadow points to the late
Harappan settlement of Pirak, which thrived continuously from 1800 BCE to the time of the
invasion of Alexander the Great in 325 BCE.[176]
In the aftermath of the Indus Civilisation's localisation, regional cultures emerged, to varying
degrees showing the influence of the Indus Civilisation. In the formerly great city of Harappa,
burials have been found that correspond to a regional culture called the Cemetery H culture. At
the same time, the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture expanded from Rajasthan into the Gangetic
Plain. The Cemetery H culture has the earliest evidence for cremation; a practice dominant
in Hinduism today.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Near East
The mature (Harappan) phase of the IVC is contemporary to the Early and Middle Bronze Age in
the Ancient Near East, in particular the Old Elamite period, Early Dynastic to Ur IIIMesopotamia,
Prepalatial Minoan Crete and Old Kingdom to First Intermediate Period Egypt.
The IVC has been compared in particular with the civilisations of Elam (also in the context of
the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis) and with Minoan Crete (because of isolated cultural parallels
such as the ubiquitous goddess worship and depictions of bull-leaping).[187] The IVC has been
tentatively identified with the toponym Meluhha known from Sumerian records; the Sumerians
called them Meluhhaites.[188]
Shahr-i-Sokhta, located in southeastern Iran shows trade route with Mesopotamia.[189][190] A
number of seals with Indus script have been also found in Mesopotamian sites.
Dasyu
After the discovery of the IVC in the 1920s, it was immediately associated with the
indigenous Dasyu inimical to the Rigvedic tribes in numerous hymns of the Rigveda. Mortimer
Wheeler interpreted the presence of many unburied corpses found in the top levels of
Mohenjo-daro as the victims of a warlike conquest, and famously stated that "Indra stands
accused" of the destruction of the IVC. The association of the IVC with the city-dwelling Dasyus
remains alluring because the assumed timeframe of the first Indo-Aryan migration into India
corresponds neatly with the period of decline of the IVC seen in the archaeological record. The
discovery of the advanced, urban IVC however changed the 19th-century view of early Indo-
Aryan migration as an "invasion" of an advanced culture at the expense of a "primitive"
aboriginal population to a gradual acculturation of nomadic "barbarians" on an advanced urban
civilisation, comparable to the Germanic migrations after the Fall of Rome, or
the Kassite invasion of Babylonia. This move away from simplistic "invasionist" scenarios
parallels similar developments in thinking about language transfer and population movement in
general, such as in the case of the migration of the proto-Greek speakers into Greece, or the
Indo-Europeanisation of Western Europe.
Munda
Proto-Munda (or Para-Munda) and a "lost phylum" (perhaps related or ancestral to the Nihali
language)[193] have been proposed as other candidates for the language of the IVC. Michael
Witzel suggests an underlying, prefixing language that is similar to Austroasiatic, notably Khasi;
he argues that the Rigveda shows signs of this hypothetical Harappan influence in the earliest
historic level, and Dravidian only in later levels, suggesting that speakers of Austroasiatic were
the original inhabitants of Punjab and that the Indo-Aryans encountered speakers of Dravidian
only in later times.