Iron Age and the end of Indus-Valley

Why Indus valley civilization vanished?

In the previous post we saw how Indus valley intelligently tackled most problems. Speculations arise on how such a sophisticated and well-planned civilization came to an end. The major reasons are believed to be climatic changes leading to floods. The river might have changed its course and the establishments on one side of the river were washed away. The settlements on the other side were now running short of water and resulted in droughts. This led to significant loss of lives and migration of people away from Indus.

The flood

Iron Age

As the Indus-valley civilization was vanishing, migrations were high in number all over India. People were moving towards the settlements around Ganga or the south of Vindhyas. Around this time the human race discovered iron and started using it to make various tools. The disaster had put a stop to trade and the availability of tin had decreased. This factor contributed to the shift towards iron as the main resource. Major iron-age developments occurred around the Gangetic plain in modern day Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The tools that were used during this time are iron sickles, plows, sword, pottery wheel, rudder, and chisels.

Iron age tools

What happened in the North East?

The arrival of iron had helped people in the north-east to immensely improve their agriculture. Rice became the staple food in this region. The extended influences of the crop can be found in local festivals, rituals, dance, songs, and folklore. For example, Bihu, the most important festival cycle of Assam has a three-tier celebration during a year, duly matched with the three stages of the agricultural cycle of the sali rice farming system.

These agricultural improvements along with improvement in pottery (due to the invention of pottery wheel during this time) led to increasing trade with some Chinese provinces. Evidences suggest that textile was imported from China during this period.

Shows the areas were rice originated

Developments in South India

Similar developments were seen in these regions where iron was being used to develop various tools which helped improve crop production and establish better trade. The earliest Iron Age sites in South India are Hallur, Karnataka and Adichanallur, Tamil Nadu. There have been evidences which suggest that parts of south India was involved in trade with the early Roman civilization via sea routes. The details on what was traded is not certain. However, this piece of information suggests that the population in south of India had been able to build boats.

The most significant development during this time was the formation of Dravidian languages. This is considered to be the base for the modern day Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and Tulu. The languages in the spoken form were taking shape in this period and the modern day scripts were worked on over a period of time. An  overview of how these languages turned out to be what they are now can be looked into in detail in another post.

Spread of Dravidian languages

Aryans arrive!

Aryans were a nomadic group of cattle herders who lived in Central Asia. It is believed that the Aryan tribes were among the first to domesticate horses. Climatic changes which led to drying up of their rivers forced them to find other places for survival. Around 1750 B.C.E., the Aryans started migrating to India. Their arrival marks the start of the Vedic period in India. People who lived in India up-to this point in time are considered Dravidians.

Aryan migration routes

What's next in the series?

With the arrival of Aryans, India moves towards the Vedic age and establishing the foundations for the Sanathana Dharma. We will dive into some of these in the next post!

Foot notes

The information provided here is based on my research of various sources. If you feel like this information is inaccurate, let me know and I would love to correct myself and learn more. In my encounter with various books I have seen that the history of India is mainly concentrated around the Indus valley and Delhi and very little information is provided of the southern and north-eastern parts, in this series  I plan to cover all parts of India equally to the best of my efforts. 

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Also let me know what topics you would want me to cover in the comments below. :)

- Aniruth

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