Q1.
What caused this decline?
Answer
Two factors are currently agreed upon, and one old explanation has been thrown out.
| Explanation | Status and evidence | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Climatic change from about 2200 BCE onward, affecting much of the world — reduced rainfall and a drier phase | Agreed. Less rain would have made agriculture more difficult and could have reduced the food supply reaching the cities |
| 2 | The Sarasvatī River dried up in its central basin | Agreed. Cities there — such as Kalibangan and Banawali — were suddenly abandoned. Later texts also describe the river drying up and disappearing (page 90) |
| 3 | Warfare or invasion destroying the cities | Ruled out. “There is no trace of warfare or invasion.” The Harappans “do not seem to have kept any army or weapons of war” |
The chapter is careful to add: “There could have been other factors” — the two agreed causes are the best-supported, not the whole story.
Notice what the decline actually looked like. It was not a single catastrophe:
- It happened around 1900 BCE, three centuries after the drier phase began — a slow squeeze, not a sudden blow.
- “The cities were abandoned one by one” — different cities failed at different times.
- The people did not vanish. Those who stayed “adopted a rural lifestyle”, and the Harappans “scattered over hundreds, if not thousands, of small rural settlements”.
- “It appears that the earlier government or administration no longer existed” — what really collapsed was the organisation that held cities together.
Why the section is titled “The End or a New Beginning?”: because the civilisation did not die, it changed shape. “Although the cities disappeared, much of the Harappan culture and technology survived and was passed on to the next phase of Indian civilisation.” The crafts, the crops, the plough, the bangles, the namaste, the stories — all of these walked out of the cities and into the villages, and are with us still.
Tip for the exam: answer in three parts and you cannot go wrong — (i) climatic change from about 2200 BCE, (ii) the drying of the Sarasvatī's central basin, and (iii) not war or invasion, for which there is no evidence at all. Then add one line: “these two causes remind us how much we depend on climate and the environment for our well-being.”