Fill up the following table with a Yes (or tick mark) or No (or cross mark) in each square, which provides an interesting comparison between these two phases of Indian civilisation.

Question

Accepted Answer

The completed table, with the reason for each square:   First Urbanisation Second Urbanisation Why Ganga plains No ✗ Yes ✓ The Harappan cities lay in the Indus (Sindhu) and Sarasvatī basins; the Second Urbanisation began in the Ganga plains. Monasteries No ✗ Yes ✓ Buddhism and Jainism, with their travelling monks and nuns, belong to the age of the mahājanapadas. Literature No ✗ Yes ✓ The Harappans had a writing system, but it is still undeciphered and no literature survives. The second phase has late Vedic, Buddhist and Jain literatures “full of references” to the new cities. Trade Yes ✓ Yes ✓ Both phases traded widely — the Harappans with West Asia, the mahājanapadas across India and beyond, which is why coins were invented. Warfare No ✗ Yes ✓ The Harappan cities have left no clear evidence of warfare. This chapter records “some evidence of warfare between neighbouring mahājanapadas”, and iron weapons to fight it with. Copper / bronze Yes ✓ Yes ✓ The Harappan civilisation mastered copper and bronze metallurgy; those metals did not disappear later — copper coins were struck in the second phase. Iron No ✗ Yes ✓ Iron is the “major shift in technology” of the Second Urbanisation: iron tools for farming, and weapons lighter and sharper than bronze. Why the pattern looks like this: read the column of ✗ marks downwards and you get the difference between the two ages in one glance — a new region (Ganga plains), a new religious and literary world (monasteries and texts), a new m

	First Urbanisation	Second Urbanisation	Why
Ganga plains	No ✗	Yes ✓	The Harappan cities lay in the Indus (Sindhu) and Sarasvatī basins; the Second Urbanisation began in the Ganga plains.
Monasteries	No ✗	Yes ✓	Buddhism and Jainism, with their travelling monks and nuns, belong to the age of the mahājanapadas.
Literature	No ✗	Yes ✓	The Harappans had a writing system, but it is still undeciphered and no literature survives. The second phase has late Vedic, Buddhist and Jain literatures “full of references” to the new cities.
Trade	Yes ✓	Yes ✓	Both phases traded widely — the Harappans with West Asia, the mahājanapadas across India and beyond, which is why coins were invented.
Warfare	No ✗	Yes ✓	The Harappan cities have left no clear evidence of warfare. This chapter records “some evidence of warfare between neighbouring mahājanapadas”, and iron weapons to fight it with.
Copper / bronze	Yes ✓	Yes ✓	The Harappan civilisation mastered copper and bronze metallurgy; those metals did not disappear later — copper coins were struck in the second phase.
Iron	No ✗	Yes ✓	Iron is the “major shift in technology” of the Second Urbanisation: iron tools for farming, and weapons lighter and sharper than bronze.

NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 4 Comparing the First and the Second Urbanisation — LET'S EXPLORE