Decline of the Oldest Civilization

Investigations into the development of Harappan culture have revealed a number of distinct periods in the life of its cities. After their heyday, there followed a period of decline.

This emerges particularly clearly from the evidence unearthed at Mohenjo Daro, and Harappa. The so called later period constructions at Mohenjo-Daro were carried out without any strict plan and by that time some large public buildings were already in ruins. The water supply system had also fallen into disrepair by this time. Many structures in Harappa were also in a state of ruin. The active trading of the earlier period was also on the decline. Techniques used for the production of pottery also changed as less ornament was used than before and its execution was of poorer quality.

The question as to why the Harappan cities entered a period of decline is the subject of controversy among the experts. For a long time the most popular explanation for the demise of the Harappan cities and that whole civilization was the invasion of the Aryan tribes. However, more recent investigations have shown that a number of cities had gone into decline as result of internal factors before any foreign tribes appeared.

After the hydrological research in Mohenjo-Daro area, scholars came to the conclusion that long ago, not far away from the city, there had the epicenter of a tectonic disturbance that caused the city to perish. Other specialists maintain that floods were the main cause for the destruction of Mohenjo-Daro. The city was inundated on several occasions and eventually the inhabitants were forced to leave the city and move elsewhere.

All these theories are connected with specific settlements or cities. They do not explain why in the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries B.C., the Harappan civilization went into decline. It is possible that major changes in Hardpan society stemmed from a perceptible barbarization of this culture resulting from rapid extension of its territory and the inclusion areas backward in development. Though this theory requires further investigation, it is already clear that it was precisely the internal phenomena which were the main reason for the demise of the Harappan civilization and decline of its cities.

It is revealing to note that a similar decline is also observed in the outlying areas of the Indus valley civilization. The first sign of this decline has been traced to as far back as the nineteenth century B.C. And over the next two centuries, this large port and the major cities in the Indus valley, beset with internal crises, were weakened and finally disappeared.