LEGACY OF THE INDUS CITIES IN MODERN PAKISTAN:
Although
earlier scholars thought that the Indus Civilization disappeared around 1700 BC,
recent excavations in Pakistan and Western India indicate that the civilization
gradually became fragmented into smaller regional cultures referred to as late
or pose Harappan cultures. The use of standardized weights, writing and seals
become unnecessary as their social and political control gradually disappeared.
The decline of the major urban centers and the fragmentation of the Indus
cultures can be attributed in part to changing river systems that disputed the
agricultural and economic system.
Around 1700 BC, the tributaries of the Hakra-Nara
River become diverted to the Indus system in the west and the Jamuna River in
the east. As the river dried up people
migrated to the central Indus valley, the Gange Yamuna Valley or the fertile
plains of Gujarat in Western India. The Indus River it self began to change its
course, resulting in destructive floods certain distinguishing hallmarks of the
Indus Civilization disappeared. Other, such as writing and weights, or aspects
of Indus craft technology, art, agriculture and possibly social organization,
continued among the late and post Harappan cultures.
These
cultural traditions eventually become incorporated in the new urban civilization
that arose during the Early Historical period, around 600 BC. After 2000 BC, the
Moen-jo-Daro and Harappa culture slowly declined and gradually faded out some
ascribe this to the decreasing fertility of the soil on account of the
increasing salinity, caused by the expansion of the neighboring desert. Others
attribute it to some kind of depression in the land, which caused floods-still
there is no clear picture as to how or why it comes to an end.
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