At Mohenjo-daro, a housewife drew water from a well and tipped it into a covered drain, while nearby the streets ran in a grid of baked brick and brick-lined sewers. These were not random ruins. By c. 2600 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilisation had produced planned cities at Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Ganeriwala, and Rakhigarhi, with homes opening on to courtyards, public drainage, and standardised bricks and weights.

Its roots reach back to Mehrgarh in Balochistan, where farming and herding appeared by about 7000 BCE. From c. 3300 BCE, the Ravi Phase shows villagers moving between the hills and the lowland river valleys, while the Ghaggar-Hakra system and the Indus floodplain gave life to settlements across Pakistan, northwestern India, and northeast Afghanistan. By the mature phase, the culture stretched over an area larger than Egypt or Mesopotamia.

The modern story began in 1829, when Charles Masson noted Harappa’s half-buried mounds. Alexander Burnes saw its baked bricks in 1834, and after the British annexation of the Punjab in 1848 to 1849, those bricks were carted off for railway ballast. By 1861, the Archaeological Survey of India had been founded, and Alexander Cunningham had begun to suspect that Harappa was far older than a lost Buddhist city.

The decisive break came in 1924. R. D. Banerji and M. S. Vats linked Mohenjo-daro with Harappa, and John Marshall announced in the Illustrated London News that archaeologists stood on the threshold of a forgotten civilisation. Systematic digs followed from 1924 to 1931, revealing seals, script, the Great Bath, and a city life dense with trade, craft, and planning.

Harappan life was held together by practical order. The people used uniform weights and measures, including an ivory scale from Lothal marked to 1.704 mm, and they made copper and bronze tools, faience beads, shell ornaments, and cubical dice. Thousands of steatite seals carried short inscriptions, often only five signs long, yet the script remains undeciphered, and the language itself is still unknown.

Their merchants reached far. Indus goods have been found in Oman, Bahrain, southern Mesopotamia, Iran, and as far as the Nile valley and Anatolia. Long-distance trade moved by caravan and by sea, with ships shown on seals and terracotta models from Lothal. In the cities, there was little sign of palaces or temples, but the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro suggests ritual use, and the seals show animals, deities, and the famous Pashupati figure.

After about 1900 BCE, the rhythm broke. The monsoons weakened, the Ghaggar-Hakra became more seasonal, and water supplies shrank. By around 1700 BCE, most cities had been abandoned, while populations moved east towards the Ganges basin and south into smaller settlements. Harappa’s later phases, such as Cemetery H, kept some traditions alive, but drains fell silent, trade thinned, and urban life gave way to rural continuity.