The Indus Valley Civilization of Harappa-Mahenjodaro 3500 BC India

The Watercooler
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There are new information coming out of the major urban centers the ancient Indus Valley Civilization like Harappa and Mahenjodaro, and other areas. I feel people interested in Buddhist Studies and perhaps origin of noble Aryans (not by birth or social staus but by conduct and cultivation of higher mind) would find it worthy of investigation.

Harappa.com has been the major website on the ancient Indus or Harappan Civilization (3500-1700 BCE) since 1995. Leading scholars from India, Pakistan, the US, UK, and Europe have published their work in slideshows, essays and articles that cover the basic facts and the latest research.

Too little is understood about the ancient Indus civilization in India and Pakistan. Its unread script makes it hard to be sure about so many things - not the name of a single ruler, place, or even word is known. The Indus Valley Civilization is contemporary to Egyptian and Mesopotemian Civilizations and covers a much greater area and population in India, Pakistan and Afganistan.

I am delighted to see that The Peepal tree (Ficus Religiosa), also known as the Bodhi Tree, was the most important sacred tree for the Harappans and Mahenjodaro. Archaeological findings, such as steatite seals and terracotta figurines, frequently depict the heart-shaped leaves and branches of the Peepal tree, sometimes showing deities emerging from its center. Also clay figurine of women (not the famous metal dancing girls) sometimes show red pigment on middle of hair parting like ‘sindur’ worn by married women in India today.

Harappa-Mahenjodaro along with its 100 cities and villages stands out from other civilizations by absence of any king, royal palace, priest or temples . A very high level of urban planning, sanitation and trade networks based on barter system (no money or coin found so far) existed, with almost every home having a private bath area. Society was eagalitarian with low level of Inequality in wealth and food habits. Yet the simple and short scripts remain undeciphered. Religion was probably polytheistic with many mother goddess figurines found and a Pashupati male god surrounded by animals (may be early prototype of Shiva or Brahma). The inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization were expert cultivators and possessed an advanced irrigation system and crop rotation. Trade in commodities like cotton, gold, and precious stones took place all over the Indus Valley Civilization and Mesopotemia and other cultures. A sophisticated barter system with weights and ,measures, seals and sealing existed.

Watch the 2026 film Mohenjo-daro: Unsealing an Ancient Indus City on YouTube to get a sense of what we know and still are trying to grasp. The site was founded by Omar Khan, an Indus enthusiast in San Francisco and author of the books [From Kashmir to Kabul The Photographs of John Burke and William Baker 1860-1900]

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Thank you very much for this informative post and the link to website and the YouTube video.

At this point, I’m more curious why you would find it worthy of investigation, particularly from a Buddhist perspective. What connections have you made, or what have you maybe found that expanded your understanding of Buddhism?

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In my teen years I was curious about the word ‘Arya’ (Vedic Sanskrit) and ‘Ariya’ (Nikaya Pali) mentioned many times. It means Noble ones who live uprightly or someone who follows the way of virtue and Truth. I was shocked to see the same word used to describe the colonial historical idea of ‘Aryan invasion theory(AIT)’, and later adoption of the word in the sense of a superior pure race by Adolph Hitler.

Since AIT is being discredited in last seven years as new archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence show ancient Ariyans were native and indigenous to India and they did not come from Central Asian Steppe as invaders. The transition of the word Arya from the Vedic period to early Buddhism represents a shift from an ethno-cultural identity to a purely spiritual and ethical standard.

Buddha and his Dhamma did not arise in a vacuum. There must have been a long contextual history. culture and civilization before his appearance. Early Buddhist texts (such as the Nagarasutta in the Samyutta Nikaya), the Buddha compared his discovery to an explorer stumbling upon an ancient, forgotten city hidden in the jungle.

Buddha gave great importance on understanding context and gave teaching according to the context and conditions of the person and people he is addressing. He said his teachings need to be used as a raft for a practical purpose and not in a dogmatic way as the only true way. Teachings has to be verified contextually in one’s own lived experience.

I found some new material on recent decoding of Indus Valley Scripts and how it is being decoded using a cipher technique used to solve cryptogram in Information Technology. Yajna Devam (Bharat Rao) reveals the breakthrough decipherment of the Indus Valley script using cryptographic analysis, proving the Indus civilization was Vedic and dating Indian civilization to 7000-9000 BC. Discover how COVID lockdown led to solving a 100-year-old archaeological mystery and learn why previous decipherment attempts failed when they treated different problems as the same.

Yajna Devam achieved 38% unicity distance with Vedic Sanskrit—the highest match possible for ancient scripts—while exposing how colonial narratives deliberately separated Indus civilization from Vedic culture. Essential viewing for history enthusiasts, researchers, and anyone seeking accurate understanding of India’s indigenous civilizational continuity.

Indus Valley Script Decoded
Indus Valley Script Inscriptions

Interesting to see evolution of Indus Script to Brahmi and Devanagari. Sanskrit is core to all. Recently learned there is a difference between the Oral Vedic Sanskrit and written Classic Sanskrit after Panini.

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Love to see examples of early egalitarian agrarian civilizations.

The common story is that rigid hierarchy is an inevitable outcome of the move from hunger-gatherer to agriculture, but this isn’t true (see e.g. the book ‘the dawn of everything’)

I wonder if we see more evidence for hierarchical societies because the rulers are able to divert large amount of resources into vanity projects? (e.g. lavish tombs, pyramids, etc.)

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The new research tends to point the religious life Harappans aligning with the Buddhist way of life. Few scholars like Dhammanand Kosambi have argued that Harappans practiced a religion of non-violence. Its strange that the Indus valley civilization was discovered during an excavation of ‘Mount of the dead’ , a stupa and the bricks found there dated to Harappan period. One can read a very analytical book by Sapan kumar Biswas " Buddhism, the religion of Mohenjodaro".

Dr. Vasant Mhaske.

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Is this coming from the same channel that hosts Hindutva stuff…Hmmm…

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