 The Indus Saga By Aitaz Ahsan

 The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective

by Gregory Possehl
 The Indus Civilization by Mortimer Wheeler
 Indus journey by Imran Khan
 Pakistan has always been a key crossroads in the world.
 Throughout the ages, it has been invaded from the south, north-west, and east.
 Pakistan is located in a region where virtually all major ethnicities and
cultures have made their mark.
 It is bounded on the east by India, on the west by Iran and Afghanistan,
and on the north by China and Central Asia beyond the Himalayas.
 Pakistan is bathed by the Arabian Sea in the south and is within a short
distance from the Arabian Peninsula.
 All of these cultures and people have had a role in moulding Pakistan into what it is
today, leaving it with a cultural and ethnic combination that few countries in the
world can equal, as well as a rich history.
 Pakistan, populous multiethnic country of South Asia.
 Having a predominately Indo-Iranian speaking population,
Pakistan has historically and culturally been associated with
its neighbours Iran, Afghanistan, and India.
 Since Pakistan and India achieved independence in 1947,
Pakistan has been distinguished from its larger southeastern
neighbour by its overwhelmingly Muslim population (as
opposed to the predominance of Hindus in India).
 Pakistan has struggled throughout its existence to attain
political stability and sustained social development.
 Its capital is Islamabad, in the foothills of the Himalayas in
the northern part of the country, and its largest city
is Karachi, in the south on the coast of the Arabian Sea.
 Pakistan was brought into being at the time of the partition of
British India, in response to the demands of Islamic
nationalists: as articulated by the All India Muslim
League under the leadership of Mohammed Ali Jinnah,
India’s Muslims would receive just representation only in
their own country.
 From independence until 1971, Pakistan (both de facto and in
law) consisted of two regions—West Pakistan, in the Indus
River basin in the northwestern portion of the Indian
subcontinent, and East Pakistan, located more than 1,000
miles (1,600 km) to the east in the vast delta of the Ganges-
Brahmaputra river system.
 In response to grave internal political problems that erupted
in civil war in 1971, East Pakistan was proclaimed the
independent country of Bangladesh.
 The Potwar Plateau in northern Punjab is the site of the
oldest remnants of Stone Age humans in the subcontinent.
 Primitive people having crude stone tools
 On the banks of the River Soan, their tools and equipment
were discovered.
 Primitive tools by today’s standard but an embelm of their
survival
 Excavations of 100 000-year-old ruins reveal how the
region's original people lived.
 These late Stone Age people subsisted on fish, animals, and
any fruits and vegetables they could find growing wild
 lacked a fully established form of agriculture.
 The ancient 'Pakistanis' were short and stocky.
 Excavations near Taxila have uncovered another late Stone Age
civilization that produced highly burnished pottery and
polished stone tools.
 Mud walls and rubble stone foundations were used to build their
homes.
 At the same time, a comparable transformation was occurring in
Balochistan.
 Balochistan has been added to the world's archaeological map
following recent findings at Mehergarh.
 Agricultural pursuits were common
throughout the Egyptian era.
 By 6 000 B.C., society had progressed
sufficiently for humans to have burial sites,
rudimentary pottery, and tamed animals.
 Around 4000 BC,developed a sort of urban
culture known as the Kot Diji 'civilization.
 The name comes from the location of Kot
Diji in Sindh's Khairpur District.
 Around 3000 BC, a civilisation flourished in Pakistan, which took
its name from the powerful Indus River.
 After one of its two main cities, it is known as the 'Indus
Valley' or 'Harappan' civilisation.
 The world-famous ruins of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are the
most well-known and magnificent examples of the Indus Valley
civilization
 It peaked about 2 000 BC, during a time when Mesopotamia and
Egypt's ancient civilisation were also reaching new heights.
 The Indus Valley civilisation was extremely large and spread out; it
was 160 kilometres wide and spanned from the Arabian Sea to the
Indus River.
 Harappa, near Sahiwal in Punjab, was the first site of the
Indus Valley civilisation, found in 1921.
 A state granary beside the main temple structure.
 The granary was a massive building made up of several
different pieces.
 Advance level of Sewerage system
 Harappa's and Mohenjo-granaries daro's featured
sophisticated storage systems and were large enough to
prevent starvation or famine in the event of a poor crop.
 The most renowned Indus Valley civilisation site is Mohenjo-
daro, which means "the Mound of the Dead" in local tongue.
Urbanization
Climate change
Salinization of water
Prevalence of orthodox beliefs

 The indigenous races were subdued by Aryans and pushed them further south
into India.
 Hinduism, a religion, began to emerge about the same period.
 The region that is today Pakistan developed cities and Central Asia to the
subcontinent as the riches of which serviced the caravans travelling on the
route from Persia to northern India increased.
 The Hindus elevated another culture and architecture through trade and
conquests from Central Asia and Persia.
 Hinduism seems to have absorbed certain characteristics from the people it
had helped to exterminate in its early stages.
 The bull, which was revered in the Indus Valley, was eventually supplanted by
cow cult.
 It took the Aryans almost another thousand years to expand as far
as Bengal and south India.
 The Aryans were not merely warriors; They were also renowned
for their skill in astronomy and medicine.
 Certain medical practices prevalent in modern medicine today
have their origin in techniques developed centuries ago.
 Modern Health system
 Charts and diagrams show that the ancient Hindus knew a great
deal about the Solar System through the use of telescopes.
 This enabled them to plot the movements of stars and planets.
 The Arabs later built upon the scholarly tradition left by the
Hindus and the Greeks.
 In particular, it was the Hindu contribution to medicine, astrology
and mathematics that the Muslims were to learn from and develop.
 The Hindu caste system began to emerge because the
Indo-Aryans intended to protect their newly established
dominance over the indigenous people, and the Aryans
very certainly acquired the idol worship practise later.
 To guarantee that the two groups never mingled
genetically, a caste system was devised, which not only
prevented non-Aryans from mixing with Aryans, but also
separated the many classes within the Aryan population.
 By obtaining the divine authority to govern religious rites
and legal conflicts, the Brahmin priestly caste was
elevated to the top of the social and religious hierarchy.
 The Kshatriyas, who ruled as warrior kings and ruled over non-
religious parts of daily life, were the next most powerful group.
 A Brahmin could not be king, and a Kshatriya could not be a
priest.
 The Vaishyas were the third caste on the caste hierarchy, and they
were traders, farmers, and merchants.
 The Shudras, who were the indigenous non-Aryan populace and
hence 'untouchables,' formed the fourth class.
 If a Hindu from a higher caste marries a Shudra, he or she would
be considered an outcast and will be ostracised from all aspects
of Hindu social and political life.
 This structure eventually evolved into Hinduism's article of
religion.
 By the 6th century BC, the area comprising Pakistan and
parts of Afghanistan had been divided into small states.
 The more important of these were Gandhara, Kambboj and
Madra.
 Gandhara stretched from the Kabul Valley to Taxila.
 These states were now faced with the rapid growth and
development of a mighty Persian empire on its western
border.
 In the 6th century BC, Cyrus the Great, the founder of the
Persian empire, crossed the Khyber Pass and occupied the
region around Peshawar but failed to consolidate his
conquests.
 It was not until the reign of another Persian emperor Darius
 Another invasion from the west occurred in 327 BC. This time it
was the Greeks, who were led by Alexander the Great, a youthful
monarch.
 Not only had the Greeks conquered the vast Persian empire, but
they were also pushing into northern Pakistan and the Punjab via
Afghanistan
 Between the Jhelum and the Beas rivers, there were seven
separate kingdoms at the time, all at war with one another.
Alexander's invasion is a well-documented event in history.
 There are several sources that explain what happened.
 Even before the Greek army arrived, the king of Taxila was willing
to support Alexander and leave his troops at his disposal on the
condition that he not be attacked.
 However, if Alexander now believed that conquest of the region
was easy, he was to be disappointed.
 Most toughest one faced by the Alxander’s Army
 Some of the smaller states fought bravely, and many to the last
man, including their kings.
 Using Porus, who ruled the territory between the Rivers' fhelum
and Chenab in the Punjab.
 Porus used war elephants during this long battle.
 Although his force outnumbered that of Alexander,
 It was unable to match the military genius of the Greek leader or
the skill of his superior cavalry.
 A famous story recounts how Porus was defeated and brought
wounded to Alexander. When Alexander asked Porus what he
should do with him, Porus drew himself up to his full height
and replied, 'Treat me as a king!
 This impressed Alexander enough to make him decide to
appoint Porus as the rule not only of his own kingdom
 Although he pretended to accept their refusal to go on,
Alexander decided to return south along the River Indus and
then west into Persia towards Greece.
 The real reason for selecting this route was his secret
determination to add Sindh to his empire.
 Sindh was reputed to have fabulous wealth, possibly from
rumors dating back to the days of the Indus Valley civilization.
 The Greeks invented the term 'Indian,' which was originally
used to designate Sindh and the river, because of the River
Indus.
 Alexander stayed in the Punjab until a thousand boats for the
voyage down the Indus River into the Arabian Sea had been
constructed.
 Alexander's troops was in for a difficult voyage.
 While some indigenous tribes surrendered without a
struggle, others fought back vehemently.
 The Greeks came upon the Malavas tribe around 130
kilometres north of Multan. Alexander was nearly killed in
the subsequent battle after suffering a major chest wound.
 The Greeks were so enraged by the tribe's tenacious
resistance that when the village was ultimately taken, they
massacred all of the residents.
 This dynasty rose to power, and for the first time in the
region's history, a single monarchy conquered nearly the
whole subcontinental landmass.
 Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of this kingdom, had
previously volunteered to escort Alexander and his forces
east of the Indus before the Greeks declined to proceed any
farther.
 Chandragupta deposed Porus and expelled the Greeks from
all of their lands in Pakistan.
 He subsequently expanded his dominion from Afghanistan
to Bengal, however it is unclear how he was able to
accomplish such a feat.
 The Greeks tried unsuccessfully in 305 BC to reclaim the
Ashoka's emblem of the three lions, land abandoned to them by
Alexander.
 The Mauryans promised not to bother the Greeks in
Afghanistan, and the Greeks had to relinquish their claim to the
northern Pakistan area, according to the following peace treaty.
 Chandragupta's kingdom was split into three sections.
 Taxila was designated as the capital of a new province in
northern Pakistan.
 Taxila prospered as a large treasure house throughout the peace
that followed, with at least three well-documented testimonies
from contemporaneous travellers detailing its wealth.
 Chandragupta's son did not make much of an impact once he became ruler,
but Chandragupta's grandson, Ashoka, greatly extended the empire.
Ironically, it was to be Ashoka, the most famous ruler of the dynasty, who
contributed most to its eventual demise.
 Ashoka is still revered in India as the only local king ever to have ruled over
the area from Persia to Bengal and from the Himalayas to Ceylon.
 Ashoka made Buddhism the state religion and Gandhara was one of his
important centers.
 It is Ashoka's symbol of the three lions which has become one of the official
emblems of modern India and is used on the Indian rupee. Even at this time,
the North West Frontier region was mentioned by historians as being unruly
and difficult to control.
 Ashoka was only the third ruler in the dynasty, but after him the empire
steadily weakened.
 The kingdom fell slowly following Ashoka, who was just
the third monarch of the dynasty.
 The Maurya dynasty lasted another 140 years, but its
authority and strength gradually dwindled.
 Afghanistan will be the site of the following small
invasions.
 The Gupta invasions about 200 BC were the next
significant assaults.
 The Bactrians, like the Greek conquerors before them,
occupied parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
 These Greeks, who were part of Alexander's army, were
unable to advance into central India and were limited to
Alexander's army, which had withdrawn to Afghanistan
after Chandragupta had forced them out of the Pakistan
area.
 They now included the plains of Peshawar, the Khyber
Pass and a small area succeeded in taking over the region
in northern Pakistan which of Afghanistan.
 The capital of the province of Gandhara was
Pushkalavati, which was later moved to Peshawar.
 This kingdom reached its peak in 180 BC under a ruler
named Menander who Buddhist in religion and the
fusion of local and Greek art led to the managed to
extend the empire into the Punjab.
 The kingdom was famous style known as 'Gandharan art'.
 Menander's capital was later moved to Sakala, identified
as modern Sialkot, and described establis system algebra
by ancient sources as a great trading center.
 The Scythians, or Sakas, were the next wave of invaders,
arriving in the region around 130 BC.
 They arrived on the subcontinent from Parthia, which was
governed by the Persians at the time.
 They are passing via the Khyber Pass, which was still under
the authority of the Bactria, who are said to have invaded
Pakistan by the Bolan Pass rather than the Greeks.
 The Sakas were successful in establishing their capital at
Taxila, but they were unable to expand into Sindh or northern
India.
 According to legend, the Scythian monarch permitted
Thomas, one of the 12 apostles of Christianity, to preach at
Taxila around AD 47.
 The renowned Buddhist temple at Taxila was also being
erected about this period.
 Kautilya defines statecraft as Arthashastra. Artha denotes
material well-being. According to Kautilya, the most
important objective of the king is to secure the material well-
being of its people.
 In the words of Kautilya, “Material well being is supreme,
attainment of all other goals dharma, kama, moksha
depends on material well being.” The first land to be
acquired is the land of neighbor. Hence neighbors are natural
enemies.
 Hence the relations between the two states are the relations
of war. Thus Arthashastra deals with ‘art of war’ like Sun Tzu
the Chinese strategist.
 Hence the main idea in Arthashastra is war, strategic
planning, balance of power, geopolitics.
 Arthashastra can be considered as the first textbook in
geopolitics. (geopolitics is a science of capturing
land/resources.)
 According to the concept of geopolitics, state is an organism.
Like any organism, state has to grow.
 If state will not grow/expand, state will perish or decay. Thus
Kautilya’s Arthashastra challenges western view that Indians
lacked strategic culture. George Tanham categorically
rejected that Indians have any strategic culture or wisdom
but Kautilya proves him wrong.
 It is unfortunate that policymakers in India have overlooked
the wisdom found in Arthashastra.
 However since the beginning of 21st century, with Hindu
rightist party coming to power, there is a change in the
approach of the south block.
 The Kushanas were the name given to the new tribe.By AD
170, they had established Taxila as their capital.
 The Kushanas ruled a region that stretched from the Indus
River to Persia.
 They were Buddhist converts who aspired to imitate those
who had gone before them.
 Many of the well-known Buddhist relics discovered in Swat
Peshawar today come from this period.
 The next great invasion was led by the White Huns, a
powerful army.The Huns and the subsequent zols are closely
connected. By AD 484, the Huns had enslaved the majority of
Persia.
 The White Huns were satisfied to stay in Gandhara for over a
century, but by the 6th century AD, they had moved into the
Gupta empire.
 The River Indus once again served as a dividing line between
kingdoms. Kashmir, Punjab, and Sindh were largely tranquil
and free of attack for the following century.
 The best-known account of this period is that of Hiuen Tsang, a
Chinese traveller who published a detailed account of the region.
 In AD 630, he visited Gandhara and travelled through Kashmir
and Punjab, which were still mostly Buddhist or Hindu.
 At the same time, the new Islamic faith was expanding over the
Arabian Peninsula.
Thank
YOU!