Indus Valley Civilisation
India's first cities, roughly 2600-1900 BCE, spread across the north-west and down into Gujarat. GPSC treats this as Gujarat history rather than ancient history, because Gujarat holds more Harappan sites than any other Indian state — so the questions are almost always about a specific site and its one famous find.
Mental model
Read the Indus Civilisation as a map, not a list. Draw a rough triangle: north-west corner Harappa (Ravi) and Mohenjo-daro (Indus) in Pakistan; the eastern arm in Haryana/Punjab (Rakhigarhi, Banawali); and the whole southern arm in Gujarat — Dholavira (Kachchh), Lothal, Rangpur and Rojdi (Saurashtra), Surkotada. Every site then hangs off one signature feature: Mohenjo-daro = Great Bath, Lothal = dockyard, Dholavira = water reservoirs and the signboard, Kalibangan = ploughed field, Surkotada = horse bones. Gujarat holds the largest number of Harappan sites of any Indian state, which is exactly why GPSC asks this.
Associations
A short trigger on the left, everything it pulls with it on the right.
One site, one signature: Lothal = dock, Dholavira = water, Surkotada = horse.
Most site questions are really 'which site had X?'. Fix one image per site and the whole option list sorts itself: Lothal's brick basin, Dholavira's stone reservoirs and signboard, Surkotada's horse bones, Kalibangan's ploughed field, Mohenjo-daro's Great Bath, Chanhudaro (a manufacturing town with no citadel).
Three things they did not have: iron, a deciphered script, a temple.
This one negative rule kills more wrong options than any positive fact. No iron (copper, bronze, stone only), no readable script, and no building anyone can confidently call a temple. If an option asserts any of those three, it is almost certainly the wrong answer.
Gujarat is where the civilisation ends slowly, not suddenly.
Rangpur, Rojdi and other Saurashtra sites carry a 'late Harappan' phase after the mature cities in the Indus plain are abandoned. So Gujarat appears twice in this story — as part of the mature civilisation, and as its long tail.
Things to remember
The night-before list. Short enough to recall cold.
- 1Mature phase roughly 2600-1900 BCE; the civilisation is named after the Indus, but a majority of known Indian sites lie in Gujarat.
- 2Dholavira (Khadir island, Kachchh) — three-part town plan, stone-built reservoirs, the ten-sign signboard; UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- 3Lothal (Ahmedabad district) — tidal dockyard, bead-making workshop, Persian Gulf seal, rice husk; excavated under S. R. Rao.
- 4Rakhigarhi in Haryana is the largest Harappan site in India; Dholavira is the largest in Gujarat.
- 5Surkotada (Kachchh) is cited for horse bones — the one site where the horse is claimed, and therefore the one exception to remember.
- 6The script is undeciphered and usually written right to left, with alternate lines reversing (boustrophedon).
- 7Weights follow a binary series in the lower ranges (1, 2, 4, 8, 16...), usually cut from chert — evidence of standardised trade.
- 8Dholavira, Lothal and Rangpur were all excavated after Independence; Harappa (1921) and Mohenjo-daro (1922) came first and both lie in Pakistan.
In detail
- Harappa was excavated first (1921, Daya Ram Sahni) and Mohenjo-daro next (1922, R. D. Banerji); both lie in present-day Pakistan, and the civilisation is named after the Indus (Sindhu) river.
- Lothal (Bhal region, Ahmedabad district, near the Sabarmati/Bhogavo) has the famous brick tidal dockyard and was excavated under S. R. Rao — the standard evidence for Harappan maritime trade.
- Dholavira in Khadir island, Kachchh, is planned in three parts — citadel, middle town and lower town — is famed for its stone water reservoirs and the ten-sign 'signboard' inscription, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- The Harappans used burnt bricks in a standard ratio, planned streets on a grid with covered drains, and used a script that is still undeciphered and generally written right to left.
- The Harappans knew no iron: their tools were of copper, bronze and stone — an iron-based option in a question is always wrong for this civilisation.
Where people slip
- Any option giving the Harappans iron tools or weapons is wrong. They were a Bronze Age culture.
- "Largest Harappan site in India" is Rakhigarhi, not Dholavira — the qualifier 'in Gujarat' is what makes Dholavira the answer.
Check yourself
Nothing here is scored — it will not change your mastery figures.
The Harappan site known for a ten-sign inscription often called the world's oldest signboard, and for large stone-built water reservoirs, is:
Which statement about Harappan technology is NOT correct?
From the question bank
The Harappan city of Mohenjo-daro was situated on the banks of which river?
From the question bank
Who among the following first discovered the site of Harappa?
Books to read
- NCERT Class XII — Themes in Indian History Part I
- NCERT Class VI — Our Pasts I
- Standard Gujarat state board history textbook (Gujarat archaeology and Harappan sites)
Official sources
Hand-checked official domains only — the notes above carry no links of their own.