Why this Indian archaeologist renamed the Indus Valley Civilisation

The Print

18 hours ago

The partition of India and Pakistan not only altered the South Asian geopolitics but also caused a profound impact on their shared history. It paved the way for colonial thought to seep through the cracks and widen the divide between the two countries. Seizing the opportunity, renowned archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who was the last Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of (undivided) India, wrote a book called Five Thousand Years of Pakistan: an Archaeological Outline . The book was published in January 1950. At a time when the horrors of the Partition were still fresh and Pakistan (and India) was only two years and five months old—how, then, could its history be claimed to span 5000 years?
One of the key aspects covered in the book is the first major expedition carried out by Ghosh and his team. This expedition, from 1950 to 1952, challenged Western-centric thoughts about Bronze Age cultures in the Indian subcontinent. Over a hundred sites were mapped under the guidance of Ghosh, which convincingly led him to rename the beloved Indus Valley Civilisation to a more centric and neutral name—the Harappan Civilisation. With a new name, Indian archaeology saw a new dawn.
Earlier this month, a book on the life and legacy of Amalananda Ghosh was published by Routledge. Authored by eminent scholar Himanshu Prabha Ray and senior bureaucrat and research scholar at the University of Oxford, Ajay Yadav, it highlights the significant changes in Indian archaeology after Independence. Ghosh was the torchbearer of this change.
The history of the land and of the people can not be divided. Yet, around the late 1940s, presumptions made their way into the historical discourse. The talks of the Dark Age in Indian history were already making rounds, and the matter was accelerated when the Aryan Invasion became the main topic of debate. It's fascinating that Wheeler was central to all of these discussions. He actively pushed a narrative through his writings and through his teachings. Famous Indian archaeologist BB Lal, who was Wheeler's student, was also a proponent of the Aryan theory and placed Painted Grey Ware as its material reality. Later, he took back this claim as it lacked hard-hitting archaeological evidence.
The narrative set by Wheeler and others was a trick to further the divide. This was an attempt to stake a claim to the first civilisation and reserve its right to our neighbour. With the change of postal address of Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, Chanhudaro and many such sites, Wheeler and others declared that Pakistan history was 5,000 years old, the home of the first civilisation.
Indian archaeologists were silently working to disprove this premature assumption, ironically by using archaeological methods taught by Wheeler himself. A team of archaeologists, including Amalananda Ghosh, Debila Mitra, and Saran Singh, reached Bikaner on 26 October 1950 to start the survey, which corrected colonial wrongdoings.
This survey of the Archaeological Survey of India proved with facts, evidence and precision that it's not solely Pakistan or India but both were the home to the five-thousand-year-old civilisation.
Also read: From Kashmir to China—Aurel Stein's expeditions helped unlock secrets of ancient civilisations
The Rajputana Survey
A decade before Ghosh explored the region from present-day Hanumangarh district in the east, extending to the India-Pakistan border in the west, Aurel Stein surveyed this area and beyond (toward Bahawalpur). This was Stein's last survey, and he recorded 97 sites. However, he was unable to relatively date these sites efficiently and was of the opinion that the Ghaggar-Hakra basin lacked ancient settlements that predate the Kushana period. But within a week of Ghosh's survey, the team found many Harappan sites in the area.
The survey began from Suratgarh, a town in Ganganagar district in Rajasthan. From Suratgarh, Ghosh and his team marched towards the lower Ghaggar region extending till the India-Pakistan border. During the first leg of the survey, Ghosh sites that were earlier recorded by Aurel Stein were Red (present-day Rer), Kalibangan, Baror, Tarkhanwala Dera, Sardargarh, Binjor, etc. He reported three mounds at Binjor, one of which—Binjor (4MSR)—was excavated in 2014.
Over a hundred sites were mapped during two field seasons, out of which 25 were Harappan sites, 20 were grey ware sites (PGW) and over 50 Early Historic sites. The 25 Harappan sites, which were mapped on what is now known as the eastern domain of the civilisation, shattered the illusion that these sites were limited only to the Indus valley, the region which is now in Pakistan. Only two sites—Rupar in Punjab and Rangpur in Gujarat—were known in the newly formed India until then. Ghosh's exploration added 25 more sites in one region alone. This survey also broke the Indus-centric view since the surveyed sites were on the dried bed of the Ghaggar-Hakra River, part of the Saraswati River system. This indicated that the 'Indus Valley Civilisation' was not limited to the Indus region.
As per Ghosh, 'the culture extended far beyond the Indus basin, a fact which gives a geographical lie to the term (Indus valley civilisation)'. During the presidential address of the All-India History Congress held at Jaipur in 1951, he expressed concern about still using this term. He warned that if the term is continued to be used, it will perpetuate an error made 25 years earlier. As an alternative, he proposed the term 'Harappan Civilisation' based on archaeological convention where cultures are named after the type site—Harappa. This is the term archaeologists prefer to use to date.
Apart from the explorations, Ghosh also conducted trial digs at sites including Tarkhanwala Dera, Rer, Chak 40 GB and Chak 86 GB. These excavations, together with explorations, helped him understand the area, not just from one cultural perspective but also from a regional perspective. His excavations at Tarkhanwala Dera, which is a Harappan site, and Chak 86GB, which is a PGW, were important. These sites, situated across the road from each other, concluded that Harappans in this region predate PGW users, who occupied this area after a considerable gap. He said that they never came in contact with each other, at least in this particular area. Most importantly, the grey ware people (PGW users) broke new ground. To put it simply, the Harappans abandoned this region, which remained deserted till PGW users reoccupied it.
When the sites were re-excavated in 2009, the absolute dates and other archaeological evidence reconfirmed Ghosh's assessment. In fact, in 2016, I, along with Sanjay Manjul (who at the time was excavating Binjor—a Harapan craftsperson's settlement), excavated and dated another PGW site, Chak 72 GB. The dates and evidence again reconfirmed Ghosh's assessments.
Also read: Early Harappan burial discovery is changing how we understand Gujarat's past
Ghosh's legacy
This is one of many such projects undertaken by Ghosh in Independent India. His role as the Director General of ASI and his archaeological endeavours have had a lasting impact on many generations of archaeologists. My own research work is largely based on Ghosh's exploration along the dried bed of the Ghaggar River. It's fascinating to note that even after seven decades, his assessments have stood the test of time.
Besides, field investigations, Ghosh started the ASI's in-house annual publication—Indian Archaeology–A Review (IAR). The IAR would have briefs of all the sites explored, excavated and conserved in one year. It was the review of all the work undertaken by archaeologists and conservators. Sadly, the last issue was published in 1999-2000, a full quarter-century ago.
These examples only begin to illustrate the scope of Ghosh's contributions. His work is not merely part of India's archaeological history—it is a benchmark against which the progress of the discipline must be measured. It's a reminder of how far we have come and how much further we must still go.
Disha Ahluwalia is an archaeologist and research fellow at the Indian Council Of Historical Research. Views are personal. She tweets @ahluwaliadisha.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)