HistoriCity: How the Indus river shaped geography, history, and culture

Hindustan Times

05-05-2025

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) obligates both India and Pakistan to ensure that rivers under this treaty continue to flow unobstructed. The Indus originates from near Mount Kailash in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in China and shares its headwaters with the Brahmaputra. While the latter flows to the east along the Himalayas and empties into the Bay of Bengal, the Indus flows west, taking a sharp turn around Nanga Parbat, entering India at Demchok, reaching Leh where the Zanskar and Shyok river join. The river then enters the Pakistan occupied Kashmir, descending into the plains of Punjab after Attock, before eventually draining into the Arabian sea through the Sindh province of Pakistan.
Beginnings of a River
The Indus is an antecedent river, which means it has existed for over 50 million years, since the Indian plate first collided with Asia and gave rise to the Himalayas. Geologist Peter Clift, who has extensively researched on the river, wrote: 'the Indus River rises in eastern Tibet near Mount Kailas, and follows the North-West-South-East trend of the Karakoram Fault, before cutting orthogonally through the Himalaya in North-West Pakistan and running south to the Arabian Sea. In contrast, the Ganges and Brahmaputra, follow the High Himalaya', and enter the Bay of Bengal.
The Indus has defined the inhabitants of regions east of the Indus since at least the last 4000 years. In Avestan, the word Hendu denotes a natural frontier, a river, and Hapta Hendu was an eastern province of the Achaemenid empire which was founded by king Cyrus around 550 BCE. The Hapta Hendu region–later known as undivided Punjab –was territory most familiar to western visitors in the ancient world. In the Rigveda, considered the oldest of the four Vedas, the region of seven rivers is described as the Sapta Sindhavah or Sapta Sindhu, a cognate of the Avestan Hapta Hendu. Today, the river is known as Sindhu to Indians or Darya-i-Sindh to Pakistanis.
Indus Valley Civilisation
The basis of labelling the Harappa Civilisation as the Indus Valley Civilisation is simple: the earliest sites discovered were situated along and around the course of the river, which contributed immensely to the beginning of urbanisation in the subcontinent. The importance of the Indus to Pakistan is difficult to overstate: without the sediment-rich silt-laden waters of the Indus river, much of Punjab and particularly the Sindh province, being rain-deprived, would remain infertile.
AA Michel, wrote in his seminal work, The Indus Rivers: A Study of the Effects of Partition: 'As in most subhumid regions of the earth, water in the Indus Basin is more valuable than land. Had it not been for the modern irrigation network developed after the anneration of Sind and the Puniab to British India in the 1840s, much of what is now the economic heart of West Pakistan sould have remained essentially a semidesert'. Between 3300 -1300 BCE, along the Indus and the Ghagar-Hakra rivers a civilization emerged. It is believed to have peaked between 2600-1900 BCE.
Eminent historian Irfan Habib wrote in The Indus Civilisation: 'Harappa, in Sahiwal district of west Punjab, Pakistan, had long been known to archaeologists as an extensive site on the Ravi river, but its true significance as a major city of an early great civilization remained unrecognized until the discovery of Mohenjo Daro near the banks of the Indus, in the Larkana district of Sindh, by R.D. Banerji in 1922. Sir John Marshall, then Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, used the term 'Indus civilization' for the culture discovered at Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, a term doubly apt because of the geographical context implied in the name 'Indus' and the presence of cities implied in the word 'civilization''.
At Harappa, according to historian Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, author of Ancient Cities of The Indus Valley Civilisation, archeologists have traced the development of settlement from agricultural villages to large cities. 'The precise time when the settlement changed from village to city is hard to define, just as it is difficult to determine…But recent excavations at Harappa indicate that the earliest city may have been formed prior between 2800 and 2600 BCE'.
He added that most of the 1500 settlements found in the Indus region can be classified as small villages with a few larger towns and cities. Each settlement sought to support and maintain the larger urban centres, growing along major trade routes. Five large cities identified as the major urban centers of the Indus Valley civilization include Mohenjo Daro, Harappa, Ganweriwala and Rakhigarhi, and Dholavira). 'The first four are inland centers located at approximately equivalent distances in a zigzag pattern that covers the Indus and Saraswati river plain. The fifth. Dholavira, is situated on a small island in the Rann of Kutch, where it would have controlled the movement of goods between the resource areas of Gujarat and the core areas of the Indus plain', Kenoyer asserts.
The Indus river system enable transportation of people and goods. Habib wrote, '...this might explain the importance of Dholavira, a notable town, placed in what is today an isolated island in the Rann. Carts and pack-oxen could cover some land sections of long-distance routes, for example, between Harappa and Kalibangan, but such transport must have been more expensive than that by boats'.
Changing Course of the River and History
History also shows us that the Indus river has undergone major changes over time, evidenced both by geological and archeological findings: over five million years ago, it was not connected to the Punjab rivers (Sutlej, Ravi, Chenab, etc.). These Punjab rivers instead flowed eastward into the Ganges river system. These rivers were soon 'captured' by the Indus drainage system, significantly increasing the river's discharge. During the period of the Harappan Civilization, a major branch of the Indus emptied into the Great Rann of Kutch.
The most recent recorded change in the course of this mighty river occurred in 1819 due to the over 7 .7 magnitude earthquake centred in the Rann of Kutch(a marsh of alluvium brought down by the rivers). The mega tremblor caused tsunamis and destroyed life and property at a large scale. But, it also created a 3-6 metre high and 80 kms long ridge that acted as a natural barrier to the Kori river, a major distributary of the Indus. Consequently, the Kutch dried up and the Indus too shifted its course westwards.
However, it was not the first time that an earthquake altered the Indus or drained out the Kutch. According to well-known geoscientist C P Rajendran, 'About 1000 years ago, the northern parts of the Rann were fed by perennial streams, primarily by the eastern branch of the Indus River known as the Nara (Puran) River. Further upstream, the eastern Nara and the Hakra joined the Indus River. The exact coastline at that time extended from Karachi to the mouth of the Nara and Hakra Rivers. The small town of Patala (close to Brahminabad) was accessible through the river channels, and it was the centre of Alexander's activities. During the 1000 years following the Alexander's campaign, the coastline must have gradually migrated southward, but the shallow inlet remained somewhat navigable. Interestingly, by A.D. 1361 the whole region had turned into a 'howling desert,' according to Arab historians'.
According to Rajendran, the desertification process was triggered by another major earthquake between the 8th century and 14th century. This is borne out by, 'ruins of an ancient settlement excavated in the city of Brahminabad', which was a flourishing city in Sindh and renamed Al Mansurah by Arabs.
Rajendran added: 'From the disposition of human skeletons crushed in the act of crouching in the corners of well-built brick structures and rows of skeletons of cattle in their sheds, Frere(1870) inferred the cause of the destruction to be an earthquake that occurred about 700–800 years ago. Significant changes in the landscape appear to have occurred in the Rann of Kutch about the same time (i.e., around the mid-eleventh century A.D. ). The course of Indus River is reported to have shifted far to the west and the level of the Rann was raised, making navigation difficult'.
HistoriCity is a column by author Valay Singh that narrates the story of a city that is in the news, by going back to its documented history, mythology and archaeological digs. The views expressed are personal.