ECONOMY

ECONOMYThe Indus Valley Civilisation clearly had a well-developed economy.

AGRICULTURE The Indus people sowed seeds in the flood plains in November, when the flood water receded, and reaped their harvests of wheat and barley in April, before the advent of the next flood. No hoe or ploughshare has been discovered, but the furrows discovered in the pre­Harappan phase at Kalibangan show that the fields were ploughed in Rajasthan. The chief crops were wheat, barley, rai, peas, sesamum, mustard, etc. Probably the people of Lothal used rice. The Indus people were the earliest people to produce cotton. To the diet were added melons, bananas, fish, fowl, mutton, beef and pork. Besides the cattle, both humped and humpless, cats, dogs and probably elephants were domesticated. The evidence regarding horse and camel is inconclusive.

TRADE AND COMMERCE Flourishing trade is attested to not only by the granaries but also by the presence of numerous seals, uniform script and regulated weights and measures in a wide area. The Harappans carried on con­siderable trade in stone, metal, shell, etc. within the Harappan cultural zone. They might have carried on all exchanges through barter.

The Harappans had commercial links with Rajasthan, Afghanistan and Iran. They had set up a trading colony in Northern Afghanistan which evidently facilitated trade with Central Asia. The Mesopotamian records from about 2350 BC onwards refer to trade relations with Meluha, the ancient name of the Indus region. The Mesopotamian texts speak of two intermediate trading stations called Dilmun (Bahrain?) and Makan between Mesopotamia and Meluha. Imports could have been matched by exports as revealed by bales of cloth from Umma in Mesopotamia bearing the imprint of an Indus seal. The finding of seals of Indus style at Ur,Lagash, Susa, Tel A5mar and other places suggests thatperhaps some Indian traders were living in Mesopotamia. That this trade was at least partly sea-borne is proved by the discovery of an ancient dockyard at Lothal, connected through the Bhogavar river with the Gulf of Cambay. One can visualise Indian ships, depicted on a seal and a potsherd from Mohenjo-daro, cruising up and down the Arabian Sea.