The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c14.s1.1

c14.s1.1

Indus Basin and the Indo-Iranian Border lands: It is most remarkable that the whole Indus basin should show a great homogeneity in its early cultures, whilst diverging in the later. In one way, as Spate has pointed out, one of the most important structure lines of Indian historical geography runs from the divide between the Indus and Ganges systems ( Bist doab, Sirhind, Ghaggar Delhi ) along the Aravallis to the Gulf of Cambay. This would help us understand the significance of the distribution of the Indus Valley culture. At the dawn of civilization in Western Asia, we have indisputable evidence of better climatic conditions than today. Inspite of the pioneer efforts of Sir Aurel Stein, Sir John Marshall, N. G. Majumdar, E. J. Mackay, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Stuart Piggot, M. S. Vats, A. Ghosh and number of other explorers, the main sequence of cultures leading to the Harappan still lacks definition. Certainties are few and the guesses are too many. It is most unfortunate that so few of the large number of sites have been systematically excavated. Most of the correlations are based on fabrics and decorative patterns of pottery from the surface and other associated objects, but very rarely from excavation. It should be clearly understood, that these provide only a series of terminal and central dates, and detailed chronology and correlation will have to await further excavations. A heroic attempt has been made by D. H. Gordon to introduce some order into this chaos. But the sequence can only be confirmed by intensive work in Pakistan.¹