The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c20.61

c20.61

On circumstantial evidence such as this, considered in the light of the chronology as now inferred, Indra stands accused. Alternatively, if we reject the identification of the fortified citadels of the Harappans with those which he and his Vedic Āryan following destroyed, we have to assume that, in the short interval which can, at the most, have intervened between the end of the Indus civilization and the first Āryan invasions, an unidentified but formidable civilization arose in the same region and presented an extensive fortified front to the invaders. This second assumption is more difficult than the first; it seems better, as the evidence presents itself, to accept the identification and to suppose that the Harappans in their decadence, in the sixteenth or fifteenth century B.C., fell before the advancing Āryans in such fashion as the Vedic hymns proclaim: Āryans who nevertheless, like other rude conquerors of a later age, were not too proud to learn a little from the conquered. A provisional dating of 2500-1500 B.C. for the Indus civilization responds consistently to the current tests.