The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c5: Terminology

c5.1

First, the question of terminology. Archaeologists are wont to label a culture—i.e. an organic association of specific types of craftsmanship—from the site of its first discovery. In this sense, we are now dealing with the *Harappā* culture, whether at the type-site itself or at Mohenjo-daro or elsewhere. At the same time, as we now know, this culture was itself an expression of a highly evolved urban discipline and economy, in other words of a *civilization*; and elements of this civilization have, during the past thirty years, been recognized widely between the Himalaya and the sea, in the Indus system and the former parallel system of the Ghaggar, but not across the divide in the Jumna-Ganges country. It is legitimate therefore to use the phrase *Indus civilization* as an inclusive term; and in fact both terms, Harappā culture and Indus or (better) Harappā civilization, will be used in the following pages.