An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s7.25

v1.c9.s7.25

It is admitted that the causes of the decline of the Harappa culture were different in different regions of its currency, apart, perhaps, from one common factor—loss of trade with the w. The decline was marked by the dispersal of the people from Sind valley; it is remarkable that there is hardly anything which could be called 'late Harappa' in Baluchistan and Sind, unless the Jhukar culture represents a late form of the Harappa as supposed by some. (The shabby buildings with their non-conformity to the original town-planning of Mohenjo-daro are only a degeneration of the mature Harappa and should be distinguished from the late Harappa.) With the decay of the Sind cities the people moved e. wards by either the SARASVATĪ or the SUTLEJ route, where they met the early Harappans who had already settled in Punjab, Haryana and even in the upper Yamuna valley. The late Harappa culture, marked by lack of trade and of steatite seals and weights and by a modification of pottery types together with the absence of some mature Harappa shapes and decoration, is the post-urban phase of the Harappa culture. In Gujarat the Harappa sites of LOTHAL and RANGPUR were re-occupied by an impoverished people who are believed to have moved elsewhere due to the havoc of floods. But the late Harappa Rangpur II B was ceramically different from the corresponding Lothal B, indicating loss of contact between the late Harappa people even at sites not far removed from each other. The late Harappa Rangpur II B was, to use the excavator's labels, succeeded by Rangpur II C and III, in which a new ware, the Lustrous Red Ware [11.9], makes its appearance. The ware occurs in limited quantities outside Gujarat, at the Chalcolithic sites in c. and w. India [4.14.5, 6]. In his attempt to project Harappa elements into the heart of India the excavator of Rangpur sees in the Lustrous Red Ware an evolved form of the Harappa ceramics. This however is extremely doubtful.