What are the various theories given to explain the decline of the Indus Valley Civilisation? long answer or plz answer if you know plz plz plz
Answers
Explanation:
Many scholars believe that the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization was caused by climate change. Some experts believe the drying of the Saraswati River, which began around 1900 BCE, was the main cause for climate change, while others conclude that a great flood struck the area.
Answer-
Most of the settlements of Indus civilization were abandoned by the native people. The ruins suggest that the regions were highly populated at one time. The actual reason for the decline of this civilization is still not clear. There are many cases in India where the local people have abandoned their settlements for some mysterious reasons. Such settlements include Kuldhara in Rajasthan, Bhangarh, Dhanushkodi Tamil Nadu, Vijaynagar, Fatehpur Sikri, etc. The cases of abandoning of the settlements were not uncommon in India. The settlements of Indus region were also abandoned by its people for some mysterious reasons.
According to the researchers the civilization started declining since 1900 BCE. The period of 1900 to 1600 BCE was the last phase of Indus Valley Civilization. To explain the causes of decline of the civilization researchers have developed many theories. All the theories till now have ended in controversies in one way or the other. The Aryan Invasion Model of Max Muller proved to be helpful for Mortimer Wheeler to justify the decline of Indus civilization. Wheeler developed the Aryan Invasion Theory to explain the cause of decline of Indus Valley civilization. According to Wheeler the Aryan invasion was the major cause for the decline of the civilization. The Aryans annexed the settlements and suppressed the local population.
Later the Invasion approach was replaced by the Migration approach. Migration of the so called Aryans became the major cause for the decline of the civilization. The modern researchers state that the migrations increased the population density of the settlements thus creating a huge burden on the resources. As the resources went dry it compelled the population to abandon the settlements and find new lands to settle.
The Aryan Invasion Theory being discarded, the new researchers developed new theories to justify the decline. The Migration approach being one of the causes, the other causes are Climate change and geographical changes. The climate change can be attributed to the excessive deforestation carried during that era. If we examine the sites of the civilization carefully we get to know that there was an extensive use of baked bricks. Almost every building in those settlements was constructed using baked bricks. This suggests that there was massive exploitation of fuel in the form of forest wood, thus causing deforestation at an extreme level. Today these sites are located on barren lands with on sign of thick vegetation miles around. Deforestation directly affected the level of rainfall in that area and also resulted in the rise of temperature. This was followed by constant draughts and finally famines.
The geographical changes are attributed to the change of topography of that region. The change in topography and temperature rise must have resulted in the drying up of the rivers in that region. Being a riverine civilization many settlements of this civilization were settled on the banks of the river. Due to the drying up of the river, it forced the people to abandon the settlements and find new lands.
Till now we have seen the incomplete theories but I have observed two major reasons for the decline of Indus Valley Civilization. I am researching on the Ancient Indian History since last three years and have gathered enough information to prove my thesis. So without further ado let's see what are the two major reasons for the decline of Indus Valley Civilization.
According to the geologists there is an extreme natural condition/event which is characterised by many natural calamities like floods, earthquakes, Tsunami, droughts, extreme geotectonic movements, climate change, volcanic eruptions, meteor showers, etc. They termed this event as Kiloyear Event. During a Kiloyear event the Earth goes through an extreme phase where all the places experience natural calamities. Kiloyear Event takes place after every 5 to 10 thousand years. The recent Kiloyear Event took place in the 3rd Millennium BCE (around 2200 BCE). The Kiloyear 4.2 is especially characterized by the process of rapid aridification of land. The complete decline of Indus Valley Civilization took place in the 2nd Millennium BCE. Almost all of the Indus Valley sites are today located on the arid regions.
Hence, the decline of Indus Valley Civilization is also related to Kiloyear Event. IVC was not the only one to experience natural calamities but such type of incidents were also experienced by the other Civilizations prevailing in that time like Akkadian of Mesopotamia, Mayan of Central America and Egyptian.