Connection of Harappan Culture and Vedas

People often wonder that was there any relation between Vedic age and the Harappan Culture and often get confused in the relativity of both the cultures. Also, we generally misunderstood that the Vedas had direct connection with the Indus Valley Culture but it is not so. The Vedas were written much after the decline of the Harappan Culture and The Harappan Culture was not Vedic as well as so called Hindu Civilization. It was much later that the Vedas, Puranas, Upnishads, and other literatures were written and all this started after 1500 BC which was far after the decline of Harappan Civilization which is considered to be ended in 1900 BC. There are many facts which suggests that there is no relation between the Harappan Culture and the Vedic Age which will be discussed in details in this article. So let's have look on all the facts that suggests that there is no relation between Vedic age and Harappan Culture:
Also do check our article on the economy of Indus Valley Civilization at Harappan Economy.

Details Through Dates -

We all know that the Harappan Culture Ended in the 1900 BC and all the cities were left over by the people and there is no sign of existence of the Harappan Culture after the 1900 BC. On the other hand, the Vedic age is considered to be started in the 1500 BC which shows that there was a gap of almost 400 years between both the Cultures. This analysis of time period of both Harappan Culture and the Vedic Age provide an evidence that there is no relation of both the cultures. After the 1900 BC, there was a huge gap of 400 years after which the Vedic age started flourishing and thus the time of both the culture does not overlaps each other that there was no link to prove that both the culture had any relations.

Relation in Data -

Both the Culture provided us a raw data through the items we discovered at all the excavation sites. And the data provide a very interesting fact that the people from both the culture did not had common livings as well as the knowledge. As the Harappan people knew about rhino, elephants, tigers, etc.; whole Vedic Culture on the other hand knew only about horses and chariots. Also, the Early Vedic people only used to eat barley whereas the Indus people also knew about wheat, peas and even rice during the later phase of the civilization. These differences in the knowledge of things suggests that both Harappan and the Vedic culture were not related to each other. If both the ages had so many disparities with each other how come both be connected or considered to be the part of the other age as no direct relation is recognised yet.

Script and Language -

As we know that the script used by the Harappan people to write was pictographic and is not deciphered yet thus the major information of the Harappan culture are not known to us. While we have all the major information of the Vedic Age which provides us the fact that if both the civilizations had some kind of relation then why languages of both the cultures are so different and no information of the other culture had been provided in the literary sources of one culture. Also, there is no information of the town planning of the harappan culture in the Vedas while all the Vedic lifestyle had been described in them clearly. This fact is enough to prove that both Harappan and Vedic culture had no connections with each other.

Area Covered -

The Area covered by the Harappan Culture was roughly about 1,299,600 sq. Km which spread across the north-western part of the Indian Peninsula which includes present day Gujrat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh of India and Sindh, Punjab, and Baluchistan of present day Pakistan. While the Vedic Culture spread across the whole India which also included central India, southern India, Hindukush, and many parts of Afghanistan. This clearly shows that the Vedic culture spread across the larger area as compared to the Harappan Culture which gives us the idea that there was no link in both the cultures as both spread across the entire different lands. Also there is no other Vedic era city or town discovered in the Harappan region and also there is no sign of continuation of the Harappan Culture during the Vedic age.

These above discussed facts clearly suggests that there was no relation between the Harappan Culture and the Vedic Age. Also this is more than enough to prove that both the cultures were not related to each other with any kind of link be it people, place, language, or any other form of knowledge and both the cultures were independent to each other.

These articles are based on the preparations of UPSC CSE Mains and various other competitive exams including various board examinations.