A version of this essay was published in the Encyclopedia of World Trade published by ME Sharpe Publishers, Armonk, New York.
Indus River (Sindhu) © Anup Mukherjee
The Indus River rises in southwestern Tibet, and circling around different mountains, and running a course of 2735 kilometers, finally drains into Arabian Sea near Karachi (Sind, Pakistan). The main course of the river now runs through Pakistan. The lower course is on wide low-lying alluvial plain. It is an area of wheat production. It is the westernmost among the Himalayan river system. In its course, it drains glaciers and mountain slopes of important peaks like Masherbrum (7821 m), Nanga Parbat (7114 m), Rakaposhi (7788 m), and Tirich Mir (7690 m). Nearly ninety percent of the water in the Upper Indus Basin comes from remote glaciers.
The Indus River since the ancient times has been a cradle of civilization. It was the lifeline of the Harappan Civilisation, more popularly known as the Indus Valley Civilization. Various estimates put the mature phase of this civilization at the end of third millennium BC. Its most important metropolis- Mohenjodaro was situated on this river. For the Harappan Civilization, the river had various functions. It acted as a source of generation of agricultural surplus, based on which the urban civilization could be sustained. It provided source of ritual performances, and it was the most important channel of inter regional trade. The Harappan cities were connected with rural agricultural communities and mining areas through an effective trade network. The external trade link extended to Central Asia, Arabian Gulf region and distant Mesopotamian cities, such as Susa and Ur. Persian Gulf sites like Bahrain and Failaka (near Kuwait) functioned as entrepots. White lustrous seals made of steatite with beautiful carvings and pictographic script was used for the purpose of trade.
The main tributaries of the Indus are the five rivers of Punjab- Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. This along with the now underground Saraswati River, together known as Sapta-Sindhu, was the center of the Rig Vedic civilization. Indus was one of the most revered rivers during the Rig Vedic period. In Sanskrit, the river is called Sindhu. The river has been invoked many times in the Rig Veda and was considered sacred.
Incidentally, it was from this river that India gets its name. When the Persians came in contact with the region about fifth century BC, they had difficulty pronouncing the initial S. Instead they pronounced the “Sindhu” as “Hindu". Thus anyone who was on the eastern side of Sindhu was a “Hindu". Later on the word passed on to the Greeks, for whom the river became “Indus". The name “India” is basically a derivative of “Indus".
An important seaport and market town of ancient India, on Indus was Barbaricum. It was situated on the middle mouth of Indus. Its imports included fine clothes, linen, precious stones, silver, gold plates & wine, while it exported cotton clothes, silk yarn, indigo etc. By the end of fifteenth century, it was the Lahri-Bandar situated on the mouth of Indus that gained importance and was important for trade with Persia.
The river has also been important as a defense mechanism against invasions from the West. It stopped Alexander and brought to end his world conquest. The river later posed challenge to Chingez Khan in 1221, and stopped him from invading India.
Bibliography:
1. Bridget & Raymond Allchin The Rise Of Civilization In India And Pakistan (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. 1996)
2. Alexander Cunningham, 1871, The Ancient Geography Of India (Varanasi: Indological Book House. 1979)
3. Gregory Possehl ed. Ancient Cities of the Indus (New Delhi: Vikas. 1979)
4. Aloys A. Michel, The Indus Rivers (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987)