Familial ties are generally regarded as natural and based on blood. However we find that even that is not universal in its nature because in certain part of India we find that cousins which are considered as kin are not considered so and people marry among cousins.

Buildings of Sanchi are the most wonderful ancient buildings in the state of Bhopal. - Buddhist, Jain and Brahamanical text, monument and inscription are the some of the important historical sources of the age of 600 BCE - 600 CE.

• Archaeologists use the term “culture” for a group of objects, distinctive in style, that are usually found together within a specific geographical area and period of time.
• In the case of the Harappan culture, these distinctive objects include seals, beads, weights, stone blades and even baked bricks.
• These objects were found from areas as far apart as Afghanistan, Jammu, Baluchistan (Pakistan) and Gujarat
• Harappa was  the first site where this unique culture was discovered
• The civilisation is dated between c. 2600 and 1900 BCE.

Religious beliefs of the people of Indus Valley Civilisation:

• Seals form an important source of information about the religious life of the Harappans. Apart from the discovery of fire altar from Kalibangan, no cult objects, temples or places of worship have been found.
• From the seals which have been discovered , it has been concluded that religion during the Harappan times bore traces of later Hinduism as images of pashupati , goddess and sacred trees and animals have been discovered.
• In one of the figures, a plant is shown as growing out of a woman’s body. Historians believe it to be Mother Earth, who was also worshipped in Middle East and Europe.
• No place of worship such as temples were found in any of the cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation.

1. CITADEL:

• The citadel owes its height to the fact that buildings were constructed on mud brick platforms.
• It was walled which meant that it was physically separated from the lower town.
• The citadel has imp. buildings such as- the warehouse, the great bath, the assembly hall and workshop.

There are many reasons put forth by the scholars regarding end of the Harappan civilization:

(i) Climatic change,  Deforestation,  Excessive Flood, Drying up of rivers,  Earthquake, Landslide etc. These reasons could explain end of one or two settlements. Hoever it cannot explain the end of whole civilization.

(ii) some scholars believes that it was the invasion of Aryan that lead to the end of Harappan civilization. As there are mentions in Rigveda how Lord Indra also known as Puramdar or the "destroyer of fort"has destroyed forts. R E M Wheeler believes that it is not possible such civilization could just vanish unless it was destoyed and was taken over by a new one. There also was evidence of large number of skeleton to prove the point. However this argument has been refuted and no longer holds true.

(iii) Other scholars believe that it was due to the end of one unifying element, it could be state or a ruler. Because after 1800 BCE we find that there are sudden disappearance of seals, weights and other uniform productions. Which scholars believe could be possible if there was an unifying element because such uniformity in size, weights etc could not coincident.

• Gotra: From c. 1000 BCE, people (especially Brahmanas) were classified into different gotras. Each gotra was named after a Vedic seer, and all those who belonged to the same gotra were regarded as his descendants.
• Two important rules of gotras are: Women were expected to give up their father’s gotra and adopt that of their husband on marriage and members of the same gotra could not marry.

• The Indus Valley Civilization was established around 3300 BC. It flourished between 2600 BC and 1900 BC (Mature Indus Valley Civilization). It started declining around 1900 BC and disappeared around 1400 BC.
• This is also called Harappan Civilization after the first city to be excavated, Harappa (Punjab, Pakistan).
• Pre-Harappan civilization has been found at Mehrgarh, Pakistan which shows the first evidence of cotton cultivation.
• Geographically, this civilization covered Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Western Uttar Pradesh. It extended from Sutkagengor (in Baluchistan) in the West to Alamgirpur (Western UP) in the East; and from Mandu (Jammu) in the North to Daimabad (Ahmednagar, Maharashtra) in the South. Some Indus Valley sites have also been found in as far away as Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.
• In India: Kalibangan (Rajasthan), Lothal, Dholavira, Rangpur, Surkotda (Gujarat), Banawali (Haryana), Ropar (Punjab). In Pakistan: Harappa (on river Ravi), Mohenjodaro (on Indus River in Sindh), Chanhudaro (in Sindh).
• The civilization was first discovered during an excavation campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall in 1921–22 at Harappa following the discovery of seals by J Fleet.
• Harappan ruins were discovered by Marshall, Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni and Madho Sarup Vats.
• Mohenjodaro ruins were excavated for the first time by R.D. Banerjee, E. J. H. MacKay and Marshall.
• The Indus Valley cities show a level of sophistication and advancement not seen in other contemporary civilizations.
• Most cities had similar patterns. There were two parts: a citadel and the lower town.
• Most cities had a Great Bath.

Early Satavahanas: The founder of the Satavahana dynasty was Simuka. He and his successors established their authority from the mouth of the Krishna to the entire Deccan plateau. According to the Puranas, the Satavahana king killed the last Kanva ruler of Magadha and presumably took possession of his kingdom.

Satavahana rulers were identified through metronymics which means that names were derived from that of their mother's. It does indicate that Mother in some level was regarded high in the society.

Scholars have stated many reasons for the decline of the Indus valley civilization:
i. Some scholars suggest that it could be due to natural calamities like floods, earthquakes, droughts or epidemics.

ii. some scholar suggest that it could be due to the end of strong unifying element. or the end of Harappan state which lead to the decline of the civilization.

Following are the important features of the town planning of the Harappan cities:

1. The Harappan cities were generally divided into two main parts - the raised area; known as the ‘Citadel’, and the lower town. The Citadel was more in height because the buildings in it were built on mud brick platforms. This area was separated from the lower town by a wall. The Citadel had within its fold important buildings like the Great Bath, the assembly hall, the granary and the workshops. The lower town, on the other hand had residential dwellings.
2. The main streets of the Harappan cities were built according to the grid pattern. They were built from north to south and from east to west.
3. The houses built on the corners of streets were rounded in order to allow the passage of carts. The main road in the city of Mohenjo-daro was 10.5 meters wide and 800 meters long.
4. The house drains relayed all the waste water to the drains built in streets.
5. The streets were so designed as to cross the main road of the city at right angles, thus dividing the city into square or rectangular blocks.

Indus Valley Civilization which is also referred as Harappan civilization is of the largest cities of its time.This civilization was discovered in 1920 - 22 with the excavation of two of its most important sites i.e , Harappa on the banks of the river Ravi and Mohenjodaro on the banks of the Indus. The Indus Valley civilization is called the Harappan civilization because Harappa was the first site where the unique archaeological evidences of the civilization were discovered.

John Marshall was an archaeologist

He announced the discovery of a new civilization i.e. Indus Valley Civilization/ Harappa culture

John Marshall was the Director Geneeral of ASI from 1902 to 1928. In fact, John Marshall’s stint as Director-General of the ASI marked a major change in Indian archaeology. He was the first professional archaeologist to work in India, and brought his experience of working in Greece and Crete to the field. More importantly, though like Cunningham he too was interested in spectacular finds, he was equally keen to look for patterns of everyday life.

Before discussing John Marshall's work we should discuss the general picture of archaeology in India of that time. Most of the archaeologist prior to Marshall was of view that indian civilization started from 6th century BCE and there was this tendency to use written words to guide the archaeological digs. Thus when Cunnigham came across with Harappan artefacts he was not able to understand it and tried very hard to fit it within the time frame he was familiar with (6th - 4th century BCE).

It was much later when Daya Ram Sahni discovered seals which he found in the layer of soil which was way more older than the 6th century BCE. The information began to come and it was Rakhal Das Bannerji who discoverd the similarities of the seals discovered from the various sites leading to the conjecture that these sites were part of a single archaeological culture. Based on these finds, in 1924, John Marshall, Dir ector General of the ASI, announced the discovery of a new civilisation in the Indus valley to the world. It was then that the world knew not only of a new civilisation, but also of one contemporaneous with Mesopotamia.