Ancient India Tools Inventions: The first Indian civilization arose in the Indus valley about 2,600 BC. It actually straddled between both modern India as well as Pakistan. By 6,500 BC the people of the area had begun farming. By 5,500 BC they had invented pottery. By about 2,600 BC a prosperous farming society had grown up.
Ancient India Tools and Weapons
The farmers used bronze tools. They grew wheat, barley, and peas. They also raised cattle, goats, and sheep. Water buffalo were used to pull carts. The people spun cotton and they traded with other cultures such as modern day Iraq. Some of the people of the Indus Valley began to live in towns. The two largest were at Mohenjodaro and Harrapa.
Many sociologists and anthropologists have propounded various social theories dealing with social and cultural evolution. For instance, Lewis H. Morgan, Leslie White, and Gerhard Lenski propounded technological progress to be the primary factor driving the development of human civilization.
Morgan’s concept of three major stages of social evolution. These consisted of savagery, barbarism, and civilization could also be divided by technological milestones, like fire, the bow, and pottery in the savage era, domestication of animals, agriculture, and metalworking in the barbarian era and the alphabet and writing in the civilization era.
Ancient India Tools Inventions
White, who was another such scholar, decided that the measure by which to judge the evolution of culture was energy instead of focusing on specific inventions. White, further, differentiated the five stages of human development: In the first, people use the energy of their own muscles. In the second, they use the energy of domesticated animals.
In the third, they used the energy of plants (agricultural revolution). In the fourth, they learn to use the energy of natural resources: coal, oil, gas. In the fifth, they harness nuclear energy. White introduced a formula P=E*T, where E is a measure of energy consumed, and T is the measure of the efficiency of technical factors utilizing the energy.
Lenski, on the other hand, adopted a more modern approach and focused more on information. The more information and knowledge a given society has, the more advanced it is. He identified the four stages of human development, based on advances in the history of communication. In the first stage, information is passed by genes. In the second, when humans gain sentience, they can learn and pass information through my experience.
Indian Inventions in Science and Technology
In the third, the humans start using signs and develop logic. Lastly, in the fourth, they can create symbols, develop language and writing. Advancements in the technology of communication translate into advancements in the economic system and political system, distribution of wealth, social inequality and other spheres of social life. He also differentiated societies based on their level of technology, communication, and economy:
- Hunters and gatherers,
- Simple agricultural,
- Advanced agricultural,
- Industrial,
- Special like the ones used by fishing societies.
The growth of the ancient civilizations produced the greatest advances in technology and engineering, advances. These further stimulated other societies to adopt new ways of living and governance.
