Jobs during Indus Civilization: The Indus Valley Civilization was a rich and flourishing civilization. Its record of economic history is also available. Hence, it is for this reason that the economic history of India is presumed to have actually begun in the Indus Valley civilization itself.

Indus Valley Trade

The Indus civilization’s economy appeared to have depended significantly on trade. This was facilitated by advances made in the field of transportation. These advances included bullock-driven carts that are identical to those seen throughout South Asia today, as well as boats.

Most of these boats were probably small, flat-bottomed craft, perhaps driven by sail, similar to that one can see on the Indus River today. However, there is secondary evidence of sea-going craft. Archaeologists have, in fact, discovered a massive, dredged canal and docking facility at the coastal city of Lothal.

Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley civilization was regarded as the first known permanent civilization. This civilization was predominantly an urban settlement which flourished from 2800 BC to 1800 BC. This civilization boasted of an advanced and thriving economic system. Its citizens practiced agriculture, domesticated or reared animals and made sharp tools. They made weapons from copper, bronze, and tin and traded them with other cities.

There has been evidence of well-laid streets, layouts, drainage system and water supply in the valley’s major cities, Harappa, Lothal, Mohenjodaro, and Rakhigarhi. This also revealed their knowledge or expertise in urban planning. As a matter of fact, one of the theories about their end was because the ancient Harappans eventually overused their resources, and slowly died out.

Jobs during Indus Civilization

Much of India’s population resided in villages, whose economy was largely isolated and self-sustaining. This was quite astonishing considering that ancient India had a significant urban population.

Agriculture was the predominant occupation of the populace. It satisfied a village’s food requirements besides providing raw materials for hand-based industries like textile, food processing, and crafts. Besides farmers, other classes of people were barbers, carpenters, doctors who were mostly practitioners of Ayurveda, goldsmiths, weavers etc.

Main Occupations During Indus Civilization

The main occupation of the ancient Harappans was Agriculture. Their agriculture was highly productive. It generated a surplus that could support thousands of urban residents who were not necessarily engaged in agriculture.

The farmers made full use of the fertile lands that flourished in alluvial soil. Their irrigation method was highly advanced. However, there is no evidence to support the same. They could have been destroyed due to the devastating floods that kept repeating every time. But this simple method of agriculture is not thought to be productive enough to support cities. But such evidence could have been obliterated by repeated, catastrophic floods.

The nature of the Indus civilization’s agricultural system is hence largely a matter of conjecture. This is due to the limited amount of information surviving through the ages.

The earlier studies mostly prior to 1980 often assumed that food production was imported to the Indus Valley. This importation was done by a single linguistic group known as “Aryans” and/or from a single area. However, recent studies indicate that food production was largely indigenous to the Indus Valley.

Features of Harappan Civilization Indus

The Mehrgarh people already used domesticated wheat and barley. However, the major cultivated cereal crop was naked six-row barley. This crop was derived from two-row barley. Indus civilization agriculture must have been highly productive. After all, it was capable of generating surpluses sufficient to support tens of thousands of urban residents who were not primarily engaged in agriculture.

It relied on the considerable technological achievements of the pre-Harappan culture. This included the Plough. Still, very little is known about the farmers who supported the cities or their agricultural methods.

The Indus civilization appeared to have contradicted the hydraulic despotism hypothesis of the origin of urban civilization and the state. According to this hypothesis, cities could not have arisen without irrigation systems. This was because the irrigation systems were capable of generating massive agricultural surpluses.