Indus Valley Civilization in the Context of South Asian Societies in the Third Millennium BCE

FAIN: FT-255089-17

Teresa Raczek
Kennesaw State University Research and Service Foundation, Inc. (Kennesaw, GA 30144-5588)

Writing three chapters for book on the relationships between the Harappan civilization and surrounding Indian cultures.

The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilization, or Harappan society, has been embraced in the US as a standard part of a World Civilization historical canon, alongside ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. Rooted in culture history, many traditional treatments of this ancient society emphasize its uniqueness compared to other contemporaneous societies in South Asia. However, recent field research on the “Ahar Culture,” one of the Indus’ nearest neighbors in the Mewar Plain of northwest India, suggests that many of the daily practices of the inhabitants resembled those of the greater Indus region. The proposed monograph, Indus Imagined presents an analysis that integrates these ancient societies, highlighting the broader South Asian context. Indus Imagined challenges commonly accepted notions of the “Indus Valley Civilization” and presents an alternative vision that emphasizes the fluid nature of communities across a wide range of rural and urban areas.