Social Life

As the script is not deciphered yet, it is difficult to get the exact picture of social life of Harappan.. but still on the basis of the tools and object which are found in the excavations one can make certain logical deduction According to some scholars Dominance of mother goddess in the arena of religious suggests that family was matriarchal but its difficult to ascertain

 Society must be stratified class society The people of various strata can be put in various groups Scholars Warriors Traders and businessman Working class

Food Habits
Vegetarian and non-vegetarian both Vegetarian diet consisted of Wheat, Barley, Rice, melon, Dates, Milk etc Non-Vegetarian is indicated by half burnt bones found outside the houses This diet included meat of hen, goat, pig, duck etc

Ceramics

Copper
Copper plate with vertical sides.

Dress and Ornament

The both cotton and woolen cloths were used They used two clothes to cover their body. To cover upper and loin to cover the lower limbs The men kept beard and long hair and women used fan shaped head dress.

Clay Sculpture

 Both men and women used ornaments made of gold, silver, copper, bronze and ivory of different types and shapes The poor however used pottery beads.

Necklace
Necklace from Mohenjo-Daro made from gold, agate, jasper, steatite and green stone. The gold beads are hollow and the pendant agate and jasper beads are attached with thick gold wire. Steatite beads with gold caps serve to separate each of the pendant beads.

Gold Disc

The central ornament worn on the forehead of the famous "priest-king" sculpture from Mohenjo-daro appears to represent an eye bead, possibly made of gold with steatite inlay in the center.

Sports and entertainments

It appears that dice playing was quite common with people of that age. Hunting with the use of arrows and bows was also quite common. Making toys and clay models were also one of the pastime of the people. The people also loved dance and music.

Dancing Girl Image

Artifacts
These egg shaped whistles may have been used for music, a tradition that is still present in rural areas of Pakistan and India.

Toys

Polity
Due to lake of literary evidences it is difficult to say anything with certainly about polity and political life in harappan days. From town planning, water supply, and drainage system it appears that civil affairs were run by very competent people. Such developed civilization with the flourishing urban centre and trade relations with outside world would not have survived without some sort of centralized political authority. Though scholars are different in opinion on the nature and organization of harappa Polity.

Religion
Seals and Terracotta figures are the main source of information about the religion of IVC people. A pretty good number of female figures is found. These indicates that the worship of the mother goddess was a common feature of their religion. IVC people worshipped male deity as well They are depicted on the seal

 On one of the seal he is depicted surrounded by four wild animals . i.e. Elephant, tiger, buffalo and rhinoceros.

 There is enough evidence to suggest that trees and animal were also worshipped. Among the trees People has been depicted on many seals. Humped bull was the most venerated of animals. Snake worship was also prevalent.

Script
Inscription on the Indus field establish the fact that the harappan people knew the art of writing . More than 400 -600 symbols of letters used in the Haraapan Script are known today. In spite of the all claims made by the different scholars the script is not fully deciphered yet.

Ancient Indus

Seals

Silver Seal

Clay Seals

Burial

The body was placed inside a wooden coffin (which later decayed) and entombed in a rectangular pit surrounded with burial offerings in pottery vessels. The man was buried wearing a necklace of 340 graduated steatite beads and three separate pendant beads made of natural stone and three gold beads. A single copper bead was found at his waist.

Burial

Burial of woman and infant, Harappa. This burial was disturbed in antiquity, possibly by ancient Harappan grave robbers. Besides the fact that the body is flipped and the pottery disturbed, the left arm of the woman is broken and shell bangles that would normally be found on the left arm are missing. The infant was buried in a small pit beneath the legs of the mother.

Decline and Collapse of the Civilization

Number of theories developed to explain the find out the reasons for the decline of IVC The change in the river course of Indus and Ravi is given as an important factor responsible for decline and collapse of the Civilization. Evidences from Mohenjo- Daro and Chanho Daro proved that flood also played havoc with these urban centers. There is enough evidence to indicate that river bed of Ghaggare-Hakra went dry by the middle of the second millenium BC. This also ruined the economy of the rural and the urban centre.

 While some of the Scholars believes that civilization came to an end due to the Foreign invasion specially of the Aryans.