This fortified late nineteenth-century British railway bridge, spanning the Indus River—and its agriculturally wealthy hinterland—has been a source of imperial conflict for ages. (Library of Congress)
The Indus River rises in southwestern Tibet, circles around different mountains, runs a course of 1,800 miles, and finally drains into the Arabian Sea near Karachi (Sindh, Pakistan).
The main course of the Indus River now runs through Pakistan. The lower course is on a wide low-lying alluvial plain. It is an area of wheat production. The Indus is the westernmost river within the Himalayan river system. In its course, it drains glaciers and mountain slopes of important peaks like Tirich Mir (25,260 feet), Rakaposhi (25,550 feet), Masherbrum (25,660 feet), and Nanga Parbat (26,660 feet). Nearly 90 percent of the water in the Upper Indus basin comes from remote glaciers.
Since ancient times, the Indus River has been a cradle of civilization. It was the lifeline of the Harappan civilization, more popularly known as the Indus Valley civilization. Various estimates put the mature phase of this civilization at the end of third millennium B.C.E. Its most important metropolis—Mohenjo Daro—was situated on this river. For the Harappan civilization, the river had various functions. It was a source of agricultural surplus, which sustained the urban civilization. It provided a source of ritual performances, and it was the most important channel of interregional trade. The Harappan cities were connected with rural agricultural communities and mining areas through an effective trade network. The external trade link extended to Central Asia, the Arabian Sea region, and distant Mesopotamian cities, such as Susa and Ur. Persian Gulf sites like Bahrain and Failaka (near Kuwait) functioned as entrepôts. White lustrous seals made of steatite with beautiful carvings and pictographic script were used for the purpose of trade.
The main tributaries of the Indus are the five rivers of the Punjab: Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej. This along with the now underground Saraswati River, together known as Sapta Sindhu, was the center of the Rig Vedic civilization. The Indus was one of the most revered rivers during the Rig Vedic period. The river was referred to many times in Rig Vedic literature and was considered sacred.
It was from this river that the name “India” was derived. When the Persians came in contact with the region around fifth century B.C.E., they had difficulty pronouncing “S.” Instead, they pronounced “Sindhu” as “Hindu.” Thus, anyone who was on the eastern side of Sindhu was a “Hindu.” Later on, the word passed on to the Greeks, for whom the river became “Indus.”
This fortified late nineteenth-century British railway bridge, spanning the Indus River—and its agriculturally wealthy hinterland—has been a source of imperial conflict for ages. (Library of Congress)
Barbaricum, which was situated in the middle mouth of the Indus, was an important seaport and market town of ancient India. Its imports included fine clothes, linen, precious stones, silver, gold plates, and wine, while it exported cotton clothes, silk yarn, and indigo. By the end of fifteenth century, Lahri-Bandar, situated on the mouth of the Indus, became important because of its trade with Persia.
The river has also been important as a defense against invasions from the West. It stopped Alexander the Great and brought an end to his world conquest. The river later posed a challenge to Genghis Khan in 1221 and stopped him from invading India.
Anup Mukherjee
See also: Alexander the Great; Indian Ocean Trade.
Allchin, Bridget, and Raymond Allchin. The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. 1996.
Cunningham, Alexander. The Ancient Geography of India. Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1979.
Michel, Aloys A. The Indus Rivers. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
Possehl, Gregory, ed. Ancient Cities of the Indus. New Delhi: Vikas, 1979.