0:07 Hello and welcome to an academy. I welcome you all to this session. Am I audible and visible? Can you confirm that to me? Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Can you confirm that I am audible and visible? Good afternoon. Good evening. Yes, my voice is fine. There is no lag, no issues whatsoever. Yes sir. Great, great, great, great. It's good to see you all. So today we have a very interesting but long session planned for you and I'm going to revise and cover everything related to history be it ancient, medieval, modern or art and culture
0:54 relevant for PLM's examination in the next 8 hours. So do plan your day accordingly because we will go on on for at least 8 hours. At least 8 hours. We will see the time at which I plan to close this session is 12 in the night. However, it is totally based on the pace at which we are going to move forward. So we have four sections ancient, medieval, modern, art and culture and these four sections more or less will take 1 and 1/2 hours to 2 hours more in modern India and art and culture less in ancient and medieval. So I'll keep on
1:42 telling you when I'm going to give you a break and most probably our first break should be around 5:30 to 6:00. Please do not fall into the trap of the exam being postponed. All of those things really don't matter right now until unless we don't have any confirmation from UPSC. So right now it is a time to keep your head down because if the exam does not get postponed then there will be a problem. So please do not fall for any form of what we call as news which may mislead you which may mislead you. Right? So we have four sections ancient, medieval, modern in a way five because if I take early medieval into account it becomes five subsections. We will keep on tracking our progress and we'll plan
2:28 the session accordingly. But as I said most probably one break at 6:00 the other break around 8 8:30 9 the three breaks at least would be needed the way we are going forward. We'll figure that out together. Right. So is everybody ready? Can we start our discussion? Yes. I want everybody's this has to be a two-way conversation. Cannot be cannot be in any way or form a one-way communication. Good. Great. So anybody has any doubt related to history, any communication related to history and the upcoming book also you will find everything in this telegram channel. So do subscribe to this telegram channel for all updates and
3:14 let's now start our discussion. So the first thing which I want to discuss with you is what is the concept of time in ancient India because I'll be using a lot of words such as BCE, CE, sometimes BC and AD. So I'll tell you one thing very clearly PDF also you will get I'll give you a very simple straightforward understanding here that this session has two purposes one is I want you to be conceptually clear for the examination which you may not be able to do yourself and second thing is that I also want to revise. So there are
4:00 certain areas which I have kept outside the purview of this discussion because at this given point of time on 9th of May if I expect you to learn all of that right now your whole examination understanding will go out of the window. So what I will do is in ancient high yielding areas I will refer to all the sections but high yielding areas in medieval again high yielding areas modern same art and culture same. So please do understand one thing that the purpose here is very simple revision with conceptual clarity. So just have to just have to revise with me but also understand. So as I was saying when we talk about time one thing should be very clear
4:45 because in history questions a lot of times by reading the question itself you can automatically understand which period it is referring to. So one thing is when it says BC and C BC and C are two divisions which are based on the Gregorian calendar. See it was based on the understanding that when Christ was born it was considered zero and it it's basically like a number line and anything before the birth of Christ was considered before Christ BC and anything after his birth is called anodomino which is in the year of the lord and that was called ad. But the problem was in a country like India or in the
5:31 subcontinent or for Chinese history the birth of Jesus Christ becomes a wrong standpoint. That is why they changed this understanding to a secular and more neutral understanding which is called before common era and common era concept is exactly the same. So in the examination there can be a chance that the examiner is still using BC and AD. Don't get confused. BC is the same as BCE and AD is the same as C. We are today in 2025 CE which is before the concept of what we call as the secularization of
6:16 the timeline came through. B, C and C are secular connotations to the same concept itself. So BC equals to BCE A D equals to C. Simple straightforward concept. Now to give you an understanding of what we are going to do and how herculan that task is. I will start around 2 million BCE with you and I will bring the story till 1947 CE starting in ancient then early medieval then medieval and then modern India till India is given independence and this way we are covering a very long stretch of time where we are going from 2 million BC to
7:04 zero from zero to close to 2,000 years forward. So this is something which students actually get in a way confused sir. It says BC and A D. What should I do? Simple BC equals to BC and C equals to A. I hope here we all are sorted. Now when we talk about ancient Indian history, UPSC in this syllabus has not specified anything. If you look at the prelims syllabus, it says history of India and it says history of India and Indian national movement or Indian freedom struggle. Now the problem is we
7:50 need a starting point and that starting point we take when our ancestors develop develop the ability to make tools and thereafter also become anatomically what are called as homo sapiens. meaning the hommonid category which is ancestors or what we call as apes that whole category of what we call as evolution where we divert from apes. It is at that point I want to have a discussion with you. So our starting point becomes a point where homo habilus comes into existence through the
8:38 concept of evolution and the survival of the fittest. This is the idea which you have to understand. Now why is it called homohabilist? Because for the first time they developed what is called as a thumb and this thumb allows for the concept of toolm. Now you will say sir why do we talk about toolm? If you actually look at the division of ancient India, it is paleolithic, messolithic, neolithic, which is the concept of old stone age, middle stone age, new stone age. And the answer to that question is because tools are a window into the understanding of the human mind and the concept of cognitive ability. Meaning because
9:26 paleolithic period or prehistory 99% of the history does not have any written sources. The problem stands is how do we understand the change and that is where tool making is our way of understanding change and tool making yes has a very important correlation with cranial capacity. And cranial capacity has a correlation with cognitive ability. Cognitive ability is the ability to understand things. And tool making and cognitive ability in a way go together. Meaning how sophisticated the tool is shows how better the cognitive ability is. So rather than blindly going into
10:13 the concept of paleolithic, measolithic and neolithic, I'm trying to argue one thing very clearly which is that there's a logic to why we call it palithic, measolithic and neolithic. And therein rulem, cognitive ability and cranial capacity have a relationship. Cranial capacity, the panal capacity of a modern human will be between 1,400 to,450 cc cubic cm. and anything under it and above it. The problem is because cranial capacity has to be in a certain ratio with body mass. You can either regress or purely regress in that regard because if just having a big brain was very important then the elephants would be the most cognitively you can say active
11:00 beings in the world. They are not because the brain size is not proportionate to their mass itself. In in when it comes to homo sapiens, we are in that sweet spot where our brain is in the right ratio with our body mass which allows for this cognitive ability where we develop the ability to change environment itself. This was the first thing which you should understand. The second thing which you need to know is the geological history of the earth. Now obviously we don't have to go to the age of dinosaurs. We don't have to go to 13.6 billion years ago where where the big bang happened. We rather have to start from a point where we are in the
11:47 plestoine epoch. Now why am I talking about plestoine? Because environment has a very important impact on how we develop further on evolution itself and further it also has a very important understanding when we talk about how humans develop but also animals develop and further animal human development is in a way a function of environment. This is the irony of this story that initially we used to be affected by environment. Then we developed the ability to change environment itself and this is where humans started to then distort the whole what we call as the earth's geological history but
12:33 geological time space and its environment weather and climate also. Now what is the most important feature of the Plestosin epoch is it is called the ice ages meaning extremely cold with short periods of warming but the mean temperature of the earth at this point of time would be under under subzero which is you will say it would be minus5ish -20 very cold humans used to survive in caves I will discuss how but The idea is that it is an ice age period. Therefore, one of the most important markers or a legacy or a very interesting feature of our body today
13:19 which tells us that there was ice age is human hair. Human hair were or rather human hair is an example of how we used to be more furry, used to have much more thicker hair so as to keep us insulated. And animals also had very big what we call as per line with very heavy fat mass because fat gives you heat. Therefore, therefore humans and animals are bulkier and bigger. Now what have we now asserted? Ice age means cold periods. We have also assertained that the
14:05 animals are big. So humans are also furry. And this is the starting point from where we can now start our discussion with regards to how we divide prehistory into three or rather four major periods. One is called alolithic. Second is called meolithic. Then it is called neolithic. Then it is called chalolithic. Now paleolithic is the period in
14:51 which we transition as humans from homo erectus erectus means having a sshaped spine to homo sapiens and you should know one thing that we are today called homo sapiens sapion so this transition happens here this is called old stone edge. This is called middle stone edge. This is called new stone age. And chalco itself would tell you it is copper the first metal to be smelted plus stone. You don't have to make running notes. Please concentrate everything I'm writing down for you. So we have copper plus stone. Now see
15:39 because UPSC has started to develop a certain liking for prehistory. You should know the distinct features of paralyithic, mesolithic, neolithic and charalithic. Now any student who will try to learn these sides of paleithic, mealithic neolithic right now will overwhelm himself or herself. So I will give you the main sites. I will tell you two to three sides. But don't try to learn the list of palithic, mealithic and neolithic sites as it is it is a very big list. So you should not overwhelm yourself as it is the input output is not worth it. If I get a conceptual question out of this area, it
16:26 makes sense. But if I get a purely factual question, I will not waste my time over that. So right now right now the most important concept is to know the characteristics of this period and two to three important signs. I think we all can agree to this. If this was happening one one and a half months before then I would have told you learn but now is not the time to overwhelm yourself with new information. Perfect. Now let's talk about parallel. This is our first understanding and I hope I'm audible and visible because a lot of you some of you are saying that I'm not but I hope that I am right everything is fine okay some of
17:12 you are saying that take care now paleolithic happens in letosine epoch the period it is 2 million BC to 10,000 BC. Now, one of the most interesting features is that if a bigger number is written first and a smaller number is written later, it is BC. If for example, it says 10,000 to 2 million, then it is C. But if it is bigger number first, smaller number later, it is BC. Very good. Now, paleolithic has the following features because of its environment. Because environment is
17:59 such first hunting and gathering societies that to the society is small bands of people because food is limited. Food is limited. Whatever they can hunt and they can gather that is the only food available thereafter. Second you have crude bulky tools which evolve over a period of time because because you have in paleolithic something called
18:45 upper, middle and lower. Lower is when it is purely rudimentary bulky tool. When we go to middle it becomes better because they start to use the flakes. So from what is called as chopper chopping we go to handax and from handax by the time we come to upper it has become even better. We have double edge and better you can say points in that regard. So they are evolving with cognitive ability becoming better. We are not using. So if this is the stone and if I hit it with another stone I get two pieces. So I can use the
19:33 flake or I I can use the core. So initial period they were using the core later they will start to play with the flake which will give it a better understanding. Now third point is one of the most important technologies which was in a way domesticated at this point of time is fire. Fire became a very important accidental technology which was harnessed meaning initially it was a lightning strike over some form of wood which in turn would lead to fire. But they started to understand how to use two rocks to produce fire itself and therefore fire became a very important lifeline for two reasons. One, it gives
20:20 warmth in the extreme cold. Second, it also allows meat to be cooked. So therefore, cooked food and any form of warmth, safety, light, whatever you want to call it will come from fire. Thereafter something which is quite obvious which is no political institution no trade no currency all negations I'm telling you no political institution no trade no currency and it is what is called as a simple society simple society means that people are people are more or less equal to one
21:06 another which is there is no surplus production. Therefore they are moving around with the gathering and the animals. A simple society based on a egalitarian notion of how all of us are equal. We will eat, sleep and live together. It is also believed that there are no rituals per se because it is extreme cold. The problem of decomposition of a body is not there. Therefore, burial practices were rare. In certain places, we do find burial practices. But burial practices were extremely rare when it comes to paleolithic period because the heat is not there for decomposition body. The the cold preserves the body in its form.
21:52 And that is why most of the early humans we found are dated to paleithic period. Because of the extreme cold they are locked into glaciers or locked into cold zones in that regard very well preserved bodies from which we can do DNA. Now paleolithic period there are two catches which you need to know when it comes to sites and that catch is that in the western garts and in the dwab region which is Ganga Yamuna Dwab you will not find any sites. You'll find it all across India. Palithic sites are actually more than 200 plus. Most of the sites concentrated in that Vinda Satpura sector along with Bhimbka being a very
22:38 important Langanage Bhimka very important sites. But the reason why reason why we don't have it in western guts is because the western guards subsided into the Arabian Sea. The sites may have been there. They have gone underwater. We know that because of the geological process of how the Indian Indian plate went into the Urasian plate itself. And we also know that whatever site may have been there in the aluvial plains, aluvial plains were in the process of formation. The silt was being brought down by the perennial rivers of the Himalayas and therefore if there was a site it would have gone under or it's so deep that we can't check it. So these two areas were nent and therefore they
23:24 were in the process of formation and therefore we don't find any sites eastern guts and the peninsula sector very stable mass therefore you find paleithic sites there along with the whole central sector we find it some sites also in the himalan sector but late you can say upper palithic not lower palithic again don't have to worry about the sites right Now what you have to worry about is characteristics, features and understanding. Tides is something which is pure chance if UPC asks you right. Palic clear to everyone? Yes. Yes. Okay. Now, now between paleolithic and
24:11 messolithic a major change happened which is called that from plestoine the earth started to warm and that is what we refer to global warming not in the negative sense today but in the positive sense and that global warming will lead to the epoch we are in today which is called holosene. Holosene is considered to be 10,000 years ago. Basically, the word which most of these books use and that is why you will see that the time period I'm giving you will vary from book to book because 10,000 years ago means BP. There's a something called BP before present. Before present is from 1950 because 1950 is the year of development of carbon dating. Therefore, BP changes the whole
24:58 concept. But for simplified understanding as it is, UPSC will not ask you the dates itself. 10,000 BC we believe that holosene period or epoch started. Now what are the characteristic features of holosene? Holosene is known for warming. Mean temperature comes to about 15°C which is today's mean temperature which is increasing by 1.52°C. Further, further if there will be warming the earth became greener with earth becoming greener more food is available because gathering activities will start to increase.
25:44 Further if the earth is warming up neither do the animals need that fat and fur, neither do humans need that fat and fur. And therefore animals will become smaller but faster and humans will become more hairless or they will you lose out their hair. Now animals becoming faster and smaller in turn leads to an evolutionary change and that is why meolithic period is called the age of microliths. See, previously the animal was very big. So therefore, you could take a handax and go and hit the animal and the animal
26:32 could not run beyond 8 or 9 km/h, which is something which a human could easily match. However, because now the animals have become smaller but much faster, 18 20 km/h, they run extremely fast. There is nobody who can run behind with an axe and then kill a deer. That is not possible. For that now they have to change their tools. This is how environment impacts humans impacts tool technology. Now they have to develop smaller projectile based what we call as tools. So you get points, you get arrows, get a spear. So now they have small triangles as they're called triangles. They will then tie it
27:18 up with a stick and then you get the boner. So therefore the meolithic period is the age of microliths because animals need to be hunted and therefore animals need be hunted by faster tool faster weapons. You need a faster weapon. Now correspondingly previously animals were big. Therefore, sometimes they never needed or mostly they did not need human help or human shelter. However, now certain animals became vulnerable to other animals in the food chain. And in that context, what happened is we have the
28:03 second most important characteristic of the measolithic period which is called domestication of animals. What does domestication of animals mean? That now we were making animals into pets. Now you will say sir, how did we know that a dog can be domesticated, a boar can be domesticated, a sheep can be domesticated, a cattle can be domesticated? It's a pure reciprocal relationship. They give us food, they give us protection, we give them food. It is a relationship of what we call as dependency. But it is pure. Yes, as Pina said, it is a pure heat and trial method. Pure hit and try. It is experimentation. Somebody would have obviously kept a tiger as a domesticated
28:48 animal. Somebody would have kept a crocodile as a domesticated animal. What would have happened? In the morning, they were not found. They must have realized, okay, this animal is dangerous to be domesticated. So, a lot of people would have domesticated a lot of different animals. After a certain point, it would have been that there are certain animals which are safe to be kept. So people started to realize okay there's no point keeping the saber-tooth as a as a animal or a wolf as a domesticated animal because in the morning you don't find that person who brought in that wolf itself. So it's a pure process of traliner right now. Now now with more food available and with more concept of gathering processes and because the
29:37 earth has become greener the animals volume has also increased. There is more food available. with more food available. One thing is very clear that you will have bigger societies. So whilst we had 10 to 15 people together, we may have now 100 plus or 50 plus band of people together. Not complex society. It is just that the society is bigger. Don't use the word complex for methic people. Then the fourth point is we have something very specific which is called rituals and burials. These two concepts emerged during the
30:24 mesolithic period which is rituals and burials are based on the concept of the concept of afterlife which is because you have a certain understanding of the concept of afterlife coming through. They now started to contemplate what happens when you die. They started to do rituals in and around it which is called burial goods. And burial means to bury a person under the ground that must have emerged because of the reason of hygiene because hygiene now with warmer temperature there must have been and would be what is concept of decomposition of bodies. Now when bodies decompose it will lead to disease and
31:12 therefore they started to develop this idea that we'll bury the body under the ground so that it does not decay and spread disease and therefore burials will bring in the concept of rituals. Other things remain standard which is the concept of hunting and gathering. At the same point of time we have simple societies. The idea that there is no polity, no economy, no trade. These things remain the same. Right? So meolithic period is a better version of paleolithic. But we still have not harnessed the most important technology which is the concept of agriculture. Now majoric houses wise it is pure semi you
31:59 can say semi-permanent hearts are there because they still are nomadic because they are nomadic they are still moving around in that regard so it's semi-permanent now paleolithic measolithic done we move to the neolithic period now the neolithic period is known as Neolithic revolution. Why? Because we have just to just to give you understanding for meolithic these four names if you can remember may help you in the examination. Chopani mandu, bore, bore, langanage, bhimka. Five names good enough for you. Bagor, bhore, chopani
32:47 mandu and bhim betka along with langanage. Good enough. Again the list is very long. Keep it simple right? So bore pore kapani mandu and lang naj along with bhimk bhimka most important site in this don't have to worry about these names too much right now it is not the time to remember okay now when we talk about neolithic neolithic is the period of neolithic revolution Now the way you have in physics left hand rule, right hand rule, Fleming's rule, Neolithic has
33:34 a certain rule. If something will start, there will be a cascading effect. Now it is believed by V. Gordon child. There are multiple theories related to why olithic or agriculture began because of the resources, people and the right environment coming together. When these three things came together, it gave the context in which agriculture could have been done. But it is also a very difficult technology because you have to do a lot of trial and error, lot of trial and error over what are the seeds. seeds have to be domesticated. What is the time? A lot of things are there. But around 4,000 to 5,000 BC in the Indian
34:22 context 4,000 in the context of the world 5,000 to close to 2600ish or 2700ish BCE. We believe Neolithic was developing across the world. For India specific 4,000 to 2600 is considered to be the period of Neolithic. Now Neolithic the most important feature is agriculture which is the concept of domestication of domestication of plants. Now what domestication of plants does is it makes you sedentary. Rentry means that you can't just plant a
35:07 seed, come back after 11 months and you'll find a plant. No, you have to nurture the plant. So, you have to now settle down. When you settle down, something very dangerous happens. Why do I say dangerous? Because all social evils are linked to the concept of agricultural based societies and agriculture. People will initially produce for subsistence which is if 100 kgs is needed they will produce 100 kgs but somewhere someday in the process of agriculture there will also be surplus production meaning once you produce surplus there will be somebody who will have more somebody who will have less I'll put everything on a timeline kulib
35:54 don't have to worry these are micro timelines I will discuss the macro timeline once I have completed ancient India that is how we are going to proceed don't have to worry about that I will give you the whole timeline of ancient India once we have completed ancient India everything I will do don't worry about that so agriculture sedentry plus surplus surplus is dangerous because now you have people producing more and therefore it becomes halves and have nots the idea that you have more I have less therefore you have power over and this produces what is called as complex societies which is called
36:39 social stratification or the concept of social differentiation. Now with social stratification, social differentiation you will automatically need automatically need the concept of early political formation which is you will need a powerbased authority or an institution which can then control this surplus and stop any form of conflict between the halves and have nots. And in the end, in the end, we will also have
37:26 tools which will change into pottery based because we need storage and we'll also have tools based on the concept of agri tools which is plow, selt, pickle, etc. So this process this is a cascading it's a domino effect once agriculture comes through it becomes a pure process of how things will start to roll the society itself. So we have agriculture sedentary surplus complex society early political formation to technology chain other factors remain the same. Hunting and gathering is still happening. There is still no trade when it comes to
38:12 neolithic period. There's still no metal which has been used in this period. Further you should know that there is complexity in society but that that does not mean that there are no other simple societies in that regard. Animal husbandry is happening because domestication of plant animals has already happened and it is a society which is still evolving. Still evolving. Now in a neolithic two to three names you should know because UPSC has made it a point to ask one of them on a regular basis. One is Bourjah. Bour home is a site in Jammu and Kashmir UT which has two very interesting you can say features which is it is known for wheat production but for pit dwelling. Pit
38:58 dwelling means because it is a very cold environment the houses or the permanent structures which we see is underground that is why it's called pit dwelling or what we call as underground houses in that regard. Gupraal and bourjah both important but bourjah we have found double burial also where we have animals and humans together. Thereafter obviously you should know me. Maragar is considered to be the earliest site of Neolithic in India because of rice and wheat but more rice production but wheat is considered to be the staple of Mahagard. Meagar has three different zones also upper lower middle but that is too much information. Then we have Chirand Chopani
39:46 Mandu. We have also also a very important site which is called Kodiva. Oodi, Odiva, Chiran, Chopani, Mandu all known for rice production. Bhimbeka is a site which starts as a palithic site, meolithic, neolithic all butka is more a meolithic site than a neolithic site. It is Maharag, Chuchiran, Chopanimandu, Kodiva were considered important because of what for example Kodiva is where we believe we found the first rice based production in India. Thereafter the last most important concept which know is if in a question the word ash mount is used that site has to be rakad is the
40:31 IVC ash mount you will find only in south India meaning in south India what used to happen was yes there are sides can be more than one chopani mandu both south India why Because in South India there was ritualistic burning of fuel or of some form of what we call as timber cowong something. And what we see is that we see a whole layer of ash in the way we go down when we do archaeology. So in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu till you you can even argue till Maharashtra you will find a lot of ash mounts when you will
41:17 go to a Neolithic site. So look out for this word if it says ash mounts you don't have to worry about any site which is in the north. So Margar today is in Pakistan, Iran, Chapan, Mandu, Kodiva in that whole Dwab sector mostly in and around Bihar and UP that sector along with a little part of Jhagar and Chhattisgarh not exactly in one state itself but the idea is this is that whole sector of Chanakur plateau in that area you'll find it. So remember these words don't try to learn it. If in the examination it says mehar chirand gurah home kufraal koda kopanimandu ash mounts it means that it is a neurithic site. UPSC nowadays is giving one type of
42:03 question where they're basically asking what is the feature of that site but do not have to do not have to in a way try to learn each and every site because that is not possible that is not possible rituals and burial practices all are continuing from so basically all of them are cascading they have one feature of the last period in that now Calio miso neo done. We now go to chalcolithic. The word chalcolithic comes from the two words combined together. Chalco means copper. Lithic means stone. Copper was the first metal to be smelted. Now this is something
42:50 which may change. It may change because of the developments which I've discussed in what we call as art and culture current affairs where maybe we will argue that iron was also available at this period but as of right now because we cannot take Shivagalai into the picture we will say chalcolithic copper is the first metal to be smelted. Copper s melts at a lower temperature that is why it is available to the you can say early humans quicker but not true for south India. We will discuss megalithic structures then you will realize that in south India we really did not need to go through this process of neolithic chalolithic iron.
43:37 In multiple cases there was a transition from neolithic to straightaway iron which we'll discuss. Now chalolithic takes two forms in Indian society. Chalolithic takes two forms. I've already discussed current affairs in a session which I've taken previously. The two forms is non harapan calolithic rights and indust valley civilization. Indali civilization is also one step further. It's called the bronze age because the IVC people were further able to go and smelt copper with other metals
44:24 in order to produce an alloy of copper and therefore it is called bronze age. Now nonharapan alkalithic sites and IVC do understand one thing they exist together. They exist together. This has to be understood very clearly because we tend to see students thinking that it is a progression. No. The reason why I don't call Ganeshwar and Jodpur culture, Ahar, Gaya and Jar as not an IVC site is because they are calcolithic sites but do not have the cultural markers of an IVC. So when we had Indas Valley or Indasati zone developing parallelly they all have a civilizational similarity of
45:12 standardization of uniformity but at the same point of time these cultures were interacting with one another and also interacting with IVC because to give you an example Indust Valley civilization got its copper and the gold from Polar gold fields in Karnataka from KGF gold has been found in the IVC sector. So it cannot be that somebody from the IVC went down till the KGF sector and no rather the J culture forced it out then Jore and Kayata interacted from Kayata it went to maybe the AHAR culture and then from Ahar it further went into the IVC IVC a very
45:59 important feature was very well-developed trade which we'll discuss again so that now there are two things you don't have to per se go into each one of them directly or in a lot of detail but you should know the characteristic features why are they called chalcolithic they're called chalcolithic for three reasons one copper is used but when it comes to copper in that regard we have aar having the most the most before I go further don't worry about the speed leave it to me a lot of you are like 8 hours how will you finish Don't do that. I know where where I have to concentrate and where I don't have to. So please take the tension you have to
46:44 take. Leave everything else to me. So rather than concentrating you are like I've seen three to four people commenting this. Don't worry. What's the issue? You have nowhere to go. I have nowhere to go. Let's sit till 4:00 a.m. in the morning. And what's the issue here? Please concentrate because it distracts others. Everybody else will chill. Now, as I was saying, leave it to me. Don't worry about that. Ahar is known for known for I basically what I'm trying to do here is I'm trying to bring you up to speed. If I start with very issue very heavy discussion initially, I will lose you.
47:30 So I'm trying to just come up to speed and I will pick up the pace. So don't worry about it. Okay. So I agree with Shreas totally. Okay. So Ahar culture had more use of more use of copper because it was near the K3 mines. But what is more interesting about these four concepts is that the first four the other three have more bone less copper and a lot of variation a lot of variation which is sometimes we find a lot of copper we don't find copper in different layers we find a lot of variation so for UPSC purposes you should just be cognizant of the fact
48:15 that IVC has contemporary civilizations with it. There is enough detail available in books about it. But you should understand one thing. You should understand one thing. Don't fill up that information because there are other areas which are more important in ancient than learning in amao. Learning each and every site name. If you can have a basic understanding good. Ahar is the site itself. Banas culture it is called aar banas. Ganeshwar jpur. Ganeshwa is the site itself. We have kaya. Kayata is the site itself. Jare is Inama the the village of fishermen. That is the concept here. So the first point which you should know is they are contemporaries to one another. My concentrated effort is not on
49:00 non-harapan but on IVC because IVC is a favorite topic of UPSC in the larger theme of things. Right? So we have now transitioned from 2 million BCE paleolithic to 10,000 BCE meolithic to 4,000 BCE the concept of Neolithic to now close to 2600 BC where we have discussed nonharapan chalithica. Now now my most important discussion is IVC, Buddhism Janism and some parts related to Moria and postmoria. These are three areas which give a which are very high yielding. IVC Buddhism
49:47 genism post Moria little bit of Gupta but Gupta culture is more important than actually all of that Buddhism genism I have enough detail here for you don't have to worry about that now when we talk about indust valley civilization IVC now is also in the examination we will discuss megalithic also so IVC you will find another word which UPSC will use for the examination which is called Indas Saraswati zone. So Indas river Saraswati river is basically the Gagra hakar river which further goes used to go into through Rajasthan into Pakistan and therefore the Indoaswati or
50:34 the Saswati river today has dried up. We have enough archaeological evidences today to show us that there was a river which used to extend into the Pakistan sector itself. But Indoswati or Indaswati civilization is very important in the larger scheme of things because of its cultural understanding but of what it actually signifies in that. Now three phases here 36 3200 2600 2600700700300 somewhere you'll find 1900 written here somewhere you'll find 1900 to sometimes here 1,000 also written here based on the source it keeps on changing but we believe that 2600 to 1700 1900 to 1700 is the mature
51:22 phase this is the early phase and and the third one is the concept of decline phase. Decline phase. Now here you should know one thing very clearly that the cultural zone the cultural zone of the indust valley civilization is very specific with regards to how it is placed these are the other non-harpalithic cultures but it does not enter into the dwab region because it is a bronze age
52:07 civilization. Dwab is a very heavily forested sector. You need iron to break this in that regard and therefore therefore this area you will find no sight whatsoever. You will find maximum Rakiadi Alamirpur but you will not find beyond Alamir any sight because this area needed iron. Iron will come up in the Vic period and therefore there will be a lot of you can say eastward expansion. This is the main culture zone. So any site which is given towards towards east for IVC is automatically wrong automatically. Now now there are close to
52:55 964 sites to be very precise thousand plus. So therefore there is nobody in in India or as an UPSC aspirant who can actually learn each and every site. There's no way because too many sites are there. Now rather what we will do is we will concentrate on sites which UPSC may ask you and are considered generally important. So for example obviously Lothal Havira thereafter Sutka Gendor the westernmost site Chanuaro Porti old site early site later became so you have the
53:40 Sarasati river in this sector Rapa is here then we have Alamirpur Raki Roer Banavali Talibang these are names there There's one more site here Manda and one more site here which called Shugghai. Shugai is a site from where you get a lot of lapis lazuli. The rakiadi site has become very important because it has in turn led to the concept of of the DNA analysis of the IVC plus Vic understanding coming through. Alam Ghilpur is considered the eastern most site mostly and you have Malwan or Dehmabad considered to be the best the southernmost site. Manda is generally
54:27 considered to be the what we call as as the northernmost site. But Shugai is not per se a site. It is a very important raw material zone in that regard. So there is there are other sites also for for example UPSC asked Dalpur once Aland is also important but see there is no end to remembering these sites there is no end I'll be very honest with you there is no end so what you have to do here is that you try to look at this map once I'm trying to show you this map for a very specific reason also because that allows for allows for you to in a way learn the larger processes and the basic spatial understanding the basic spatial understanding should be there and
55:14 therefore therefore just look at this map before you go into the exam please don't do the the mistake of learning each and every set again I'm trying to say not a very good yielding area not a very good yielding area because what happens is that in turn it will overwhelm you and you will think what's the point of ancient India Let's leave it. That is the idea you should understand, right? Okay. Now, now when we talk about IVC, IVC we need to understand six to seven important very things which is first
56:01 characteristics, second is religion, thereafter we have to understand the polity. the trade, the writing and therefore we have certain areas which we have to understand in the larger scheme of things. Now first let's understand characteristics and then we'll keep on go into different aspects. We all on the same page here. No issues right? A lot of you are talking about a lot of things. Can you just tell me that everything is fine? I have a preview in front of me. So there is no issues whatsoever here. Yes sir. Okay. Some of
56:48 you are maybe buffering because of your internet connection not because of ours. Everything is fine at my end and all of you are also saying that right. Okay. Now let's talk about the characteristics. Let's talk about the characteristics. Okay. Now first one now why am I doing characteristics in is because these characteristics also are the architectural features of the IVC. So if you learn the characteristics you automatically learn the concept of architectural field. Now
57:35 one word which is used for IVC is called first urbanization. Why is it called urbanization? Because it exhibits qualities which urban societies and urban towns and cities actually exhibit today. And therefore what are those features which makes it a understanding of what we today call as urban per se. That is what we have to understand. Now the first one is called theadel and lower town. I know a lot of you know this that is why this session is for revision. So you just have to bear with me in that regard. Lower town. When you look at an IVC site, this is a 3D rendering of it. If you look at an IVC site, you will
58:23 realize that certain part of that site is actually on a mount. It is believed that these platforms and mounts were actually made by by the Harapans or the Indust Valley civilization people and they were deliberately placed. Now this is called upper town or citadel and we have a whole sector in and around it which which is called lower town. Now lower town basically refers to the concept of refers to the concept of
59:11 residential and upper town refers the concept of public buildings. Public buildings. So we have public buildings which is administrative buildings here. So we will find the granary here. We'll find the the great bath here. We'll find big halls here. On the other hand, here we find houses. So this is called spatial division of sides according to purpose.
59:57 according to purpose. Now it is believed though the British will never agree. It is believed that this same model was followed for New Delhi. When New Delhi was being planned the way New Delhi city was planned, Delhi itself was planned by the British after 91 was this only to have an area which has administrative buildings together. the whole kartavad sector and then have what we call as today the MP houses in and around it. This is a very interesting model where you basically divide the citadel could be in the middle of the site also towards the east towards the west also but a very important characteristic of the concept of indust valley
1:00:42 civilization. This is the first thing which you should something which is called as big word is town planning called town planning. Thereafter, thereafter the second feature which automatically comes out of town planning is called the grid pattern or 90° roads and exception exception was Bavali. Anavali is based on a radial pattern which is basically a pattern of
1:01:29 concentric circles. But all roads used to intersect one another at 90°. And the idea is that the idea is that they used to go to from north to south from east to west. And what is even more interesting which is roads is that along the roads we have we have water lines which is drainage plus fresh water. And along the other side along the other side we had seage lines.
1:02:17 There's a se lines and therefore basically the whole site was planned. The main roads on one side had gray water and fresh water. Never was used water and fresh water allowed to mix together and into these drains or for example freshwater resources. Rainwater harvesting shoots were also coming through. But this is a very sophisticated way of developing a civilization. Why? Because now you have a way in which you bring bring the concept of town planning, the concept of road building, drainage, seed, all things together. This is something which even a lot of our cities lack
1:03:04 today which is that in multiple cities today in India we first build a road then we build the seway line then the water line then the telephone line then the electricity line and that in turn leads to this concept of how the north south east west be the roads itself or be the drainage it was all planned properly. So part of town planning is this. Now I don't know why a lot of you are saying it's buffering buffering but it isn't buffering at my end. I have I have this in front of me. Not buffering. Okay. No buffer. All good.
1:03:50 Some of you are saying okay. Now the third interesting aspect of the indust valley civilization was water management. Be it wells, depth wells and thereafter the concept of tanks, reservoirs and water harvesting systems. One of the reasons why Dhavira
1:04:38 got the UNESCO heritage tag was because of this. Dola Villa is a very important site where water management beyond exception was key and was considered to be very important in that regard. So water management wells, step wells, tanks and water harvesting system was again and today India has reached to a point that we can say that yes we have ODF status open defecation free. There were toilets in every household and there are public places which also have toilets and therefore water management skills of the IVC was beyond exception. If I add further one more
1:05:24 very important point which is called standardization. Standardization and uniformity. See standardization and uniformity can be seen in multiple places. For example, we have bricks. The houses the small the houses have a brick which is in the ratio of 1 is to2 is to 4 7 is to 14 is to 28 cm. At the same point of time, the city walls have a brick which has 10 is to 20 is to 40 cm. Which means that they they were able
1:06:10 to without proper tools without modern geometry able to hold 1 is to 2 is to 4. This can come in the examination 1 is to 2 is to 4 as the ratio of the walls itself. Further further we see standardization in weights and measures. We had certain can say stones which were available and those stones were circulated across each and every side. This is what makes Indas Valley a civilization that everywhere the same exact stone was available. Maybe it was not specific to a certain kg but it had specific understanding for sure which is that if they were using this stone this stone was available across the
1:06:57 civilization in that. Now the next important point which you should know and is the last major point when it comes to characteristic is house structure and plan. House structure and plan. Now when we talk about house structure and plan in Indian civilization till today now because of builders and the way we have brought in the concept of the concept of party of houses which is houses in the front and the back. We had what is called as a central courtyard.
1:07:48 Central courtyard. Can you show me the comments? Central courtyard and and at the same point of time we had house rooms built in and around the central court and today in India we call it andan. I I think you must have in a way uh understood this concept through the concept of ang without this you can't do art and culture. So central courtyard based understanding there further all the houses had a concept of privacy which is no door no window used to open towards
1:08:35 the main road only into side roads in that regard. Further we have one to twotory buildings meaning there are two stories also every house has a toilet inside it. Further we also know that that the houses were built made in such a way that they remain cool. They were very in a way made in such a sustainable way with angan that they did not need any form of artificial form of cooling because they were having a central kodia design. So just to bring everything together just to bring everything together for the examination you need to know the following five concept. Now trying to bind everything together. Town
1:09:21 planning citadel and lower town purpose-based building houses central courtyard with uh gates only towards the sidelanes not towards the main roads one to twotory buildings central courtyard feature. We have 90° north to south running streets, seage and drainage, toilets, water management and standardization. If you understand all of this then we are sorted. Then we are sorted and we can move towards the other aspects of what we today call as the features of the indust valley civilization. Yes, sorted. Okay.
1:10:09 I don't know why some of you are saying that. I think I have a preview in front of me also. I have my phone also preview showing this session. So I'm not sure why you're saying buffering because last time when it happened buffering would be at your end. It may not be something which is happening from our side. So I have 500 Mbps feed as of right now. So everything should be good. Please check your internet before writing because it then creates doubt in my mind that it is happening. It's a long session so we should not be in that. No sir, it's buffering. Some of you saying not buffering. All good. I'll go with that because my preview here is also sorted. Yes, my preview here is also sorted. If it will buffer, it will sort out itself.
1:10:56 Don't worry. It's the pure server lag on the part of YouTube. Now we've understood the characteristics. Now we'll try to go one step further. Let's talk about a very important feature which emerged during the IVC which is trade. Now when we talk about the Indust Valley civilization, Indust Valley civilization is known for two very important things. One is internal and the other is external trade. See internal trade because of because of the raw material
1:11:44 movement wherein wherein internally all of these sites were providing something for sure. For example, from Shugai came lapis razuli. From the Gujarat sides had came be from the side of the Raki Gadi and Alamir sector a lot of lot of grains came through. Further we see from Sutka Gandor and all we had heavy metals coming and therefore therefore a lot of internal trade had started to develop and that is why standardization standardization and the concept of what we today call as uniformity come through. So
1:12:29 uniformity and standardization is coming true. See I listen to me there is something maybe don't worry it will sort out itself. It's not buffering per se. It is going uh in and out. It is buffering. One second. All good. I see it is manageable. I know because it is pure server lag on the part
1:13:17 of it's a YouTube problem. It's now started to develop this where it starts to lag because of that. Okay. See, let's let's play it out. Don't worry. Let's play it out. I see be laptop devices. It may check check your internet once. It may not be per se may not be per se something which is happening at our end. I've seen this previously also. Okay. Now I'll come back to the discussion. We are getting distracted because of this. But I'll just say please power through.
1:14:04 We really don't need to worry about this. Let's power through. It may be a little bit of lag. But that may be not because of our issues. Maybe because of YouTube server lag. So it's okay. It's okay. Just try to power through. Right. there is something I can also see it but it's very erratic not every time sometimes right so I can see that there is some form of that same concept is happening it is loading and then it is then yeah uh good suggestion it's manageable right okay it is fine
1:14:52 Okay, let's let's power through this. We'll see. We'll see. No issues. What? Okay. Now, internal trade was based on the concept of raw material movement and that allowed for uniformity and standardization. Please do note this for the examination that internal trade was not immune or just bound to the Indust Valley civilization sites. Internal trade was also linked to the non-h harapunch alolithic site. Then the most interesting feature other than that was that there was external trade. external
1:15:37 trade not just with the Afghanistan or Iran sector but we have trade with one of the most important other bronzes civilization at this point of time it's called Mesopotamia now I have made this table for you so as to identify the countries the sites which are there and what artifacts and things used to come through which is for example from Turkmanistan sector we had four different sides don't have to learn the sides per se but you should know that we have multiple things which we were importing and exporting at that point of time and therefore with Iran with
1:16:22 Turkmanistan with Persian Gulf with Bahrain with Oman and Mesopotamia we have multiple forms of imported and exported items one of the reasons why we get this word Meluha is because of the Turkmanistan, Iran and Persian Gulf, Bahin, Oman and Mesopotamian interaction. And here in specifically we have Mesopotamia giving this word Meluha and Meluha. Unfortunately we have not found a equivalent word in indulation obviously because the script is not deciphered but meluha we believe is reference to the concept of harpan
1:17:08 relation at this point of when we talk about trade it is purely a very well demand and supply based barterbased very important point it is barterbased trade Datab based trade means that there is no currency. It is based on exchange of items. And therefore therefore what we have discussed till this point is characteristics trade. Anybody has any issue here other than small disruption. Anybody has any issue other than that. Good point Karan Kumar. No issues. Butterbased trades mean you want wheat, I want chicken. I will take chicken and
1:17:54 you will take wheat. No currency per right. Trade is internal external internally for raw material and goods and services goods and external for things which India or Indian subcontinent used to supply to the Mesopotamian sector. Okay. Now we go into a very important discussion which is religion. religion from this sector UPSC has asked at least two to three questions trade niharika for anybody who was disrupted trade internal external internally for raw material within the sites and non-ranchoric cultures and external with regards to Mesopotamian Dilman Oman and that whole sector a lot of things were
1:18:40 being traded it was there right okay religion religion is considered to be naturalistic Naturalistic means that they used to worship nature. Something which we have retained as a part of our culture today also that we tend to tend to worship nature which is that we have a certain inclination to worship the trees, water and even the sun, moon. So therefore naturalistic religion is one of the most first important feature. We have female goddess figures. They are called mother
1:19:25 goddess. That is because of the figuring we found. And mother goddess is linked to the concept of fertility. We also have male gods ashupati seal. The students who have studied to my classes or have been my student would know that there's a little bit of a problem in calling it pashupati. But sure for the purpose of the examination it is pashupati zil. Further we know that tree worship, fire worship for example at Kali Bangan and water which is great bath was very
1:20:11 common and therefore all forms of nature were depicted on pottery also and we have all forms of nature being in a way woripped also. So religion, naturalistic, female and male goddess figures, great water, fire, earth and supernatural elements are all worshiped. Further, you should know one more thing which is important is no temples have been found. temple. No temples rather we have found only figures and seals made out of seatite on which we find certain references. We do not find per se the concept of temples. Ritualistic bathing
1:20:57 was part of the larger concept itself because ritualistic bathing is something which happens today also. We have multiple festivals based on ritualistic bathing and that is the concept which is coming from the gate bath itself. We have rituals and sacrifices may be developing because we have found grave goods also something which we've seen previously also. Now there are three to four things which are associated with the the harapan session but have a little bit of a problematic origin. For example, the concept of yogic, yonyi, linga worship and protoshiva worship. For the purpose of the examination, again, you should go with it because it is old knowledge. However, it is believed that using the word protoshiva
1:21:43 or linga or in a way yi worship would be problematic. Not sure. So if it says in the examination yogic yonyi linga or protoshiva worship because the concept of the pantheon of lord shiva comes very late in the gupta period. It is a little bit problematic. So yogic, yoni, linga, protoshiva, naturalistic other words, all these words if they're written in the examination, you can go ahead with it. Now with regards to writing, all on the same page. Come on, I need your assertion. Multiple topics in this topic. I need assertion. We're all on the same page. We understand
1:22:30 characteristics, trade, religion, and everything. Yes. Perfect. Now with regards to writing, I just recently discussed this in the art and culture current affairs discussion. It's called bostrofendon. Means that the lines move from left to right, right to left, left to right, right to left. That is also a assumption because we don't really understand the script. We don't know if it is a proper script. We don't know the language. We do not have any form of what is called as Rosetta stone which could give us the meaning. We don't understand the grammar but we have multiple things which are used. You should understand one more very important thing.
1:23:15 Bostrofendon. Bosendon is a type where in English for example you go from left to right then you again come back to left to right then you come back from left to right. But in Arabic you go from right to left, right to left, right to left. But this they move like this which is first left to right then right to left then left to right. Again assumption of the understanding of linguists. Now 1 million if you can decipher it the best machine learning AI cannot solve it because the input matters more than 486 different inputs are there problematic. So therefore if the examination says the Harapan script has been deciphered no the Harapan script as a source of history. No, nothing like that is there.
1:24:03 If it says anything related to deciphered understanding, nothing. Now the other two areas out of which UPSC can't ask a question. It's logo syllabic again based on the understanding it is at least representing logos syllabic. Dr. RM the problem is there are law too many assumptions. Does it actually mean logos syllabic or is this is the syllable itself? We don't know. So there are too many assumptions considered to be too complex to be sort pictographic also sometimes. If in the examination it says logo syllabic or ptographic it is right. Now the next point which we have to understand is polity out of which again UPSC cannot ask a question per se
1:24:49 because polity has too many questions. One of you actually said in the comment section that the priest king. So when any question comes like with regards to polity there is no clarity per se because we do not have any written source. So some people argue that it is a priest king. Some people argue that it is what is called as a merchantbased society where commercial classes control everything. When it comes to power, we sometimes also say that there is a elite understanding where people who had a lot of uh uh surplus were holding it. That is why graineries were there. The
1:25:34 concept of priestly class, ritualistic elites and merchants are the three most un most you can say accepted understanding. But today if you say to me that sir X Y Z used to rule industrial civilization I cannot refute it. I cannot confirm it. So it is based on plausibility. That is why UPSC will tend to not enter into this zone and not touch it because it makes no sense whatsoever to ask a question out of it. A vague ambiguous sector. Same way when it comes to decline there is a lot of different understandings with regards to IBC wherein we have one which is now more or less debunked which is Arian invasion theory. Arian migration theory is accepted. Arian invasion theory isn't
1:26:20 but Arian migration we believe that there was interaction. Invasion means violence just based on one site and one reference to Purand with regards to Indra cannot just lead to the whole civilization being destroyed because MJaro was destroyed. So therefore uh the problem is that you cannot per say that say that is invasion it is migration but
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