# Indus Basin - Pakistan



## Indus Pakistan

Before we look at the history of Pakistan we have to look at the Indus Basin. The* Indus Bain is synonymous with Pakistan.* The Indus Basin goes to define our people, our history, our culture, our religion and our economy and even many of the challanges we face today.

Along with* Nile, Tigris *and* Euphrates rivers*,* Indus *has been the birthplace of human civilization. These are the places where humans first took the tentative steps on a long journey that has brought us to today. Therefore *Pakistan* has been one of the earliest *cradles* of human civilization. Pakistan might be new name but *land* and the* peoples* of this country have one of the *oldest* histories of any country in the world.

Indeed Indus Basin is littered with relics of the ancient world.* Soanian Culture, Rehman Dheri, Mehr Garh, Mohenjo Daro, Harrapa, Taxila* is just a few of them. These were some of the oldest sites of civilization when rest of the world was still in stone age. Very few countries on earth have such a rich heritage yet with sadness I have to say we the Pakistani's have *neglected our glorious past.
*
Always keep the dictum in mind *"Nile is to Egypt what Indus is to Pakistan".*

Without land there can be no state and the land will go a long way in defining the country including it's history. So let us look at the '*tandoor'* that made us who we are today - the *Pakistani's*. Whether we are native or we are a mix of outside influences our geography, the *Indus Basin *has played it's role in the* making of Pakistan.*

We begin by looking into the making of Indus Basin. Long time ago, about 55 million years the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian plate. The point where it collided pushed up the mountain rim around South Asia including the Himalalyas. That movement continues even today which explains the earthquakes we still get in Pakistan. The point where both the Indian plate and Eurasian plate scrape against each other are known as the fault line.







Map 2. The fault line running through centre of Pakistan adjacent to which most earhquakes are centred as both the Indian plate Eurasian plates grind.









Map 3 Physical Map of Pakistan. Please compare with above map.







Now let us look exactly at what Indus Basin is. To begin with we have to define the 'basin' which in geographic terms means "river drainage *basin* is an area drained by a river and all of its tributaries". When we say Indus Basin we mean all the area within which rainfall collects and drains into one river. The Indus Basin is therefore the area where all rainfall eventually flows into Indus River and finally drains out to the Arabian Sea.

Map 5 Indus Basin






Map 6 Indus Basin Map 7






Maps 5 and 6 show clearly the extent of the Indus Basin. Map 7 is a satelite image of Pakistan. The green of the irrigated area feeding off the Indus irrigation system is clearly visible. Indus Basin in Pakistan is clearly divided from India by the huge Thar Desert on the right of the green strip of the indus irrigated zone.

It is however important to note that small strip of Indus Basin extends into *Afganistan *( Map 5 ) and in fact Kabul falls within Indus basin as that part of Afghanistan drains into Kabul River which flows into Pakistan and meets Indus River near Attock.

Furthermore part of Tibet in *China *also falls within the indus Basin, so does Indian Occupied Kashmir and Indian Punjab. Small portion of Rajasthan also are within the basin. However Pakistan is central to the basin. 95% of Pakistan's population lives within the Indus Basin whereas it is nominal in Afganistan, China, India.
 
It is interesting that the tectonic fault line between Eurasia and India roughly defines the split between Iranian language group of Pashto, Baloch and the Indic languages Punjabi, Sindhi inside Pakistan. A coincidence but nevertheless interesting overlap of plate tectonics, geography, languages and peoples. In a sense Pakistan sits on the the meeeting point of South and Central Asia. In fact it bridges both worlds in geography, ethnic groups, languages and as we will see history as it's central position would mean it would recieving two differant sets of influences from west and east.

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## Indus Pakistan

Rainfall map of South Asias






Population Density map of Asia



Climate Classification Map of Asia

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## Indus Pakistan

Map 8 - Divide between Indus Basin and India - The sky blue line the bottom shows the Rann of Kutch which is salt marsh or dry salty scrubland. The green line shows Thar Desert which ranges from absolute desert to semi arid desert and at places is upto 200 miles wide. The Thar Desert acts as a major divide between Indus Basin and India. The satelite map below shows the physical geography nicely.






On the map 8 above I have marked various points along Pak India border which are numbered. I will show some these points close up below so you can appreciate why this desert acts as a divide. Most of it is absolute desert and sand like Sahara Desert. While there are water sources but these are far and distant and in the past would have acted as a major barrier. THe border is NOT artificial. It follows natural divider - the desert. 

Map 9 - Rann 1





Map 10 - Thar 1





Map 11 Thar 2






Map 12 Thar 9





Map 13 Thar Desert marked red.






As you can see Thar desert marked red Map 13 effectively partitions off the Indus Basin from India. The Indus River with the habitable green strip is entirely separated from rest of South Asia. In effect the Indus Basin is a sub region of South Asia like Iberia or Scandanavia are in Europe. Just like Scandanavia or Iberia can have separate existance yet be part Europe Indus Basin has to be looked at in the same way. These are satelite images and the basin is not a subjective creations but represents physical geography on the ground.

Only north in the Punjab region above Marker Thar 9 is there a bridge between the Indus Basin and rest of South Asia. The only thing to get partitioned 'artifically' in 1947 was the zone above Thar 9 in Punjab. It would be worth noting though that before 1870s even this bridge would have been narrower as Thar Desert would have extended more north. If you look at Map 12 Thar 9 you can see what modern irrigation can do. On the Pak and Indian side of the border irrigation has only left 4 to 5 mile strip of semi desert. Before 1870s when the British started massive irrigation systems the area north of Thar 9 would have been similar semi desert. Thus the Punjab 'bridge' would have been narrower. Of course as we all know in 1947 it was this 'bridge' that was shut off to create a border.

I think this amply shows that there is nothing artificial about most of Pak India boder. From the wastes of Rann of Kutch on the Arabian Sea to the Himalayas in a straight line is 700 miles approx. Of that most of it 550 miles is Thar Desert, semi to arid. Only 150 miles in the final portion of the border is not natural division.

I think this covers the indus Basin as in definition and we can now begin with it's history which will start from dawn of time to 1947. I want Pakistani's to further explore the concept of the Indus Basin so that they are able to explain to others in a accurate, logical fact based way. They must let geography do the talking. You can explore Google Maps and traverse the border from Rann of Kutch on the Arabian Sea and move north and as you zoom in you will just see miles and miles of sand and dunes. Bear in mind it goes from pure sand to scrubland, semi to semi desert to slowly merge into rainfed zones in India.

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## Indus Pakistan

Thar Desert














What River Nile is to Egypt - River Indus is to Pakistan

This shows that contrary to what is commonly assumed that a artificial line divides Pak and India in fact for most of the 700 miles ( 550 miles ) there is either salt plain, salty marsh of the Rann of Kutch in the south and the vast expense of the Thar Desert. This effectively acts as divider between the Indus Basin of Pakistan and rest of South Asia/India. The satelite map 13 shows the Thar Desert. I think it clearly shows that the Indus Basin is a natural and distinct sub unit from India.

Great Rann of Kutch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thar Desert - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The purpose of this is to show Pakistani's that their physical geography is indeed DISTINCT from India. They should not fall for words like *ARTIFICAL* or even *PARTITION*. I will give a simple logical argument why they should not use language like that later. But for now for please digest the contents of this thread. Understand what the Indus Basin is and what the boundaries are. Also understand the Indus Basin's central role in sustaining our Pakistan. Always remember this dictum. *What Nile is to Egypt Indus is to Pakistan*

Thar Desert
















Rann of Kutch - Dry Salt











Salty Marsh





I moved this from another forum as it should be read as a preface to Pakistan history. I intend to add more stuff and fine tune info given above.

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## Indus Pakistan

THIS PAGE IS FOR MORE INFO TO BE ADDED HERE LATER - IPlease do check this space again as more information will be uploaded in this space. Understanding of the Indus basin is vital in understanding Pakistan history.


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## Talwar e Pakistan

Amazing insight into our past!

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## Tergon18

Just thought to post this here. Have to say, really nicely made. Regions of the Indus Basin - Pakistan:






@Kaptaan @Mentee @Kambojaric @Max @Zibago @django @DESERT FIGHTER @Pakistani Exile @Moonlight
@WAJsal

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## Mentee

Tergon18 said:


> Just thought to post this here. Have to say, really nicely made. Regions of the Indus Basin - Pakistan:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> @Kaptaan @Mentee @Kambojaric @Max @Zibago @django @DESERT FIGHTER @Pakistani Exile @Moonlight
> @WAJsal


@The Sandman @MastanKhan @Max @B+ Dracula @Zarvan @PaklovesTurkiye @Sinan @2800 @haman10 @Sinopakfriend @HAKIKAT

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## Mangus Ortus Novem

For so long the Peoples of Pak have sleeped walked...oblivious to their great past...extending back more than 7000 years...

And now the Youth is becoming alive to take back their stolen Heritage...

A Civilisational State of Pakistan is slowly emerging...

Eurasia is your natural place.... the indian empire can keep inventing myths and fantasies to keep their illegal, unnatural state together..

_*But Pakistan is the Fountain Head of the Ancient and Present Civlisation. Never forget that.*_

My Pak brothers, keep embracing your Heritage...for without linking to your true past you can not have a true future.

I am just delighted to see that there is begining of a spark here.

Keep digging, keep finding the Truth!

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## PaklovesTurkiye

@Kaptaan ....Nice one, sir.

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## ali_raza

pakisan is actually very different from india in every way

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## ghazi52

Indus Valley Civilization - Mohenjo daro







Mysteries of Mohenjo-Daro

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## Indus Pakistan

The mighty *Indus River* - one of the *four* cradles of human civilization.

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## Indus Pakistan

The Indus River and Ganga River *differantiated*. We can easily see the separate nature of the geography of the *Indus Valley, *Pakistan and *Ganga India*. The remarkable thing is look at India and note where most of their population lives. Yet bizzarely they dream somehow to be the children of the Indus despite living next to the Ganga and treating it as their holy river.








Indus flows south into the Arabian Sea after coursing through semi-desert regions of Pakistan covering the entire length of the country. Ganga on the *contrary* flows east through damp plains of Northern India and pours into Bay of Bengal.

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## ghazi52



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## Indus Priest King

It's called the Indus Valley...this Indus Valley is the true India and has had a unique culture for over 9000 years. The so-called "Republic of India" nextdoor is only masquerading as India. In reality, they're Bharat...or what the Vedas called "Dasyuvarta".

You all should follow Ancient Pakistan facebook page. They have an article called "Is Pakistan The Real India" and "The Two Nation Theory: Is It Culture Or Religion That Divides Us".

I'll post it in this thread...it's quite an eyeopener.

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## Ali Tariq

*Indus civilization*
WRITTEN BY: 

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
LAST UPDATED: Apr 27, 2018 See Article History
Alternative Titles: Harappān civilization, Indus valley civilization
Indus civilization, also called Indus valley civilization or Harappan civilization, the earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent. The nuclear dates of the civilization appear to be about 2500–1700 BCE, though the southern sites may have lasted later into the 2nd millennium BCE.






Principal sites of the Indus civilization.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The civilization was first identified in 1921 at Harappa in the Punjab region and then in 1922 at Mohenjo-daro (Mohenjodaro), near the Indus River in the Sindh (Sind) region. Both sites are in present-day Pakistan, in Punjab and Sindh provinces, respectively. The ruins of Mohenjo-daro were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980.





Indus civilizationAn overview of the Indus civilization.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Subsequently, vestiges of the civilization were found as far apart as Sutkagen Dor in southwestern Balochistan province, Pakistan, near the shore of the Arabian Sea, about 300 miles (480 km) west of Karachi; and at Ropar (or Rupar), in eastern Punjab state, northwestern India, at the foot of the Shimla Hills some 1,000 miles (1,600 km) northeast of Sutkagen Dor. Later exploration established its existence southward down the west coast of India as far as the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay), 500 miles (800 km) southeast of Karachi, and as far east as the Yamuna (Jumna) River basin, 30 miles (50 km) north of Delhi. It is thus decidedly the most extensive of the world’s three earliest civilizations; the other two are those of Mesopotamia and Egypt, both of which began somewhat before it.

The Indus civilization is known to have consisted of two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, and more than 100 towns and villages, often of relatively small size. The two cities were each perhaps originally about 1 mile (1.6 km) square in overall dimensions, and their outstanding magnitude suggests political centralization, either in two large states or in a single great empire with alternativecapitals, a practice having analogies in Indian history. It is also possible that Harappa succeeded Mohenjo-daro, which is known to have been devastated more than once by exceptional floods. The southern region of the civilization, on the Kathiawar Peninsula and beyond, appears to be of later origin than the major Indus sites. The civilization was literate, and its script, with some 250 to 500 characters, has been partly and tentatively deciphered; the language has been indefinitely identified as Dravidian.





Mohenjo-daroPortion of the ruins at the Mohenjo-daro archaeological site, southeastern Pakistan.© Yousaf Fayyaz/Fotolia
The Indus civilization apparently evolved from the villages of neighbours or predecessors, using the Mesopotamian model of irrigated agriculture with sufficient skill to reap the advantages of the spacious and fertile Indus River valley while controlling the formidable annual flood that simultaneously fertilizes and destroys. Having obtained a secure foothold on the plain and mastered its more immediate problems, the new civilization, doubtless with a well-nourished and increasing population, would find expansion along the flanks of the great waterways an inevitable sequel. The civilization subsisted primarily by farming, supplemented by an appreciable but often elusivecommerce. Wheat and six-row barley were grown; field peas, mustard, sesame, and a few date stones have also been found, as well as some of the earliest known traces of cotton. Domesticated animals included dogs and cats, humped and shorthorn cattle, domestic fowl, and possibly pigs, camels, and buffalo. The Asian elephant probably was also domesticated, and its ivory tusks were freely used. Minerals, unavailable from the alluvial plain, were sometimes brought in from far afield. Gold was imported from southern India or Afghanistan, silver and copper from Afghanistan or northwestern India (present-day Rajasthan state), lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, turquoise from Iran (Persia), and a jadelike fuchsite from southern India.

Perhaps the best-known artifacts of the Indus civilization are a number of small seals, generally made of steatite (a form of talc), which are distinctive in kind and unique in quality, depicting a wide variety of animals, both real—such as elephants, tigers, rhinoceros, and antelopes—and fantastic, often composite creatures. Sometimes human forms are included. A few examples of Indus stone sculpture have also been found, usually small and representing humans or gods. There are great numbers of small terra-cotta figures of animals and humans.





Indus civilization: sealsAssortment of seals with animal motifs in use during the time of the Indus civilization, 2nd–3rd millennium BCE.Copyright J.M. Kenoyer/Harappa.com; Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan
How and when the civilization came to an end remains uncertain. In fact, no uniform ending need be postulated for a culture so widely distributed. But the end of Mohenjo-daro is known and was dramatic and sudden. Mohenjo-daro was attacked toward the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE by raiders who swept over the city and then passed on, leaving the dead lying where they fell. Who the attackers were is matter for conjecture. The episode would appear to be consistent in time and place with the earlier invaders from the north (formerly called Aryans) into the Indus region as reflected in the older books of the Rigveda, in which the newcomers are represented as attacking the “walled cities” or “citadels” of the aboriginal peoples and the invaders’ war-god Indra as rending forts “as age consumes a garment.” However, one thing is clear: the city was already in an advanced stage of economic and social decline before it received the coup de grâce. Deep floods had more than once submerged large tracts of it. Houses had become increasingly shoddy in construction and showed signs of overcrowding. The final blow seems to have been sudden, but the city was already dying. As the evidence stands, the civilization was succeeded in the Indus valley by poverty-stricken cultures, deriving a little from a sub-Indus heritage but also drawing elements from the direction of Iran and the Caucasus—from the general direction, in fact, of the northern invasions. For many centuries urban civilization was dead in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent.





Indus civilization: cooking potsHarappan cooking pots in use during the Indus civilization, _c._ 2300–2200 BCE.Copyright J.M. Kenoyer/Harappa.com; Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan
In the south, however, in Kathiawar and beyond, the situation appears to have been very different. There it would seem that there was a real cultural continuity between the late Indus phase and the Copper Age cultures that characterized central and western India between 1700 and the 1st millennium BCE. Those cultures form a material bridge between the end of the Indus civilization proper and the developed Iron Age civilization that arose in India about 1000 BCE.





Site overview of Mohenjo-daro, eastern Pakistan.Frederick M. Asher

This article is from April, but I thought to share it here. I'm not a student of history but from now on I'm going to read about our history as much as I can.

@Kaptaan Sir, any book you would like to recommend for a noob like me.

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## hazzam

how can india be separated from indus valley civilization ?


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## Taimur Khurram

hazzam said:


> how can india be separated from indus valley civilization ?



Because Indus Valley Civilisation was centred around and started in Pakistan.

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## hazzam

dsr478 said:


> Because Indus Valley Civilisation was centred around and started in Pakistan.



kaun sa pakistan ? 1971 se pahle ka ya uske bad ka ? i mean west pakistan .


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## Taimur Khurram

hazzam said:


> kaun sa pakistan ? 1971 se pahle ka ya uske bad ka ? i mean west pakistan .



The land that makes up Pakistan has always been there, the name is irrelevant. Just because you choose to appropriate our culture as your own by naming yourselves after our river, doesn't mean our culture is yours.

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## hazzam

dsr478 said:


> The land that makes up Pakistan has always been there, the name is irrelevant. Just because you choose to appropriate our culture as your own by naming yourselves after our river, doesn't mean our culture is yours.



no body appropriated your culture , you were no where when history was being written .living in denial and teaching wrong history to children is of no use . as far as history is concerned come out of your narrow scope of history and take lesson from english historians who worked on history of india .


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## Taimur Khurram

hazzam said:


> no body appropriated your culture , you were no where when history was being written .living in denial and teaching wrong history to children is of no use . as far as history is concerned come out of your narrow scope of history and take lesson from english historians who worked on history of india .



How sad, you actually believe what you're saying.


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## Corona

dsr478 said:


> The land that makes up Pakistan has always been there, the name is irrelevant. Just because you choose to appropriate our culture as your own by naming yourselves after our river, doesn't mean our culture is yours.


Culture, unlike nationality doesn't end a border. The people of this civilization wouldn't have stopped at an imaginary line that came millennia after their time. 
I've got no qualms about the location of any civilization but I do believe there was overlapping culture.


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## Taimur Khurram

Corona said:


> Culture, unlike nationality doesn't end a border. The people of this civilization wouldn't have stopped at an imaginary line that came millennia after their time.
> I've got no qualms about the location of any civilization but I do believe there was overlapping culture.



Right, but that doesn't make them Hindustani. They may have had settlements all the way in Turkmenistan, does that make them a part of Turkmen heritage? Of course not. 

Well, unless you can bring forth any evidence for that claim, I'll stick to believing our cultures never significantly overlapped until the Aryan migrations.

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## blueazure

indus valley people ,

ganges valley people,

two separate entities since ages

evidence is there which states that IVC buried their dead, while ganga people made chitas ( to this day) ,same culture ? how come ?


to the indians on this forum , wasnt the land west of the ganges considered impure in vedic texts ?

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## Indus Priest King

Indeed. We called them Daysus, they called us Mlechas.
We called Ganges Plain Dasyuvarta, they called Indus Valley as Vahika Desa.

They're just so desperate to try and steal our history, because they have none of it themselves. In actuality, South India (Dravidian) history is much older than the Indus Valley, but North Indians are ashamed to admit this because they view Dravidians as inferior, despite the fact North Indians are more genetically closer to South Indians than they are with the Indus groups (Pakistanis).

We are the real Indo-Aryans. We are the real India. We are the real Indians.

North India is just a joke.


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## Indus Pakistan

hazzam said:


> how can india be separated from indus valley civilization ?


Like Afghanistan, China are separated. By geography. Indians are children of the Holy Ganga. Take pride in your Gangadesh.


_Ps. Have a look at these maps below. They speak better then I can articulate._

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## hazzam

Kaptaan said:


> Like Afghanistan, China are separated. By geography. Indians are children of the Holy Ganga. Take pride in your Gangadesh.
> 
> 
> _Ps. Have a look at these maps below. They speak better then I can articulate._




lol.......................


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## UnitedPak

hazzam said:


> lol.......................



**nervous laughter as he realises Indus is 2000kms away from his village along the Ganges**

I am sure the explanation that follows involves ancient space crafts.

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## k s ahmed

a very good thread this.. 
thank you for sharing. pakistan needs a brand in this world.


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