[world-vedic] Ancient World's Greatest Exporters

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The World's Greatest Exporters?

Dr.Shikarpur Ranganath Rao made waves with his excavation of Lothal,

an Indus port town located off the Gujarat coast. It shattered notions

that the Indus was a landlocked civilisation, conservative and

isolated, and as a result sank without a trace. Rao uncovered a dock

700 ft long -- even bigger than the one currently at Visakhapatnam. It

took an estimated million bricks to build it. Next to the dockyard were

massive granaries and specialised factories for bead-making. Hundreds

of seals were found, some showing Persian Gulf origin, indicating that

Lothal was a major port of exit and entry.

 

Meanwhile, independent evidence started flowing in when Indus seals

were found both in Iraq, where the ancient Sumer civilisation

flourished, and in the Persian Gulf. The Sumers apparently called India

"Meluha", and their inscriptions talk of how they purchased beads of

various kinds, timber, copper, gold and ivory crafts from India. It was

evident that the goods were upmarket and purchased by the Sumer

royalty. Indus sailors appear to have discovered the trade winds long

before Hippolus, and their maritime interests were vast. "Harappan

traders were among the most enterprising," says Jagat Pati Joshi,

another former ASI director-general, who discovered Dholavira. Gold,

for instance, was carted from distant Karnataka, and then hammered into

delightful chains to be exported to Sumer. A lapis lazuli bead factory

recently discovered in distant Shortugai in Afghanistan is believed to

have been a major supplier to Harappan traders.

 

Like modern-day Indian businessmen, the Harappans had a huge domestic

market to cater to. The climate around that time was conducive for

growing a variety of crops in the region. Harappans are credited with

being the earliest growers of rice and cotton. The agricultural

surpluses ensured craft specialisation. And at its peak, the Indus was

dotted with over 300 cities of varying sizes, supported by hundreds of

towns and villages which supported a cottage industry. Quality

standards seems to have been strictly observed, resulting in uniformity

of arts and craft. And the flourishing trade was an energiser that

powered Indus' phenomenal growth in the middle of the third millennium

BC. It brought prosperity that saw the cities provide their citizens

with the finest of drainage systems and reservoirs to supply water. And

helped them evolve into one of the greatest civilisations ever.