Indus Valley Civilizations comparison

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In this week's blog post, I will be going over two different Civilizations and how they are discussed in their respective works.  Awakening by Patrick S. Bresnan details the early civilization of Indian society and its structure.  While in the documentary Indus: The Unvoiced Civilization it goes into great detail about the early civilizations along the Indus valley.  Over the course of this blog, I will compare and contrast multiple ideas and sections from the works.  Awakening briefly goes over the social structure of early Indian civilization and highlights a few theories as to how the Indian civilization derived from the early Indus civilization.  While in the documentary it goes over the early finding, mysteries and development of the Indus civilizations and its culture.

Harappan Drainage system
early Indus Irrigation

     In the documentary within section that interested me the most that wasn't mentioned in the book was the use of irrigation within the Indus valley and its incorporation into its cities and crops.  As mentioned, "The people of Delaviuda had constructed a dam. . . the reservoirs were constructed using the natural bedrock as their base. So that there was a gradual slope.  The water filled each reservoir in turn starting from the ascending lowers levels and gradually moving to the lower levels."(Indus,18:40).  The use of diverting water through damming smaller rivers to create artificial supplies of water allowed for cities to be built farther away from the cities and the natural incorporation of slopes allowed for a technological marvel for that civilization during the early civilizations.  

    On the other hand, what I found the Bresnan's book Awakening that I did not find in the documentary was the interesting caste system developed in Indian civilization.  unlike the class system of today where we have a high, middle and low class decided by money and economics; the Indian caste system was not only defined by economic status but religious, political, and social status.  What made it so unique is that one could not move through fluidly thorough the system but was decided at birth and could not leave your caste.  "Varna, the caste system, certainly encouraged stagnant and inflexible social order, but there are some positive things to be said. . . no anxiety about finding the right job or the right spouse, or the right kind of home"(Bresnan, 17).  This quote highlights the good part of the caste system all though it is ripe with abuse and inequality was a working system in early Indian civilization.  Making it an interesting system as it incorporated every aspect into your life and decided ones standing during birth and not from one's life.

Indian Civilization Caste System

    Boh works treat the topic of civilizations differently in how they discuss the civilizations.  In the documentary they pose the Indus valley as a mystery that is slowly being uncovered as people research and learn more about it.  While in the case of the book Bresnan is focused on a more informative way as he does pose some mysteries about the Indian civilization bit for the most part elaborates into great detail the social hierarchy and aspects of the Indian civilization.  Overall, the tone showed for each one is different.  It is shown early in the film as she discusses the difficulty in deciphering the written language used by the Indus civilization " Engraved on the seals are Indus characters, these characters have yet to be deciphered. . . this is one of the reasons the details of the Indus civilization are still a mystery to us." (Indus, 7:27).  This quote specifically shows the overall tone and difference of the documentary compared to the book.  While int he books in the quote " it would be valuable to travel back in time and take a somewhat closer look at the background out of which the Vedas took form and that influenced them in many important ways."(Bresnan, 3).  In this quote it sets up the type of tone this chapter will focus on is to inform us about the background information of early Indian civilization and its influence.  The tone of each source shows how the information and topics are addressed in these works.  These differences show how much information as of now we have on this civilization and our overall understanding of them.