The end of the Indus cities is still obscure. The discovery in the upper levels of Mohenjo-Daro of human skeletons lying pell-mell, with a skull having a cut-mark, points to invasion and massacre, but this interpretation has been rightly challenged. It may be noted that the Cemetery H. Culture, found at Harappa and at two sites in the former Bahawalpur State, has been associated with invaders. This H Culture, represented by Jerry-Built Walls, Black-On-Bright-Red Pottery and two successive burial strata (the lower and upper characterized respectively by complete inhumations and fractional pot-interments) had a clear stratigraphic break from the Harappa Culture itself, signifying a time interval.

        Another theory ascribes the end of Mohenjo-Daro to heavy flooding, for some traces of recent alluvium have been noticed on hillocks in the lower Indus basin. Traces of flood-havoc have been noted at Lothal also. The excavations in progress at Kali Banga, however have not so far yielded any evidence either of invaders or of floods, not are their traces of a general decline such as have been found at Mohenjo-Daro itself. Here perhaps the drying up of the Ghaggar, owing either to climatic fluctuations or to a diversion of the waters, might have led to the desertion of many sites.

        It may be surmised that while individual cities may have been deserted on local or regional considerations, the civilization as a whole did not meet with a sudden and violent end. The devolution of Harappa Culture at Lothal and the Punjab lends support to this view.

                                ARYANS IN INDIA

        Sometime in the 2nd millennium B.C., a new race generally called Aryans or Indo-Aryans entered India. The word Aryan is borrowed from Arya in Sanskrit or Airyan in Zend, which means ‘of good family.’

        The most accepted view is that they lived in the great steppe land which stretches from Poland to Central Asia.1 They were semi-nomadic people. In the 2nd millennium B.C., they started moving from their original home and migrated westwards, southwards and eastwards.

The branch which went to Europe were the ancestors of the Greeks, Romans, Celts and Teutons. Another branch went to Anatolia. The great empire of the Hittites grew up from the mixture of these people with the original inhabitants. One branch of Aryans remained in their original home. They were the ancestors of the Slavonic people. Those who moved southwards came into conflict with the West Asian civilizations.

The Kassites, who conquered Babylon, belonged to this stock. In the excavations at Boghar-koi in Asia Minor, which date about 1400 B.C inscriptions are found containing the names of deities like Indra, Varuna and Nasatya. These gods are also mentioned in the Rig-Veda. To the same period as the Boghar-koi, belong in clay tablets with cuneiform script discovered at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt where references are found of princes of Mitanni in North-west Mesopotamia, bearing Indo-Aryan names.

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1. Some Indian scholars believe that India was the original home of the Aryans, from where they migrated to different parts of Asia and Europe.

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  The Aryan invasion or rather immigration of penetration into India was not a single organized action but one extending over centuries. They came in wave after wave at short intervals, and hard struggle ensued with the indigenous people of the land. There are passages in the Rig-Veda, which indicate the severity of the struggle.

The exact course of Aryan expansion in India cannot be traced due to lack of archaeological evidence. The Aryan settlements consisted of small villages with dwellings of wood and reed, which perished long ago.