Indus Valley Trade And Economy

What we verified before publishing

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The following claims were verified through Perplexity Sonar before the questions were finalised. The host can reference any of them during play:

• The Indus Valley Civilization economy was primarily built on agriculture and animal husbandry, with wheat, barley, pulses, and peas as main crops.
• The Indus people used a barter system for trade, exchanging goods like cotton textiles, beads, metals, and foodstuffs directly without using money.
• The civilization did not use metal money; instead, trade goods themselves served as currency in a barter-based economy.
• Weights and measures in the Indus Valley Civilization mostly used 16 or its multiples as a standard unit.
• Major granaries were found at Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Kalibangan, and Lothal, indicating state storage of grain for ceremonial and regulatory purposes.
• The Indus Valley had extensive maritime trade with Mesopotamia, with Dilmun (modern Bahrain) serving as a key intermediate trading station.
• Lapis lazuli was a major long-distance trade item, sourced from regions like Afghanistan and valued for its social prestige among the ruling class.
• Cotton textiles were one of the most important exports of the Indus Valley, traded widely across regions including Mesopotamia and Persia.
• Trade networks integrated a vast area including portions of Afghanistan, Persia, the Arabian Sea, and Mesopotamia, showing extensive economic integration.
• The Indus people traded precious stones like turquoise, lapis lazuli, and metals such as gold, silver, copper, and tin with foreign civilizations.
• Harappan merchants established a trading colony in northern Afghanistan to facilitate trade with Central Asia and the Iranian plateau.
• Mesopotamian records from around 2350 BC refer to trade relations with Meluha, the ancient name for the Indus region.