In the world of the Harappans, sustenance relied on a population of animals that were similar to those found in western Asia and Egypt. Barley and wheat, together with peas, gram, sesame, and mustard, were cultivated in the plains that would later become known as the wider Indus Valley. Cotton was farmed for its fiber content. There is evidence of animal husbandry in the form of bones from sheep, goats, and cattle. The cattle included both western Asian species and the humped Indian variation. It has been shown that millets are present in Kutch, and imprints of rice husks have been found in clay at fatal levels. The Harappan heartland was located in a zone that may be described as a transitional zone between the monsoon rainfall system of south Asia and the winter rainfall regime of western Asia. Even though the winter rainfall in Punjab is just 120 millimeters and the rainfall in Sind is only 30 millimeters (both areas get more rainfall during the monsoon), the fact that wheat and barley are winter crops makes even this little amount of rainfall very significant. Ground or subsurface water, on the other hand, is a more trustworthy and, hence, more valuable source of information on India’s past. You may recall that the city of Mohenjo-daro had an estimated 700 wells for the purpose of providing its residents with water for household use. It would have been vital to drill wells along the length of the Hakra River in Pakistan that is currently dry since the water table is high along that stretch. Western Sind has a number of Harappan sites that are located in close proximity to artesian wells or natural springs. To a certain extent, well irrigation has been associated with successful wheat yields in Sindh and western Punjab until very recently. At the little Harappan village of Aladdin, which is located close to Karachi, it seems that water collected from an artesian well that was walled with stone was used. With the exception of Gujarat, which does not get any precipitation during the winter months, lothal and other villages in Saurashtra were situated next to a low trough that, up until the 19th century, had fresh water that was raised to irrigate wheat. At the significant location of Dholavira, which is located on Khadir Island in the state of Kutch, where there are no rivers that flow continuously throughout the year, bunds were built across the channels of minor rivulets in order to collect the seasonal flow and direct it into reservoirs located within the city. When compared to the euphrates, the yearly flow of the Indus River is almost eight times greater, and it is more than twice as high as the Nile River. Both the amount of water that it transports and the slope of the terrain contribute to the fact that the velocity of the Indus is much higher than that of any other river. Consequently, it is a river that causes destruction, and it does not bring about sheet floods. A significant portion of the flood is able to leave via routes that are well defined and expansive, such as the western nara; yet, it is also known that the Indus River has been known to have washed away hundreds of communities. Another distinctive feature of the floods is their seasonal pattern. Despite the fact that the river is at its peak in August (because to the considerable rainfall that occurs in the Himalaya), the river level is at its lowest between April and February, which is the season for wheat and barley. Therefore, the cultivation of these winter crops in the protohistoric period would not have been conceivable without the use of canal irrigation.
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