Editing Sindh (section)

=== Ancient era ===
{{multiple image
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| header            = [[Mohenjo-daro]]
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| image1            = Mohenjo-daro Priesterkönig.jpeg
| caption1          = The [[Priest-King (sculpture)|"Priest King"]] sculpture is carved from [[steatite]].
| image2            = Shiva Pashupati.jpg
| caption2          = The ''[[Pashupati seal]]''
| image3            = Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro.jpg
| caption3          = The [[Dancing Girl (Mohenjo-daro)|Dancing Girl]] of Mohenjo-daro
| image4            = Mohenjodaro Sindh.jpeg
| caption4          = Excavated ruins of the Great Bath at [[Mohenjo-daro]]
}}

Sindh and surrounding areas contain the ruins of the [[Indus Valley Civilization]]. There are remnants of thousand-year-old cities and structures, with a notable example in Sindh being that of [[Mohenjo-daro|Mohenjo Daro]]. Built around 2500 BC, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus civilization, with features such as standardized bricks, street grids, and covered sewerage systems.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Sanyal, Sanjeev |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/855957425 |title=Land of the seven rivers : a brief history of India's geography |date=10 July 2013 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-342093-4 |oclc=855957425}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Archaeological Ruins at Moanjodaro |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/138 |access-date=September 6, 2014 |website=The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website}}</ref> It was one of the world's earliest major [[City|cities]], contemporaneous with the civilizations of [[ancient Egypt]], [[Mesopotamia]], [[Minoan civilization|Minoan Crete]], and [[Caral-Supe civilization|Caral-Supe]]. Mohenjo-daro was abandoned in the 19th century BC as the Indus Valley Civilization declined, and the site was not rediscovered until the 1920s. Significant excavation has since been conducted at the site of the city, which was designated a UNESCO [[World Heritage Site]] in 1980.<ref name="mohenjodaro.net">{{cite web |title=Mohenjo-Daro: An Ancient Indus Valley Metropolis |url=http://www.mohenjodaro.net/mohenjodaroessay.html}}</ref> The site is currently threatened by erosion and improper restoration.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2012-06-26 |title=Mohenjo Daro: Could this ancient city be lost forever? |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18491900 |access-date=2022-08-22}}</ref> A gradual [[Aridification|drying]] of the region during the 3rd&nbsp;millennium BC may have been the initial stimulus for its urbanisation.<ref>Edwin Bryant (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. pp. 159–60.</ref> Eventually it also reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise and to disperse its population to the east.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|name="Note-Brooke"|{{harvp|Brooke|2014|p=296}}. "The story in Harappan India was somewhat different (see Figure 111.3). The Bronze Age village and urban societies of the Indus Valley are some-thing of an anomaly, in that archaeologists have found little indication of local defense and regional warfare. It would seem that the bountiful monsoon rainfall of the Early to Mid-Holocene had forged a condition of plenty for all, and that competitive energies were channeled into commerce rather than conflict. Scholars have long argued that these rains shaped the origins of the urban Harappan societies, which emerged from Neolithic villages around 2600 BC. It now appears that this rainfall began to slowly taper off in the third millennium, at just the point that the Harappan cities began to develop. Thus it seems that this "first urbanisation" in South Asia was the initial response of the Indus Valley peoples to the beginning of Late Holocene aridification. These cities were maintained for 300 to 400 years and then gradually abandoned as the Harappan peoples resettled in scattered villages in the eastern range of their territories, into the Punjab and the Ganges Valley....' 17 (footnote):<br />
(a) {{harvp|Giosan|Clift|Macklin|Fuller|2012}};<br />
(b) {{harvp|Ponton|Giosan|Eglinton|Fuller|2012}};<br />
(c) {{harvp|Rashid|England|Thompson|Polyak|2011}};<br />
(d) {{harvp|Madella|Fuller|2006}};<br />Compare with the very different interpretations in <br />
(e) {{harvp|Possehl|2002|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=pmAuAsi4ePIC&pg=PA239 237–245]}}<br />
(f) {{harvp|Staubwasser|Sirocko|Grootes|Segl|2003}}}}

During the [[Bronze Age]], the territory of Sindh was known as [[Sindhu-Sauvīra]], covering the lower [[Indus River|Indus]] Valley,<ref name="Raychaudhuri2">{{cite book |last=Raychaudhuri |first=Hemchandra |url= |title=Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of Gupta Dynasty |date=1953 |publisher=[[University of Calcutta]] |isbn= |location= |page=197 |author-link=Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri}}</ref> with its southern border being the [[Indian Ocean]] and its northern border being the [[Punjab|Pañjāb]] around [[Multan|Multān]].{{sfn|Jain|1974|p=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.72385/page/n227/mode/2up 209]-[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.72385/page/n227/mode/2up 210]}} The capital of Sindhu-Sauvīra was named Roruka and Vītabhaya or Vītībhaya, and corresponds to the mediaeval [[Aror|Arohṛ]] and the modern-day [[Rohri|Rohṛī]].{{sfn|Jain|1974|p=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.72385/page/n227/mode/2up 209]-[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.72385/page/n227/mode/2up 210]}}{{sfn|Sikdar|1964|p=501-502}}<ref name="Raychaudhuri">{{cite book |author=H.C. Raychaudhuri |author-link=Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri |title=Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty |url=https://archive.org/details/politicalhistory00raycuoft |publisher=University of Calcutta |isbn=978-1-4400-5272-9 |year=1923}}</ref> The [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenids]] conquered the region and established the satrapy of [[Hindush]]. The territory may have corresponded to the area covering the lower and central [[Indus River|Indus]] basin (present day Sindh and the southern [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab]] regions of Pakistan).<ref>M. A. Dandamaev. "A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire" p 147. BRILL, 1989 {{ISBN|978-9004091726}}</ref> Alternatively, some authors consider that ''Hindush'' may have been located in the [[Punjab]] area.<ref>"''Hidus'' could be the areas of Sindh, or Taxila and West Punjab." in {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nNDpPqeDjo0C&pg=PA204 |title=Cambridge Ancient History |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521228046 |page=204 |language=en}}</ref> These areas remained under Persian control until the [[Indian campaign of Alexander the Great|invasion by Alexander]].<ref>Rafi U. Samad, [https://books.google.com/books?id=pNUwBYGYgxsC&pg=PA33 ''The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys.''] Algora Publishing, 2011, p. 33 {{ISBN|0875868592}}</ref>

Alexander conquered parts of Sindh after Punjab for few years and appointed his general [[Peithon (son of Agenor)|Peithon]] as governor. He constructed a harbour at the city of [[Regio Patalis|Patala]] in Sindh.{{sfn|Dani|1981|p=37}}{{sfn|Eggermont|1975|p=13}} [[Chandragupta Maurya]] fought Alexander's successor in the east, [[Seleucus I Nicator]], when the latter invaded. In a peace treaty, Seleucus ceded all territories west of the [[Indus River]] and offered a marriage, including a portion of [[Bactria]], while Chandragupta granted Seleucus 500 elephants.{{sfn|Thorpe|2009|p=33}}

Following a century of Mauryan rule which ended by 180 BC, the region came under the [[Indo-Greek Kingdom|Indo-Greeks]], followed by the [[Indo-Scythians|Indo Scythians]], who ruled with their capital at [[Minnagara]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rawlinson |first=H. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UmMnh1XKJjQC |title=Intercourse Between India and the Western World: From the Earliest Times of the Fall of Rome |date=2001 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-1549-6 |pages=114 |language=en}}</ref> Later on, [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] rulers from the reign of [[Shapur I]] claimed control of the Sindh area in their inscriptions, known as [[Hind (Sasanian province)|Hind]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Daryaee|first1=Touraj|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LU0BAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |title=Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire|date=2014|publisher=I. B. Tauris |isbn=9780857716668|page=17|language=en|author-link1=Touraj Daryaee}}</ref><ref name="NS">{{cite book |last1=Schindel|first1=Nikolaus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GqONDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA127 |title=The Parthian and Early Sasanian Empires: adaptation and expansion|last2=Alram|first2=Michael|last3=Daryaee |first3=Touraj|last4=Pendleton|first4=Elizabeth|date=2016|publisher=Oxbow Books|isbn=9781785702105 |pages=126–129|language=en}}</ref>

The local [[Rai dynasty]] emerged from Sindh and reigned for a period of 144 years, concurrent with the [[Huna people|Huna]] invasions of North India.{{sfn|Wink|1996|pp=133, 152-153}} [[Aror]] was noted to be the capital.{{sfn|Wink|1996|pp=133, 152-153}}{{sfn|Asif|2016|pp=65, 81-82, 131-134}} The [[Brahmin dynasty of Sindh]] succeeded the [[Rai dynasty]].{{sfn|Wink|1996|p=151}}<ref>P. 505 ''[[The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians]]'' by Henry Miers Elliot, John Dowson</ref><ref name="Gier">Nicholas F. Gier, ''FROM MONGOLS TO MUGHALS: RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE IN INDIA 9TH-18TH CENTURIES'', presented at the Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting American Academy of Religion, Gonzaga University, May 2006 [http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/mm.htm]. Retrieved 11 December 2006.</ref><ref name="Naik">{{cite book |last=Naik |first=C.D. |title=Buddhism and Dalits: Social Philosophy and Traditions |publisher=Kalpaz Publications |year=2010 |isbn=978-81-7835-792-8 |location=Delhi |page=32}}</ref> Most of the information about its existence comes from the ''[[Chach Nama]]'', a historical account of the Chach-Brahmin dynasty.<ref>P. 164 ''Notes on the religious, moral, and political state of India before the Mahomedan invasion, chiefly founded on the travels of the Chinese Buddhist priest Fai Han in India, AD 399, and on the commentaries of Messrs. Remusat, Klaproth and Burnouf, Lieutenant-Colonel W.H. Sykes'' by Sykes, Colonel;</ref> After the empire's fall in 712, though the empire had ended, its dynasty's members administered parts of Sindh under the Umayyad Caliphate's [[Caliphal province of Sind]].{{sfn|Wink|1991|pp=152-153}}