ABSTRACT
T h e third centre of higher civilization in the Ancient East, the lower valley of the Indus and its tributaries, agrees with Egypt and Babylonia in being an alluvial plain on which, owing to
deficiency o f rainfall, settled agriculture depends primarily on natural or artificial irrigation. In prehistoric times the analogy to Babylonia would have been still closer; for Sindh was then a real ‘Mesopotamia’ watered by the Great Mihran (Sarasvati) on the east in addition to the Indus on the west. But the area of natural irrigation is immensely greater than in Mesopotamia, extending right across the southern Punjab and up to the foot-hills; the broad plains along the Sutlej, the Ravi, the Chenab, and the Jhelum, in contrast to the high plains o f Assyria, form a genuine continuation o f those o f Sindh proper. And in appearance the country to-day is very different from Iraq; it is neither mainly a treeless waste, like modern Sumer, nor yet a marsh like prehistoric Sumer and southern Iraq to-day.
