In tune with the basic civilisational ethos of the region, human

settlements of South Asia range from hamlets to great cities. The system of villages and cities evolved in the region changed with time. In the pages that follow, an attempt has been made to trace the ups and downs in the history of urbanisation in South Asia during the last 10,000 years or so. For the sake of convenience, we can divide it into seven phases:

1. Pre-Vedic Villagisation (7500-5000 bc)

2. Vedic Rurbanisation: (5000-2500 bc)

3. Indus Valley Civilisation: An Urban Interlude (2500-1500 bc)

4. Post-Vedic Rurbanisation: (2500 bc-1000 ad)

5. Medieval Transformation of Cities: (1000-1750 ad)

6. Colonial Urban Explosion: (1800-1947) and

7. Post-Independence Urban Explosion and Implosion (1947-2011).

PRE-VEDIC VILLAGISATION (7500-3500 bc)

It was around 5000 bc that the Vedas were composed by the Vedics who lived in the North-western region of the Indian sub-continent covering Persia, Afghanistan and Sind, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh in present-day India, and Pakistan. May be, the region extended further east but the changing courses of River Ganga and its tributaries have left little, if any traces of the past. The core of the region where Rig Veda, the first and oldest Veda was composed, was eastern Afghanistan and Sind, Punjab and the adjoining areas of India. The region was agriculturally prosperous. It was essentially rural.