There are not many comprehensive summaries of the development of agriculture in the western subcontinent. This 50 page piece from the book History of Ancient India II: Protohistoric Foundations (2014) is a welcome exception and explores the development of early agricultural villages from Balochistan to Gujarat and their role in the rise of the Harappan Civilization. Key regions covered include Balochistan, Gujarat, and Western Uttar Pradesh, with significant sites like Mehrgarh and Nal discussed in detail. The study highlights regional variations, climatic conditions, and archaeological findings that shaped these early societies. It goes without saying that the development of agricultural practices that generated a surplus that could feed urban residents would have been a key component in the development of Indus civilization and its urban centers. As the editorial note puts it, "The baseline is that this formed the background of the growth of the Harappan Civilisation in more or less the same region. The story of this development is not clear in all segments."

The author argues that the development of early agricultural villages in this region was not homogeneous but showed significant regional variations and continuous cultural interactions. Helpfully, there is a rundown of excavations in the region prior to this piece. Baluchistan was a key area for the growth of wheat-barley-cattle-sheep-goat agricultural practices. Climatic conditions, though vigorously debated in recent times, did not significantly differ from the present in the author's analysis, allowing for the long-term agricultural development in these regions. Part of the paper is focussed on Mehrgarh, an early agricultural site in Balochistan discovered in the 1970s, showing evidence of early farming and settlement in the 7th or 8th millennium BCE, a few thousand years before the height of the Indus civilization. In fact, about two-thirds of the pages are about Balochistan, and the summary of the prehistoric situation ("Comments on Early Village Cultures of Baluchistan") is both spot on and thought-provoking:

"Assuming that the earliest occupation at Mehrgarh goes back to c. 7000 BC and assuming that many of the sites we have discussed in the previous sections come down to the third- second millennium BC, the history of the early village cultures of Baluchistan spans about 5000 years or more. In view of the fact that Baluchistan does not enjoy more than 10 inches of annual rainfall and, in fact, as low as 3 inches of annual rainfall in places, the very idea that it witnessed agricultural developments for such a long period may be mind-boggling in itself. Some features of this development stand out distinctly. The painted pottery tradition of Baluchistan is among the finest pottery traditions of the subcontinent, suggesting a level of ceramic expertise which is not easily matched anywhere, not even in the painted ceramics of the Harappan Civilisation. The Baluchi styles are not merely technically sound but also vibrant, drawing attention most of the times because of the sheer impact of their colours and the composition of the depicted scenes. Nothing like the Nal or Kulli or Rana Ghundai pottery occurs later in the subcontinental context. The Rana Ghundai Period III pottery – the pedestalled vessels showing stylised bulls – is noteworthy also for a different reason. These vessels enjoy a close correspondence with the similar pottery vessels of the western Iranian site of Sialk and the northern Iranian site of Hissar, although the Iranian ibex is replaced on the Rana Ghundai vessels by bulls. On the basis of this similarity in pottery shapes and designs between Rana Ghundai on the one hand and Sialk and Hissar on the other, one would say that Baluchistan in the protohistoric period was very much within an orbit of interaction which included both north and west Iran," (p. 60-61).

It is not only the fine pottery from Balochistan, but its role as gateway to the Iranian plateau on the west, Afghanistan and Central Asia on the north, Sindh, Punjab and Gujarat to the east and south that must have contributed to a steady march of ideas, styles, people and practices that once expressed themselves so richly and nurtured the rise of the ancient Indus civilization. None of this is to underestimate contributions by people within the region. The sections on Gujarat discuss how different areas in Gujarat had unique archaeological backgrounds, leading to regional manifestations of the Harappan Civilization such as Sorath Harappan and Anarta Harappan, and while sites in Gujarat exhibit interactions with regions as far as Central Asia and the Indus Valley, it was also home to distinct cultures that preceded and survived both Harappan and hybrid-Harappan manifestations for thousands of years. Even Dholavira has its pre-Indus stages.

"One of my important arguments in the context of the development of agriculture and village life in the vast region between Baluchistan and Gujarat and between Baluchistan and western Uttar Pradesh, i.e. the basic distribution area of the Indus or Harappan Civilisation, is that this development is unlikely to have been unidirectional from the west to the east. The occurrence of rice in the Early Harappan stage of Haryana is a sure enough proof of this argument. At the same time, millets also must have played a role in shaping the agriculture of this region, and I find no justification to view the Harappan Civilisation as an exclusive end-product of what began at Mehrgarh around c. 7000 BC. The tradition of rice and millets is certainly involved, and there should be more awareness of the agricultural diversities of the region as research moves on," (p. 81).

There is also robust discussion and many illustrations of developments in the southern KPK Area in Pakistan, Haryana, Rajasthan within the same integrative framework that draw a convincing picture of the rich stew of cultures, many of which contained the components, from which emerged the uniform seven century framework, polity and urban centers which we call ancient Indus civilization.