River drought forcing of the Harappan metamorphosis Article Swipe
Vikrant Jain
,
Kaustubh Thirumalai
,
Balaji Rajagopalan
,
Vimal Mishra
·
YOU?
·
· 2025
· Open Access
·
· DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02901-1
YOU?
·
· 2025
· Open Access
·
· DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02901-1
Hydroclimatic variations are among the factors shaping the rise and fall of the Indus Valley Civilization. Yet, constraining the role of water availability across this vast region has remained challenging owing to the scarcity of site-specific paleoclimate records. By integrating high-resolution paleoclimate archives with palaeohydrological reconstructions from transient climate simulations, we identify the likelihood of severe and persistent river droughts, lasting from decades to centuries, that affected the Indus basin between ~4400 and 3400 years before present. Basin-scale streamflow anomalies further indicate that protracted river drought coincided with regional rainfall deficits, together reducing freshwater availability. We contend that reduced water availability, accompanied by substantially drier conditions, may have led to population dispersal from major Harappan centers, while acknowledging that societal transformation was shaped by a complex interplay of climatic, social, and economic pressures.
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- Type
- article
- Language
- en
- Landing Page
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02901-1
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02901-1.pdf
- OA Status
- gold
- References
- 89
- OpenAlex ID
- https://openalex.org/W4416758306
All OpenAlex metadata
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02901-1Digital Object Identifier
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River drought forcing of the Harappan metamorphosisWork title
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articleOpenAlex work type
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enPrimary language
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2025Year of publication
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2025-11-27Full publication date if available
- Authors
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Vikrant Jain, Kaustubh Thirumalai, Balaji Rajagopalan, Vimal MishraList of authors in order
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-
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02901-1Publisher landing page
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02901-1.pdfDirect link to full text PDF
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YesWhether a free full text is available
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goldOpen access status per OpenAlex
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02901-1.pdfDirect OA link when available
- Cited by
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0Total citation count in OpenAlex
- References (count)
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89Number of works referenced by this work
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