Ghaggar-Hakra River in the context of Nara River (Sindh)

The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Together with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three early civilisations of the Near East and South Asia. Of the three, it was the most widespread: it spanned much of Pakistan; northwestern India; and northeast Afghanistan. The civilisation flourished both in the alluvial plain of the Indus River, which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial monsoon-fed rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the Ghaggar-Hakra, a seasonal river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan.

The term Harappan is also applied to the Indus Civilisation, after its type site Harappa, the first to be excavated early in the 20th century in what was then the Punjab province of British India and is now Punjab, Pakistan. The discovery of Harappa and soon afterwards Mohenjo-daro was the culmination of work that had begun after the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj in 1861. There were earlier and later cultures called Early Harappan and Late Harappan in the same area. The early Harappan cultures were populated from Neolithic cultures, the earliest and best-known of which is named after Mehrgarh, in Balochistan, Pakistan. Harappan civilisation is sometimes called Mature Harappan to distinguish it from the earlier cultures.

The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Together with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three early civilisations of the Near East and South Asia. Of the three, it was the most widespread: it spanned much of Pakistan, northwestern India, and northeast Afghanistan. The civilisation flourished both in the alluvial plain of the Indus River, which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial monsoon-fed rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the Ghaggar-Hakra, a seasonal river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan.

The term Harappan is also applied to the Indus Civilisation, after its type site Harappa, the first to be excavated early in the 20th century in what was then the Punjab province of British India and is now Punjab, Pakistan. The discovery of Harappa and soon afterwards Mohenjo-daro was the culmination of work that had begun after the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj in 1861. There were earlier and later cultures called Early Harappan and Late Harappan in the same area. The early Harappan cultures were populated from Neolithic cultures, the earliest and best-known of which is named after Mehrgarh, in Balochistan, Pakistan. Harappan civilisation is sometimes called Mature Harappan to distinguish it from the earlier cultures.

The Painted Grey Ware culture (PGW) is an Iron Age Indo-Aryan culture of the western Gangetic plain and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley in the Indian subcontinent, conventionally dated c.1200 to 600–500 BCE, or from 1300 to 500–300 BCE. It is a successor of the Cemetery H culture and Black and red ware culture (BRW) within this region, and contemporary with the continuation of the BRW culture in the eastern Gangetic plain and Central India.

Characterized by a style of fine, grey pottery painted with geometric patterns in black, the PGW culture is associated with village and town settlements, domesticated horses, ivory-working, and the advent of iron metallurgy. As of 2018, 1,576 PGW sites have been discovered. Although most PGW sites were small farming villages, "several dozen" PGW sites emerged as relatively large settlements that can be characterized as towns; the largest of these were fortified by ditches or moats and embankments made of piled earth with wooden palisades, albeit smaller and simpler than the elaborate fortifications which emerged in large cities after 600 BCE.

Kalibangān is a town located at 29°28′N 74°08′E / 29.47°N 74.13°E / 29.47; 74.13 on the left or southern banks of the Ghaggar (Ghaggar-Hakra River) in Tehsil Pilibangān, between Suratgarh and Hanumangarh in Hanumangarh District, Rajasthan, India 205 km from Bikaner. It is also identified as being established in the triangle of land at the confluence of Drishadvati and Sarasvati Rivers. The prehistoric and pre-Mauryan character of the Indus Valley Civilization was first identified at this site by Luigi Tessitori. Kalibangan's excavation report was published in its entirety in 2003 by the Archaeological Survey of India, 34 years after the completion of excavations. The report concluded that Kalibangan was a major provincial capital of the Indus Valley Civilization. Kalibangan is distinguished by its unique fire altars and "world's earliest attested ploughed field". It is around 2900 BC that the region of Kalibangan developed into what can be considered a planned city.

Kalibangan was first excavated under the Directorship of B. B. Lal (ASI) between 1960-61 to 1969-70.Other excavation team members were B.K. Thapar, M.D. Khare, K.M. Shrivastava,J.P.Joshi

The Ottu barrage, sometimes spelled as the Otu barrage and also known as Ottu Head, is a masonry weir on the Ghaggar-Hakra River in Sirsa, Haryana state of India that creates a large water reservoir out of the formerly-small Dhanur lake, located near the village of Ottu, which is about 8 miles from Sirsa City in Haryana, India. It is a feeder for the two Ghaggar canals (the Northern Ghaggar canal and the Southern Ghaggar canal) that carry irrigation water to northern Haryana state. In 2002, a new tourist complex was inaugurated at the barrage, and it was given the honorary name of "Chaudhary Devi Lal Weir" to commemorate the former Chief Minister of Haryana state, Chaudhary Devi Lal. The Dhanur lake reservoir is now often referred to simply as the Ottu reservoir.

The Indira Gandhi Canal (also still known by the revered sacred name Saraswati Rupa Rajasthan Canal, also formerly officially called Rajasthan Canal) with total length of 837 kilometres (520 mi), is the longest canal in India which begins in Punjab state at the Harike Barrage (confluence of the Satluj and Beas rivers), flows a short distance through northwest part of Haryana state, and ends in the Thar Desert near Gadra Road in western Rajasthan. The course of Indira Gandhi Canal is subdivided into 4 sections, Rajasthan Feeder Canal (RF Canal) N-SW flowing 204 kilometres (127 mi) long course from Harike Barrage in Ferozepur district to Masitawali village in Hanumangarh, Indira Gandhi Main Canal (IGM Canal) N-SW flowing 445 kilometres (277 mi) long course from Masitawali to Mohangarh northeast of Jaisalmer, Sagarmal Gopa Branch Canal (SGB Canal) E-W flowing 96 kilometres (60 mi) long course from Mohangarh to Gunjangarh-Ramgarh northwest of Jaisalmer, Baba Ramdev Sub-branch Canal (BRSB Canal) N-S flowing 92 kilometres (57 mi) long course from Gunjangarh-Ramgarh toward Gadra Road town in Barmer district.

Indira Gandhi Canal follows Ghaggar paleochannel of the now-lost sacred Sarasvati River with natural incline, thus requiring no pumping station along the way, hence also the name Saraswati Rupa Rajasthan Canal. Indira Gandhi Canal forms the Rajasthan section of the revived ancient Saraswati River with numerous Indus-Sarasvati Valley Civilisation sites along its course, rest being in upstream Haryana-Punjab and downstream Gujarat.