Editing Cemetery H culture (section)

==Features==
The distinguishing features of this culture include:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pubweb.cc.u-tokai.ac.jp/indus/english/3_1_02.html |title=Cemetery H Culture (Circa 1900–1300 B.C.) |access-date=2009-08-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091030161353/http://pubweb.cc.u-tokai.ac.jp/indus/english/3_1_02.html |archive-date=2009-10-30 }}</ref>
* The use of [[cremation]] of human remains. The bones were stored in painted pottery burial urns. This is completely different from the Indus civilization where bodies were buried in wooden coffins. The urn burials and the "grave skeletons" were nearly contemporaneous.{{sfn|Sarkar|1964}}
* Reddish pottery, painted in black with [[antelope]]s, [[peacock]]s etc., [[sun]] or [[star]] motifs, with different surface treatments to the earlier period.
* Expansion of settlements into the east.
* [[Rice]] became a main crop.
* Apparent breakdown of the widespread trade of the Indus civilization, with materials such as marine shells no longer used.
* Continued use of mud brick for building.

Some of the designs painted on the Cemetery H funerary urns have been interpreted through the lens of [[historical Vedic religion|Vedic mythology]]:

For instance, peacocks with hollow bodies and a small human form inside, which has been interpreted as the souls of the dead, and a hound that can be seen as the hound of [[Yama]], the god of death.{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=102}}<ref>Bridget and Raymond Allchin (1982), [https://books.google.com/books?id=r4s-YsP6vcIC ''The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225022444/https://books.google.com/books?id=r4s-YsP6vcIC |date=25 February 2024 }}, p.246</ref> This may indicate the introduction of new religious beliefs during this period, but the archaeological evidence does not support the hypothesis that the Cemetery&nbsp;H people were the destroyers of the Harappan cities.{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|pp=102–103}}