The second urbanisation in Indian history coincides with the processes of state formation, expansion of agriculture, spread of iron technology and wet rice cultivation. Needless to say, these together with many other topographical factors accounted for the growth and sustenance of a large number of primary producers who were capable of sustaining another sizeable number of secondary producers, thus acting as a catalyst to the urban social formations after a gap of several centuries since the decline of the urban centres of the mature Harappan phase. This essay is a survey of the historiographic and cultural developments associated with this phase of Indian history.
