A few objects seem likely to have been associated with rituals such as sacrifices and offerings. These include shell ladles, perhaps used for lustration, and chank shells from which libations may have been poured, a purpose for which they have been used traditionally. Chank shells are also used as trumpets, blown during ceremonies, and one example of such a trumpet is known from Harappa. A number of seals show jars being proffered to deities, probably containing liquids, grain, or other offerings.
Gaming equipment, such as boards, dice, and gaming pieces, are known from most Harappan sites. While these may have been used for games as pastimes, it is likely that, as in many cultures, they were also used in ritual contexts, for instance for divination. Ivory rods, with different numbers of concentric circles engraved on their sides, may also have been used as dice or in some ritual context, perhaps in divination or calendrics.
Unicorns, and occasionally other animals, were shown on seals facing a curious object consisting of a stick bearing a hemispherical bowl surmounted by a ridged cylinder. Sometimes the bowl is surrounded by droplets. This object also appears separately on faience and steatite tablets, on a gold headband, and as a three-dimensional model in ivory, and it was also depicted being borne aloft in processions. There has been much speculation about the identity of this object: Was it an incense burner, an offering stand, a sacred brazier? One intriguing suggestion is that it was a filter for preparing the sacred drink, soma, that is mentioned in the later Vedic texts. This substance also has not been satisfactorily identified, and it is not known whether it was made from a plant native to the subcontinent. Whatever the object was, it clearly had religious significance.
Although some narrative scenes appear on seals, they are more commonly found on small incised steatite or mold-made terra-cotta or faience tablets, found mainly at Harappa but also at Mohenjo-daro. Many identical copies of each are known, and they are often interpreted as amulets. On the reverse, many bear a few signs interpreted as numbers, often along with another sign, such as a U that probably represents a jar containing a votive offering since it is identical to the pots being offered to deities in some scenes. Parpola (1994,
A cubical die found among rubble at Harappa. Dice may have been used in divination, with the outcome of a throw of the die being interpreted to answer a question, predict a future event, or advise a particular course of action. (Harappa Archaeological Research Project, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
107-109) therefore suggests that these tablets may have been tokens issued when votive offerings were made, recording the quantity of the offering.
World History
