Many civilizations have left ample evidence of bureaucracy in the form of written accounts. These are not available for the Indus civilization, and it is not known whether they existed in perishable form, such as palm leaves, cloth, or bark, or never existed. Nevertheless, the few inscribed materials that have been found offer some clues to Harappan sociopolitical organization.
Seals. Square stamp seals of steatite account for the majority of Harappan inscribed materials. Nearly all come from Mohenjo-daro or Harappa, but some are known from many towns and cities, including far-off Shortugai, and from some villages, such as Rojdi. Some have also been found abroad, in Sumerian cities, Susa, and the Gulf.
The seals have a perforated boss on the reverse, suggesting they were usually worn on a cord. Many of the known examples were lost when the boss broke away: Finds of these at Harappa occur generally along main roads, in certain workshops, and in houses in certain areas. Very occasionally, a seal has been recovered from a place of safety, for example, buried beneath a house floor, but far more common are broken seals that had been discarded. None have been found in burials. This distribution suggests that the seals were not
Personal possessions but objects related to some official role, disposed of when the holder left office.
The discovery of sealings at a few sites shows that the seals were used to stamp clay attached to packaging on goods or sealing jars. Almost all known sealings come from the warehouse at Lothal where they were fortuitously preserved by a fire: This suggests that sealings were in fact far more common than the meager number of finds would indicate. While some seals show signs of considerable wear, others were almost pristine, suggesting that the seals also served another function, most probably to identify the holder and to authorize certain activities that he (or she?) undertook.
A seal from Harappa. The design is the unicorn, the most common symbol, which I suggest showed that the holder represented the Harappan state in some capacity. Along the top is the inscription, written in reverse so that the impression it made would be in the correct direction to be read. This inscription begins with an oval with a curved line in each corner, thought by some scholars to represent the city, and ends with the “handled jar,” a very common sign, usually placed at the end of an inscription or of a segment within it. The second sign, two short raised lines, is also in the place it generally occupies in inscriptions. (Harappa Archaeological Research Project, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
Harappan seals bore two things: a design and an inscription. The design could be recognized and its significance understood by anyone, while the inscription could be read only by the literate few. The Indus script is still undeciphered, so it is uncertain what these inscriptions said, but studies of seals from other cultures suggest they were probably personal names, titles, or both. On the stamp seals, the inscription was written in reverse, showing that it was usually read from sealings or impressions, not from the seal itself.
All but a few of the images on seals depicted a single animal, often with a feeding trough in front of it. The most common was the unicorn, a creature with a single horn combining elements of a humpless bull and an antelope. Unicorn seals have been found in most Indus towns and cities, particularly in Mohenjo-daro; more than a thousand are known, while fewer than a hundred have been found of any other individual design. Around fifty seals depict a zebu bull: These are almost all confined to Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, though one is known from Kalibangan. Zebu seals were generally large and beautifully executed, and they had short inscriptions. Other animals included the elephant, the rhino, the humpless bull, the tiger, the water buffalo, the sheep, and the goat, and were mainly wild creatures native to the Indus region. A very small number of seals bear scenes rather than individual animals. These seals were generally larger than average and must have had a special significance. While the depiction of the animals was standardized, with only small differences occurring in their detail, the scenes are unique, though some share a theme.
Interpreting the Seals. Many scholars consider that the animals depicted represented particular groups. Some see them as clan totems and argue that the unicorn was the sign of the dominant house, with other, less successful clans occupying positions of lesser status. Other scholars argue that the seal images were totems associated with individual cities, the unicorn representing Mohenjo-daro and its ubiquity reflecting that city's leading power in the organization of the civilization. Still others associate the different animals with individual social or occupational groups in the society, the rare zebu seals associated with the rulers themselves, the unicorn seals representing the elite or officials, and other animals or designs standing for lesser groups. Some scholars have seen evidence in the seal images of the existence of separate sociopolitical entities within the Indus region rather than a unified state. The standardized nature of the seals, however, favors the interpretation of the Indus realms as a single unified polity. Separate petty states would have been likely each to have its own distinctive style of seal. Rissman (1989), in a study of the unicorn seals, has shown that there were small stylistic variations and differences of detail among representations of the unicorn in different regions but general adherence to a standard iconography and execution, with all the main details being the same.
My own view is that the motif on the seals provided an easily recognized indication of the status or authority of the holder and of his (or perhaps her) field of operation. One might, on the basis of general distribution and ubiquity, suggest that the unicorn motif symbolized the Harappan state and its bureaucracy and that the bearer was on government business. It might have identified the bearer to individuals such as guards on city gates, workers in warehouses, or carriers, to expedite entry, ensure cooperation, or demonstrate the bearer's right to take delivery of goods. The majority of Harappan seals found in the Gulf and Mesopotamia bore the bull and manger motif, a common motif in the Indus realms too, and this perhaps denoted an individual authorized to engage in foreign trade. Perhaps this is supported by the fact that only humpless cattle were found overseas, in contrast to the local zebu. Other animal motifs would have represented other areas of state activity, while the unique seals with scenes or related images, which generally have a religious theme, could have been the personal emblems of those in the positions of highest authority, such as chief priest or king. Alternatively, the latter might have been represented by the beautiful zebu seals. A few seals are known that have the same inscription but different images. In this case, presumably, the bearer had authorization to operate in two different capacities.
Many of the seals that have been found were broken: It is quite likely that this was done deliberately when the seal ceased to be valid, for example, on the death of the authorized bearer. The discovery of heavily worn seals shows that they could continue in use for a long time, suggesting that a seal could have been issued to an individual for the duration of that person's working life.
Seals would have functioned somewhat differently when used to create sealings. These, placed on goods and materials in transit, conveyed information in the absence of the seal bearer. Goods and materials to be transported from one part of the Harappan realms to another would have been packed and a sealing affixed to ensure that the goods were taken to the appropriate destination and were not tampered with in transit. Sealings might also signify that a package had passed through the requisite official controls. One might surmise that the goods stored in the Lothal warehouse at the time of the fire were in transit: A unicorn seal on the packages allowed those handling them to recognize that these were intended for internal distribution, while those bearing an elephant seal might have been intended for use in the external exchange network. People in authority could read the name or title on the seals to provide them with the relevant information on the source of the goods or materials and thereby gain more detailed information on their destination or designated use.
Given that the majority of seals come from the places where they were lost or discarded rather than those in which they were used, the distribution of seals within settlements offers little information. However, in order to lose something in a place one must be there. It is therefore perhaps significant that at Harappa no seals were found in the area in the northwest of mound E where pottery, a commodity locally distributed, was made, whereas a number of inscribed objects came from the area where beads and bangles were made, these being goods that were widely circulated through the internal distribution network.
Stoneware Bangles. Small, very fine stoneware bangles of an exact standard size, whose production involved considerable skill and time, were manufactured at
Mohenjo-daro and probably Harappa. Each bore a short inscription. For firing, the bangles were sealed in a nest of containers, each sealed with clay on which Indus signs were incised, finishing with the impression of a unicorn seal on the outer covering of clay. In early civilizations, where literacy was confined to an often very restricted group, writing was used as a means of wielding spiritual or temporal control and power. The use of the Indus writing on the firing containers therefore implies official control of production.
The uniform narrow interior diameter of these stoneware rings, 5.5-6 centimeters, suggests that they may not have been worn as conventional bangles on the wrist or ankle, particularly if their wearers were men; instead they may have been sewn onto clothing or worn as a pendant or on a belt. The Priest-King statue, possibly a royal portrait, wears a circle in the center of his headband, and another on a band on his upper arm: if the statue were life-sized, these rings would match the stoneware bangles in size. (However, there are other possible interpretations of the rings worn by this sculpture: A gold bead with steatite inlay, found at Harappa, is also similar, though its proportions are different.) The stoneware bangles were produced in some quantity (ten in each container, and probably a number of containers in each kiln firing), suggesting that they were worn by more than one individual: It seems likely that they were badges of office held by leading members of the hierarchy. The fact that the bangles themselves were inscribed is also suggestive of an official function. Their use was almost exclusively confined to Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, regional centers of power and administration where one would expect to find symbolic objects that identified the holders of high office.
Other Inscribed Materials. Many of the inscribed objects from Harappan sites are likely not to have had any official significance. For example, small tablets of various materials were probably amulets, while tools with inscriptions may record the owner's name or a charm to ensure the tool's successful use. However, a number of pottery vessels, such as large jars or small drinking cups, bear a few signs impressed on them before they were fired—perhaps an indication of their contents or ownership. Graffiti, less formal and much less standardized than writing, were scratched on some vessels at some time after the vessel was fired— the personal mark of the owner or a check mark by an official, perhaps.
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