Motifs

The motifs employed include in the main a male animal, often associated with a vessel raised on legs under the head, which might be an altar or a feeding stand. Bulls are commonly depicted; a fine example from Mohenho Daro was found without a feeding stand, but with a clear text of six pictographic characters. Unicorns are regularly encountered. Other animals include antelopes, elephants, tigers, water buffaloes, gharials, crocodiles, and rhinoceroses. A second specimen from Mohenjo Daro has a bull on one side and a swastika motif on the other and is pierced through the center. Script alone is seen on a third example from this site. The depiction of boats emphasizes the importance of river and maritime trade. One such specimen shows a boat with a cabin and rudder, with both stern and prow raised up from the level of the deck. Perhaps the most revealing, however, are those seals that depict a deity Although a seal with a god figure from Mohenjo Daro is only 2.7 centimeters (1 in.) in height, it shows a remarkably detailed image of a male god seated on a throne with legs in a yogic position. His arms are covered in bangles, and he wears an elaborate horned headdress with three branches of a pipal tree. The throne, presumably of wood, has feet carved in the form of bovine hoofs. An even more complex scene of a deity incorporates a god standing within a sacred fig or pipal tree, again with a horned headdress and many bangles on each arm. A figure kneels before the god, associated with a ram. Below, seven people are seen in a row. All this imagery, with script, is set out in a seal barely exceeding four by four centimeters (1.6 by 1.6 in.).

The possible ritual importance of animals, perhaps in sacrifice to the deities as in the case of the ram, is seen in an extraordinary seal from Mohenjo Daro with an animal with a human face, elephant’s trunk, bull’s hooves, buttocks of a tiger, and a cobra as a tail. Gods are also seen battling with animals: A terra-cotta tablet that might have served as a seal from Harappa has a goddess on top of an elephant, holding off two tigers on one side, and the killing of a water buffalo in front of the horned, seated god on the other. Many seals show a unicorn in front of a bowl-shaped receptacle raised on a pedestal, which itself supports a mushroom-shaped object with three disks above it. The purpose of this enigmatic but commonly depicted artifact remains controversial; none has survived, but an ivory miniature has been recovered from Harappa. It is also seen in a ritual procession scene. It has been suggested that it was a filter to make the intoxicating ritual drink soma, which is described in Vedic texts. There are also some seals or sealings from Mohenjo Daro that depict a remarkable scene of acrobats vaulting over the horns of a bull. Others show a bull being sacrificed by a man with a foot on the bull’s horns and reaching over to spear the animal in the neck, as a modern matador would. This scene and details of associated figures such as a tree and a dove are matched in similar scenes from Minoan Crete.

These seals probably hold the key to any future decipherment of the INDUS valley civilization script. They were probably in personal, corporate, or temple ownership, and the texts might well be royal titles, personal names, or other names or attributes of a temple. The symbol for a structure, which might be a temple, is often associated with a seal depicting the horned god. Their distribution is widespread, and the location of specific varieties again holds a key to reconstructing trade relationships. This is seen clearly in the remains of sealings from a burned warehouse at the site of lothal, which bore images of a unicorn, an elephant, and a swastika, although the seal in question has not been found. The presence of Indus seals in Mesopotamia provides compelling evidence for long-distance trade.