Animals

To some extent hunting was a by-product of agriculture, birds and herbivores being killed to protect crops and predators to protect livestock, but game could also be a valuable addition to the diet. Many types of game animal such as chinkara and other gazelles, onager, wild sheep (urial), wild goats (Persian wild goat, markhor, and ibex), blackbuck, and other antelopes lived in the hills and grazed in the scrub and grasslands of the plains, while the well-watered areas along the rivers and lakeshores were home to nilgai, wild boar, water buffalo, wild cattle, elephant, chital, barasingha, and other deer. Several varieties of turtle, crocodiles, and dolphins, as well as molluscs and fish, could be taken from rivers and lakes. Wildfowl were also available around water, and particularly on Lake Manchar and in Gujarat. There were also other birds that made good eating, such as francolin, partridge, pheasant, jungle fowl, grouse, and peafowl. Even lizards were caught and eaten.

While some of the animals were probably hunted by villagers and city dwellers, game may also have been brought in by hunter-gatherers. Although the fourth-millennium farming settlers may have absorbed or displaced the hunter-gatherers who lived in the areas that they began to cultivate, hunter-gatherer groups continued to flourish elsewhere. For example, the Indus people never colonized the north Gujarat plain, probably because of its well-established hunter-gatherer population. The Harappans traded with hunter-gatherer communities such as those in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and the Aravalli hills, thus gaining access to wild products including those of more distant areas visited by hunter-gatherers in the course of their seasonal movements to

Exploit different resources. In some modern Indian communities, hunter-gatherers are employed to guard crops and deal with marauding wild animals, a role they could have had in the Indus realms as well. A mosaic of practices probably lies behind the variations in the fauna represented on different sites: For example, few bones of wild animals have been found at Rangpur and Surkotada in Gujarat, but they are common at Lothal, Dholavira, Kanewal, and Rojdi in the same region. The well-reported faunal remains from Rojdi give a particularly full picture: Wild animals eaten by its inhabitants included chausingha, hog deer, chital, barasingha, sambar, nilgai, blackbuck, and chinkara (Indian gazelle). Kanewal yielded a similar range of animals, and Dholavira had not only gazelle, deer, and blackbuck, but also onager and hare. At Nausharo on the Kachi plain, game included chinkara, wild boar, and onager, while at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro there were also hog deer, chital, and several other species of deer. Harappa and Balakot also had nilgai, and there were also gazelle at Balakot. Bird bones, turtle, and tortoise were common in most Harappan sites.

A deer figurine from Harappa. Deer and many other wild animals were hunted by people living within the Indus realms, perhaps by specialist hunters, though Harappan city-dwellers may also have hunted for food and farmers for meat and to protect their crops. (Richard H. Meadow, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)

Other valuable commodities could be obtained from wild animals. Some game may have been taken for their pelts, for use in making clothing, or as covers and rugs. These may have included desert foxes, leopards, tigers, and Asiatic lions; wolf bones have been found at a number of sites, jackal bones in several settlements in Gujarat, and those of a black bear at Amri. Crocodile skins might also have been valued. Rhinoceroses were hunted for their horns and hides: Rhino bones are known from a large number of settlements, including Harappa, Nausharo, Kalibangan, Lothal, Surkotada, and Kanewal. Elephants were killed for their ivory, although there may also have been an unknown number of domestic elephants. Boars' tusks were also usable as a type of ivory and boars' bristles for fine brushes such as those used for painting pottery. Porcupine quills could be used to make piercing instruments such as needles and awls. Antlers made a useful raw material for manufacturing tools and handles: The antlers of Kashmir stag and sambar were utilized at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, along with those of chital and hog deer at the latter site.