Some Harappan inscribed objects bear scenes showing figures that display some of the features of later deities. Usually these figures, male or female, wear a horned headdress and bangles along the full length of both arms, and they may wear a hair braid or streaming scarf. Often elements of the figure, such as the feet, are those of an animal.
One famous seal, in which the figure is surrounded by wild animals, is thought to be the forerunner of Shiva Pasupati (Lord of the Beasts). On this seal the deity has two deer or antelope at his feet and is flanked by a buffalo, an elephant, a rhinoceros, and a tiger. This combination recurs and may have had a ritual significance; the four animals may be arranged to form a mandala, a cosmic diagram in which each represents one of the cardinal directions. On another the deity is associated with a pair of fish while on a triangular prism he is flanked by a gharial, snakes, and fishes. This deity also appears on a faience seal with cobras and a worshipper offering a pot. On a molded tablet from Harappa, the deity watches a man holding down a water buffalo by its horn while killing it with a spear. A gharial is shown above. All these creatures have their place in traditional Indian religion.
The seated deity is generally shown wearing buffalo's or bull's horns, often forming a three-pronged headdress with a pipal branch as the central part: This may be the origin of the trisula (trident), later an attribute of Shiva. The figure wears many bangles and, on the Pasupati seal, may have three faces (or four if there is one at the back, as in later Hindu iconography); another seal also shows him with three faces but without animals. Usually he is seated, generally on a low stool with bull's feet; in later Indian religion, such a seat indicated high rank. The figure adopts a yogic position, with the legs folded beneath the body and the feet pointing downward. Among his many roles, Shiva is later regarded as the lord of Yoga, a practice that employs discipline of the body, mind, and spirit to achieve union with the divine: it is possible that yogic practice and aims were features of Harappan religion. The later association of the yogic ascetic with meditative solitude in a forest retreat may perhaps be reflected in the depiction on two tablets from Harappa of the figure seated beside a reed hut or shrine.
On these seals the figure is shown with an erect phallus. Shiva's worship is intimately connected with fertility, and he is often represented by the lingam, which was probably an element of Harappan iconography. A few scholars, however, have suggested that the Pasupati seal actually depicts a goddess. The figure's body is slender and not distinctively of either gender, except for the phallus, which can alternatively be seen as the end of the waistband. His apparent beard has alternatively been interpreted as a tiger's mane, a possibility given that the face is not particularly human. A composite woman-tiger figure is shown on several seals, so this interpretation is not impossible.
Although it was only in the first millennium BCE that Shiva emerged as a major deity in literature, the features of the Harappan deity suggest that he was a precursor to Shiva and to other gods with whom Shiva is equated, including the South Indian pastoral deity, Murukan—in other words, that the worship of Shiva and these other deities developed, at least in part, out of a cult that was present in Harappan times. It is noteworthy that Shiva is traditionally associated particularly with cattle pastoralism, one of the main economic activities of the Harappans. The Tamil version, Murukan, had two wives, one from the settled community of farmers and merchants and the other from the mobile community of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers, reflecting the integration of these two ways of life, a further link with the Harappan period.
One unusual representation of a figure in the yogic pose is known from a faience tablet at Mohenjo-daro. Here the seated yogic figure does not wear any divine trappings, such as a horned headdress or bangles, but appears naked. On either side, however, is a human figure in an attitude of devotion and behind each a cobra rises up. The iconography is strongly paralleled in later Indian religion in scenes where the Buddha receives the homage of nagas (snake deities).
A female deity is also known from Harappan iconography. She is frequently depicted with a trisula headdress similar to that of the proto-Shiva, wears many bangles, and usually has her hair in a long plait or wears a streaming scarf. She often appears in the center of a tree, generally a pipal, or is associated with a tree or a tiger. On a seal from Kalibangan (unusually, this was a cylinder seal), a female figure stands between two men piercing each other with spears, either fighting over her or dueling and being separated by her. Elsewhere on the seal a female figure (the same one?) stands by, wearing her headdress, her body merged with that of a tiger. The goddess appears again in the latter form on a stamp seal, also from Kalibangan. Other representations of a female deity also include animal elements: On one seal she wears cow's horns, hoofs, and tail. She shares many features with the later goddess Durga, Shiva's consort. As with the proto-Shiva, one can suggest that the Harappans worshipped a female deity from whose cult that of Durga later emerged.
Lingam and Yoni
Marshall suggested the possible existence in the Harappan iconographic repertoire of representations of the classic Indian male and female symbols, the lingam (phallus) and the yoni (vulva or womb), associated in more recent times with the worship of the god Shiva. Some of his examples have been shown to have other functions. For example, many supposed lingams may have been gaming counters or pestles. Others, however, seem more convincing. These may include the clay stelae in the fire altars. A terra-cotta ladle was found near one of the Lothal fire altars, suggesting that the pouring of libations was part of the rites performed there, which may be echoed in the libations of milk, ghee, sacred water, and other substances poured over the lingam in the worship of Shiva. Several hemispherical stone stands with a central hollow must have held an upright stone or wooden post, plausibly creating a combination of yoni and lingam, a common symbol in later Hindu art. A complete example of this combination in terra-cotta is known from Kalibangan. A few stone cylinders were unmistakably phallic. A handful of terra-cottas depict an ithypallic male, and a number of divine figures on seals also seem to have an erect phallus. In addition, several seals have been interpreted as showing intercourse, in one case between a bull and a female, although these depictions are not clear and are capable of other interpretations.
Ring stones (stone spheres or truncated spheres, in various sizes, with a central hole) were originally identified as possibly yonis but were demonstrated to be pillar components by the discovery of examples in situ at Dholavira. While it is now clear that their use was architectural, a religious significance should not be ruled out on these grounds. Polished stone pillars with decorated capitals were erected as objects of devotion by the emperor Ashoka in the third century BCE, and it has been demonstrated that these were the climax of an earlier tradition of erecting stone and probably wooden pillars. Whether they symbolized the lingam and yoni or, as in later times, the World Axis, or some other sacred concept, it is entirely possible that stone pillars and ring stones holding a central wooden column had a sacred significance for the Harappans; this is underlined by their location in the gateways of the citadel at Dholavira, a liminal zone between the profane and sacred domains.
Asterisms
In his attempts to decipher the Indus script via plausible interpretations of some individual signs, Asko Parpola has studied the iconography of the Indus seals in great detail. Evidence that he has uncovered points to a strong interest by the Harappans in the stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies and their movements. Astral deities and mythology are a feature of later Indian religion. Comparison with the known movements of the stars and planets indicates that the traditional star calendar was in use in the twenty-fourth century BCE and was therefore that of the Harappans. Among the principal heavenly bodies that Parpola considered important to the Indus people were Saturn, Venus, the North Star, the Great Bear, and the Pleiades.
A famous seal from Mohenjo-daro allows Parpola to develop his theme in some detail. A goddess, her divinity indicated by her headdress, stands within a pipal tree. Before her kneels a male worshipper, also wearing a horned headdress and presenting an offering. This has often been identified as a severed human head although this is not entirely clear; the object may have two large animal ears rather than a double bun. An outsized ram with a human face stands behind him. Below them seven figures (probably female), with bangles, hair in plaits, and headdresses (probably of a pipal branch), walk in procession. Parpola identifies the goddess as Durga (seen in the heavens as Venus or Aldebaran), to whom human sacrifices were made until quite recently, and the kneeling figure as the youthful god known variously as Skanda, Rudra, or
A seal from Mohenjo-daro showing a ritual or mythological scene. A figure makes an offering to a deity in a tree, watched by a ram with a human face, while seven figures form a procession in the foreground. Asko Parpola has made a detailed interpretation of this scene, linking it to traditional Indian cosmology. (J. M. Kenoyer, Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan)
Kumara, bound to the goddess in a sacred marriage that will culminate in his sacrifice. Rudra was nursed in his youth by the wives of the Seven Sages (who appear in the heavens as the stars of the Great Bear while their wives are represented by the Pleiades), and these may be the seven figures at the foot of the scene.
Such reconstructions may overstretch the evidence, but they provide a important first step in attempting to reconstruct something of the religious beliefs of the Indus people. Other scholars have interpreted this scene differently; for example, there is no agreement on the gender of the seven figures in the foreground. Processions of seven figures are known from other seals, and it is certainly probable that these seven figures had some religious significance. They all wear their hair in a braid, as do many figures on seals that seem to be divinities, and it is possible or even probable that this hairstyle was confined to deities. The braid appears in two forms: One, worn for example by these seven figures and by the female figure between two men with spears in one of the scenes already discussed, is a simple plait, shown as a ribbed line ending in a blob of loose hair or by a narrow pair of lines filled by diagonal hatching. The other is a great deal wider and may represent a scarf or streamer rather than hair; it seems in some instances to run continuously across the head as a headband or hood. This is worn by a number of divine figures, such as the goddess with a tiger's body and the goddess within a tree, and it is also worn by the yogic figure with fish. In procession scenes, a similarly depicted streamer is carried attached to a pole.
World History
