Symbols

Abstract designs and other motifs are frequently found on copper tablets and a few seals, on pottery and other artifacts, or incorporated into the design of objects. The heart-shaped pipal leaf was particularly common, used to symbolize the pipal tree and in other contexts, for example in headdresses worn by deities, often combined with horns, as a blanket over the back of the unicorn on seals, and perhaps echoed in the heart - or kidney-shaped pieces of shell cut for inlay. Another motif, found particularly on copper tablets, is the endless knot, a design that has continued in use in the subcontinent, as has the swastika, also known from Harappan contexts, both of them auspicious signs. Overlapping circles formed a design used on pottery, occasionally on tiles, and on shell inlays, and echoed in eye beads; other designs, on pottery and elsewhere, included a regular fish scale pattern, circles with a central dot, and checkerboards. An circle or oval resembling a six-spoked wheel occurs in a number of contexts, especially as a sign in the script, written vertically. It is likely that it represented the sun disc since spoked wheels had not been invented by this time, and this is a way that many cultures have chosen to represent the sun. This interpretation is supported by the symbol's appearance above a scene on a cylindrical molded terra-cotta tablet showing a female deity wrestling two tigers; in this case it is shown horizontally, perhaps to indicate that it was not to be read as a script sign. Symmetry, geometric complexity, and order seem to have been key features of these motifs; the same guiding principles underlie many aspects of Harappan life, such as the cardinally orientated streets, the 1:2:4 proportions of bricks, the1:2 ratio of many citadels, or the layout of structures such as the complex of the Great Bath.

Numbers probably had ritual significance in Harappan as in later Indian religion. These included three, as in the three-lobed trefoil on the Priest-king's robe and elsewhere, and in the three-pronged headdress of deities (two horns and a branch). A number of scenes show seven worshippers, and seven is the number of fire altars on one of the platforms in the Kalibangan citadel. Thirteen is another number with later significance, for instance representing the number of lunar months in the year, and several images on tablets from Harappa show a deity under an arch with thirteen pipal leaves, while in another case the arch has seven leaves. Numbers had many astronomical links, possibly also reflected in Harappan iconography.