Insight into Harappan Religion
Renowned in the world for its excellent urban management and significant attention on aspects like planning, Indus Valley Civilization, has occupied the pages of history textbooks with its city ruins, bricks, drains, seals and what not. But one aspect that is very well neither researched nor published is the religious practices and belief system (if such a thing existed) of Harappan Civilization.
In the lack of any decipherable literary sources and confirmed non-secular archaeological remains, the Indus people's religious views are among the most complicated and least understood aspects of their society. Since the Indus civilization was discovered, many academics have written about it, but sadly only briefly. Whether it was Sir John Marshall, Mortimer Wheeler, or George Dales, it is clear that this is the region of the civilization that has received the least attention.
“One must watch the strong tendencies of scholars to connect the Indus religion with Hinduism in modern India and tracing the known in the unknown.”
- Mukhtar Ahmed, Ancient Pakistan - An Archaeological History (Volume VI)
In first place, we cannot make a
simple assumption that what we today understand as “Hinduism” is to be found in
Bronze Age. Unlike John Marshall, who worked with the tendency to read the
elements of later Hinduism into the historical finds unearthed, we need to look
at the picture without any notions that may impose our modern understanding
onto the yet silent but communicating evidences.
Thus, drawing parallels between
double graves of Harappa and Sati practice or identifying the representation of
elephants, which may or may not have had a religious significance, as a
devotional practice to Ganesh, would be a highly anachronistic approach. There
may be some existing continuity in religious thoughts and practices linking the
concerned period with later centuries, but to say that Hinduism is perceptible
in Harappan Civilization is a rather unjust lens to view the same.
Major sources that help us reconstruct few religious concepts, associations or beliefs are the seals, copper tablets, figurines of various types and sometimes even painted pots that give us a pictorial depiction of the same. Shereen Ratnagar makes an interesting argument regarding religious rituals that we search in the ruins of settlement. She asserts, ritual commands attention in our world. It is a repetitive and formulaic action, with fixed sequences and procedures that become important in themselves but it may not be true for early religious ceremonials to take a fixed pattern. 'Dramatic sound and sight, or vivid symbols, or the togetherness of people could have been more important than a fixed sequence of action.' Thus, lack of certain kind of remains like architectural associations of rituals should be viewed under this light.
Let's now briefly review each item that has been linked to the purported religious practices of the Indus people since its discovery.
House 1 of HR-A Area, Mohenjo-Daro
The plan of a house in the southwestern area of the city of Mohenjo-Daro is a quite distinct one. It is of average size but it has a double entrance (rather narrow), and in the courtyard there is a brick circle of 1.2 meters diameter, which could have ringed a tree. On two sides of the courtyard two sets of exceptionally wide staircases lead up in opposite directions leading to an upper courtyard surrounded by several rooms, which would not have been necessary in an ordinary house.
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| House-1, HR-A, Mohenjo-Daro Giving the view of one of the 2 entrances, courtyard and double staircases. Credit : harappa.com |
Double entrance, double stairs and tree enclosure are unusual features. Yet, these three elements don't occur repeatedly in several buildings at this or any other Harappan site, to mark out 'temples'. In Mesopotamia, in contrast, temples were, like houses, made of mud brick and were mot always particularly large buildings, but invariably had buttressed-and-recessed outer walls, which no secular building had.
Things to be particularly noted are that the house is flanked by Deadman Lane and certain finds in the structure include a skeleton (probably of a rich man?) wearing ivory bangles and faience neck ornament in one of the courtyards (an unusual place of burial for Harrapans, they generally interred their dead in cemeteries), a vandalized stone statue of a man (whose one piece is found in the adjacent house and another at Deadman Lane) another face-statue (again vandalized).
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| Vandalized Statue |
Some scholars like Kenoyer identify it either as a temple or a house of politically influential person while some identify it as a part of engravers' quarter. Whether the statue is of a deity or of a man is yet to be confirmed. Question regarding other finds remain unanswered.
Great Bath of Mohenjo-Daro
Romila Thapar says that since neither the temples were the focus of social bonding and nor the traditions of ancestral rituals are apparent, for people tended to migrate away from the cities when they declined, thus it can be argued that cities may not therefore have been the focus of religious worship.
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| 'Great Bath' at Mohenjo-Daro Credit : harappa.com |
Nonetheless, Citadel at Mohenjo-Daro has been marked out by certain well known features like a raised platform along with some important structures like Granary, College of Priests (though should not be taken as literally since many of the terms were given by western historians by drawing parallels with other familiar cultures like the 'priest-king' inspired from Mesopotamia and College of Priests from College of Cardinals at Vatican) and the Great Bath among others.
The Bath at the Mohenjo-Daro is unique in the Harappan world. It is the only free standing building of Mohenjo-Daro, not sharing a party wall with any adjoining structure. Comparison with South Indian temple tanks is open to conjectures. South Indian temple tanks have steps in four sides along with being deep and big in contrast to that of Great Bath.
A significant claim made about the Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro is that it served as a formal structure for ritual bathing. However, there is no evidence to support this claim that it was used for anything other than sanitary needs, with the exception of use of structures of the same kind by later religions in this region, particularly Hinduism.
Clay-plaster-lined pits/'Fire Altars'
Some small clay-plaster-lined pits have been found at Kalibangan and such similar fixtures are found at other sites as well like Amri in southern Sind, Lothal, Banawali and Nageshwar though the details vary, for example, shape of the fire pit and nature of column.
The seven 'fire altars', detected in the southern divide of the citadel of Kalibangan, along with containing ash and terracotta cakes, with a clay column rising from the center, the drain and well, and animal bones, indicate that ritual here may have involved the lighting of fires, ablution and animal sacrifice.
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| Kalibangan 'fire altars' Credit : harappa.com |
Some academics have referred to these as "fire altars" since some of them contain charcoal remnants. The question still remains, however, as no comparable structures have been discovered at Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, or any other site aside from those named. If these so-called "fire altars" had any religious or ritual significance, it must have been local. In addition to these two, "sacrificial altars" with ox bones and an ox jaw were discovered in Kalibangan and Lothal, respectively. The fact that there are so few of these altars among the numerous Indus towns not only makes it doubtful but negates the propounding existence of an ox-slaughter cult or for claiming it to have Vedic affinities on this basis.
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| Square 'fire altar' at Lothal, Street 9 |
Allchin considers this finding to be pretty problematic as fire worship is distinctly considered to be an Indo-Aryan trait, which might raise the question of Aryan presence in certain areas of Indus at an earlier date then what was previously thought. Now keeping the recent research in mind this earlier hypothesis of an Aryan invasion has been clearly negated, therefore it will be justified to say that Aryans had been flowing into the sub-continent at different time intervals.
Terracotta Figurines/'Mother-goddesses'
Worship of female goddesses associated with fertility has long been held as the major feature of Harrapan religion. The major incentive for this reconstruction is the wide number of terracotta female figurines that were labelled 'Mother Goddesses'. However, describing all female figurines as representations of a single great 'Mother Goddess' associated with fertility and maternity over-simplifies the situation.
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| The 'Mother Goddess' Credit : National Museum, New Delhi |
Catherine Jarrige who has extensively studied the Mehargarh figurines points out that they are frequently found in trash deposits giving the impression that they were haphazardly discarded. But may have been involved in some kind of domestic cult as the trash deposits are near or within the household areas, and might be associated with, “representations of tutelary deities for the family, the clan".
Jarrige also noted that holes running through the figurines and small twigs cutting straight through them were made several times while the clay was still soft. According to her, this could either represent a magical attempt to relieve oneself from pain, be it moral, psychological or physical, or a way to harm someone through an image, or the role the woman might have played in society, for from a grave of Period I, a pierced human figurine has been found, held to the dead woman’s face in clasped hands.
A few things about these figurines are pretty obvious: first, they changed over time; second, their modelling is basic and crude compared to other artistic materials; and third, they were carelessly thrown away in household trash, which Rita Wright speculates may indicate that they were similar to the Barbie and G. I. Joe dolls of the twentieth century, which were created for play.
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| Female figurine with intricate details but still poor modelling Copyright : bridgemanart.com |
Ratnagar, highlighting a changed perspective, argues that there is no intrinsic evidence for labelling these red-washed terracottas as a goddess, let alone a mother. She also adds that figurines portraying women are not as common or numerous as has been made out, even at Mohenjo-Daro, where most of these were found further pointing out that the kind of schematic representation, we are talking about, of a woman is not found at all Harappan sites : it is known in settlements along Indus but is absent at Mitathal, Surkotada, Kalibangan and Lothal. She also questions their function as that of votives as they do not cluster near street junctions where trees could have stood, or in hearths, or in wells.
A study of Harappan terracottas by Alexander Ardeleanu-Jansen has underlined a great variety in the form of female figurines. The type which is most often interpreted as having a religious significance is a slim female figure with a distinctive fan-shaped headdress, wearing a short skirt in addition to being heavily ornamented. Some have cup-like attachments which have yielded traces of black residue in certain cases, suggesting that they were used to burn oil or essence. Another type of figurines is that of matronly, pot-bellied type who may represent a pregnant or prosperous woman. The 'matronly type' can stand without support while the 'slim-type' needs support.
Conical Objects and Stone Rings/'Lingas'/Measurement tools
According to Chakrabarti, "some of the stones found in Mohenjo-Daro are unmistakably phallic stones", referring to the small conical stones and stone rings linking them to the two components of later Shiva Lingas with linga and the yoni, signifying the male and female creative energy.
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| Various types of Conical and ring stones |
Irfan Habib, offering the utilitarian explanation, says that they might have served as pestles and for building short ornamented pillars seems more suitable. George Dales also argues that the context in which these stones were found do not suggest cultic significance. Some of these stones have lines on them and may have had architectural use, either to guide mason or to measure angles. Even Marshall suggested that some of these stones might have been grinders or unfinished weights.
George Dales made his argument forcefully, however, the debate has resurfaced with the finding of a terracotta linga with a yoni at Kalibangan, cited by Chakrabarti as the proof of unhinged linga worship since Harappan times.
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| Kalibangan terracotta 'linga with yoni' |
Masks
With the exception of one, the 'Masks' have only been found in subpar circumstances, making it challenging to determine their purpose even though there is a general agreement that these masks were worn during performances.
Mask found at Mohenjo-Daro
As is still done in the area today, Mark Kenoyer claims that they might have been used as finger puppets or amulets to explain myths and stories in dramatic enactments that might have included religious and possibly political topics. While other researchers, such as Asko Parpola and Sharri Clark, see them as ritual accoutrements or paraphernalia like "talismans on shamans' costumes" or link them to magical rites and deities.
Seals and Tablets
Most scholars have associated the Indus seals and imagery on it with the religious beliefs of the Indus people and almost all have linked it with the later south Asian religions (Hinduism and Buddhism).
While there are some who negate this hypothesis, and associate the Indus seals with the trading system as almost three quarters of the Indus seals carry representation of just a single animal (the Unicorn); the majority of these intaglio seals are square and are largely formulaic in design having relatively static figures, usually the unicorn but sometimes with a combination of another an animal, Indus script and a small icon.
Pashupati Seal
The Pashupati seal, an exotica discovered 3.9 meters below the surface in the southern part of Mohenjo-Daro's DK-G area, has sparked a variety of interpretations from academics, historians, Indologists, and scientists. Ernest Mackay dated the seal to between 2,350 and 2,000 BCE and assigned it the number 420 in his 1937–1938 study. The 3.56 x 3.53 cm seal is made of steatite and has a 0.76 centimeter thickness.
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| Seal 420 - The Pashupati Seal |
The central figure is found seated on a platform looking straight with legs bent at the knees. The heels of the figure touch each other and the toes point downwards. The arms are extended to reach the bent knees but don’t touch them rather they rest lightly upon the knees and the thumbs face away from the body.
The hands are embellished by three small bangles and eight large bangles. There are double band wraps around the waist with necklaces covering the chest. The figure has elaborate head-dresses that appears to be a fan-like crown with two huge striated horns similar to that of a bull. The central figure is surrounded by four animals- a water rhinoceros, a tiger, a bull and an elephant.
Below the figure, one may notice two ibexes facing backwards with their horns meeting each other. Above the central figure is seven boustrophedon pictographs that are undeciphered to date.
In his 1928–1929 publication, John Marshall claims that the central figure is one of the oldest depictions of the Hindu god Shiva. Although a school of researchers has criticized his assertions, the most widely accepted one seems to link the mark to proto-Shiva or Rudra Shiva, his Vedic forerunner.
On other hand, Doris Srinivasan came with an alternate approach and claimed that the central figure is a divine buffalo man. She identified the figure to be having a single head and claimed that what Marshall claimed to be two extra faces are ears of the buffalo man.
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| Kotdiji Water Pitcher Copyright - Bridgeman |
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| Diagram of Kotdiji Water Pitcher |
She attempted to relate the central figure of seal 420 with the terracotta bull recovered from Kalibangan, horned mask unearthed from Mohenjo-Daro and a horned deity represented in a water pitcher recovered from Kotdiji. With reference to these parallels, she interprets Marshall’s proto-Shiva as a divine buffalo man. However, the description seems to be dissatisfactory.
However, Bovine cultic significance is evident from other finds as well but the topic itself is a large one and needs a space of its own for elaboration. Nonetheless, here are two glimpses.
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| Purported bovine sacrifice and a 'meditating' man Credits - Harappa.com |
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| Water buffalo on a four legged platform with wheels One of the hoard of four objects, Daimabad Credits : Harappa.com |
Another notable interpretation of the Pashupati seal comes from SP Singh who identifies the seated figure to be Rudra.
Rudra is the Vedic predecessor of Lord Shiva nonetheless, the Rig Veda has only three hymns attributed to him. However, Rig Veda’s verse 2.33.11 depicts Rudra as fearsome as a formidable wild beast. It is also to be noted that verse 7.46.3 mentions that Rudra is armed with a bow and fast-flying arrows. There is no mention of the trident as well as a bull which’s depicted as the mount of Lord Shiva in later Puranas and epics.
The Rig Veda depicts Rudra as the lord of the hunt who’s known for his ferociousness and wrath and the depiction doesn’t fit a tranquil Pashupati. But verse 10.92 of the Rig Veda mentions that Rudra has dual natures- wrathful and tranquil.
Interestingly, SP Singh claims that animal surrounding the central figure in the seal are the zoomorphic depictions of maruts, or the storm gods. Verse 2.33 of Rig Veda exalts Rudra as the father of Maruts and 64th Verse of first book of Rig Veda compares Maruts with lion, deer, bull, elephant and serpent.
One of the most interesting Vedic interpretation of the Pashupati seal is given by Alf Hiltebeitel. He claims that the central figure seated is Mahishasura. The festival of Navaratri eulogizes the epic battle between Mahishasura, a very powerful buffalo demon and goddess Durga, an incarnation of Devi Parvati, the consort of Shiva. He claims that the animals depicted are the mounts of different Gods- like Bull (Nandi) is the mount of Shiva, Tiger (or Lion) is the mount of Goddess Durga and Elephant (Airavata) is the mount of Indra.
Of the the available interpretations, Herbert Sullivan of Duke University claimed that the seated figure is a woman. She claimed that what Marshall claimed to be the phallus is, ipso facto, a tassel.
Asko Parpola studied the Pashupati seal and claimed that the seal is an imitation of the proto-Elamite method of seating bulls. Some claims that the seated figure is an aquatic deity while others, like S R Rao, claim the seated figure to be Agni (Fire God) and even Indra (Rain God).
Some scholars also draw parallels from the Gundestrup Cauldron while others identify the central figure to be the Sage Rishyasringa of Ramayana Epic. However, there are some group of scholars who claim that the figure is not determinable.
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| Gundestrup Cauldron, Denmark Some have drawn parallels between the Seal 420 and this panel of Gundestrup Cauldron |
Other Seals
Then there are other seals that show battle combat between animals and humans and such contest with two beasts has strong parallels with Proto-Elamite Susa (south-western Iran) and also helps one to recall a composition of the Sumerian Gilgamesh and his lions.
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| Tiger wrestling seal Parallels are drawn between this and Gilgamesh |
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| Epic of Gilgamesh |
Beside this, on another seal in a mythological scene, there is a tiger with additional horns, which is being attacked by a “minotaur” or bull-man, which is reminiscent of the Sumerian Eabani or Enkidu whom the goddess Aruru created to combat Gilgamesh.
Parallels are found by Rita Wright between the iconography of Indus, Mesopotamian and Iranian seals (Jiroft culture), according to her the motifs and images on Mesopotamian and Iranian seals complement Indus themes and offer additional support to Bruce Trigger’s comparative analysis of early civilizations in lieu of their religious practices.
On the bases of these similarities, among other scholars, D. Frenez and M. Tosi have noted that the subject matter of these seals and tablets, conceptually belongs to a much wider geographical area then the Indus and which includes the Near East of the third millennium BCE, for many Indus artifacts and seals have been found in Mesopotamia and elsewhere, indicating clear affinities.
Steve Farmer, Richard Sproat and Michael Witzel in a joint paper also suggest close links between the Indus (signs on the seals) and of Near East which includes both Mesopotamia and Iranian cultures, especially the ones found at the entrance to the temple of Ninurta at Nippur (9th Century BC).
D. D. Kosambi says, "These shared designs may point to a 'common stratum of tradition between Mesopotamia and India'."
Then we have seals with branches of Pipal tree (Indian fig tree) and in one such seal from Mohenjo-Daro there is a deity in the Pipal tree with the ‘fish’ sign and a large markhor goat. Perhaps the deity is being worshipped by a human worshipper, a sacrificial offering while as many as seven females (maybe priestesses) are seen standing in a line at the bottom. According to several scholars the sacrificial offering in this seal has been identified as a human head. If this is true than we must find many examples of this ritual, but beside one excavated skull of a female in her early twenties from Chahun-Daro, in a jar closely set in brickwork, we find none.
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| Pleiades Seal Credit : harappa.com |
A seal from Mohenjo-Daro found by Wheeler in the 1920's. From his 1931 text: "The plant on the [seal] has been identified as a Pipal tree, which in India is the Tree of Creation. The arrangement is very conventional and from the lower part of the stem spring two heads similar to those of the so-called unicorn." These are considered as depiction of epiphany or theophany - a momentary manifestation of spirit/god/goddess of Pipal tree - by Shereen Ratnagar.
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| Impression of Pipal leaf in a drain at Harappa Credit- harappa.com |
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| Pipal leaf shaped well Credit- harappa.com |
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| Pipal leaf and unicorn sealing Credit- harappa.com |
The impressions of a Pipal leaf found in the upper clay levels of a drain in Harappa, shown here with a modern Pipal leaf, indicate that what many think was a sacred tree even at that time was growing in the ancient city of Harappa. A well at Mohenjo-Daro and a sealing from the city are other examples of this critical leaf in Indus culture.
Can it be considered a distant ancestor of Sarnaism or worship of trees and sacred groves, which the modern day communities of Jharkhand demand to be distinguished from the overarching all-absorbing framework of Hinduism? It awaits answer.
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| Seal - 12 Tiger looking back at a personage in a tree appears to be a popular theme. |
There are hints of Shamanistic practice on the copper tablets of Mohenjo-Daro. These are small, very thin sheets of copper/bronze on which are incised, with small, sharp tools, standardized inscription (spell?) on one face, and perhaps a masked figure with horns and clad in leaves, or an animal, on the other face. Were they protective amulets?
Priest-King Dilemma
Was there a priest king? Archaeologists' naming and nomenclature upon finding an artefact or building can confuse a generation of students and non-specialists ('priest-king', 'dancing girl', 'college of priests'). Like "college of priest" was conceived after witnessing the phenomenon like 'college of cardinals' at Vatican. The same has happened with 'priest-king'.
For the early British archaeologists, the Harappan was a civilization contrasting in its paucity of weapons with contemporary Mesopotamia. Moreover, India was the Orient, the land of religion; priest kings had to be more appropriate for earliest India than ruling dynasties.
Ratnagar asserts that Religion and ideology are always the trappings or 'packaging' of the exercise of political power, they cannot be its source. Thus, in one sense, all Bronze Age rulers were 'priest kings' with heavy ritual responsibilities, but to suggest that Harappan towns were ruled by priests and not kings would go against all the principles of early state structures.
Conclusion
Reconstruction of this particular aspect of the civilization has been quite challenging keeping in mind the obstacles of no confirmed major religious architectural finds (as those in the other contemporary ones), undeciphered script and others. Instead what we have are just speculations and reconstructed image projected from the sources of known entities either from present day understandings or from the contemporaneous confirmed sources. However, still what we have is a rich ocean of theories and plethora of clues and ideas being put forward by scholars and academicians that shed light on our ever-expanding understanding of the concerned people and their practices.
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