Posts by "Indus Valley Civilization"
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on November 10, 2023 10


The last Ice Age, which began nearly 125,000 years ago, had reached its maximum extent during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) around 20,000 years ago. At this time, large parts of the Northern Hemisphere were covered in kilometers thick ice caps, and the sea level was nearly 400 feet lower than it is today.[1] Large tracts of the continental shelves which are now submerged under water, used to be sea-front, real estate – perhaps supporting many thriving, maritime, Ice Age civilizations. Not only were the existing islands much larger back then, but many new islands were exposed in the seas, which were connected to each other and to the mainland by land bridges, forming vast antediluvian landmasses. 
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on April 23, 2021 12

Kartikeya Slays Mahishasura

A Harappa molded tablet (H95-2486) shows a person thrusting a spear into the shoulder of a water buffalo. He is pressing down the water buffalo’s head down with his foot, while holding the tip of a horn with his left hand. A yogic figures seated in mulabandhasana posture, and wearing a horned headdress with a central leafy branch, is looking on. What is the significance of this image?

Harappan Molded tablet H95-2486 depicting an individual spearing a buffalo
Figure 1: Harappan Molded tablet H95-2486 depicting an individual spearing a buffalo. Source: harappa.com

I had initially thought that this might depict a buffalo sacrifice as part of a funerary rite, which is a common practice amongst some tribal cultures of the Indian subcontinent. However, the horned yogic figure would look out of place in a funerary scene. Besides, even in tribal cultures, buffaloes are never speared by holding their horns. This is a dangerous undertaking, and is likely to be the work of some heroic figure. 

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on February 20, 2019 6
The Yali in Indus Art

Mohenjo-daro seal M-300 depicts a composite animal with a pair of horns, the tusks and trunk of an elephant, lion’s mane, the graceful body of an antelope, the hind legs of a tiger, and an upright serpent-like tail.
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on September 30, 2018 21
In the previous article titled “Krishna and the Gond Prophet Lingo: The Mythological Connections” I had discussed the correlations between the exploits of the Gond Prophet Lingo and the Hindu deity Krishna, when he was living in Vrindavan with the cowherd boys and girls of Nanda’s farm.
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on September 04, 2018 6
Note: This article has been published in eSamskriti.

The Gond tribes of Central India are the largest ethnic tribe of India, numbering over 14 million people, concentrated primarily in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and the adjoining states.

The Gonds regard Lingo as their legendary hero, prophet, and teacher. He was the one who had organized them into clans, gave them their gods, rituals, ceremonies, dances, and music, and taught them farming, hunting, and fire making. His primary feat, however, was to release the Gonds from captivity in a cave, where they had been locked up by Mahadev.
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on September 03, 2017 28
Note: This article has been published on Graham Hancock's website and on Esamskriti.

Concealed within the desolate, rocky, landscape of the Makran coastline of Southern Balochistan, Pakistan, is an architectural gem that has gone unnoticed and unexplored for centuries. The Balochistan Sphinx, as it is popularly called, came into the public eye only after the Makran Coastal Highway opened in 2004, linking Karachi with the port town of Gwadar on the Makran coast. A four-hour long drive (240 kms) from Karachi, through meandering mountain passes and arid valleys, brings one to the Hingol National Park where the sphinx is located. 
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on March 29, 2017 30
Bull-Leaping

 My interest in the Minoan civilization of Crete was sparked when I noted a conspicuous parallel between the Indus and Minoan cultures – that of the popularity of the sport of bull-leaping. Indus seals from c.2600 BCE onwards show acrobats leaping over a bull, while in Cretan art bull-leaping appears at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age in c.1700 BCE.
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on January 13, 2017 16
Note: This article has been published in Esamskriti.
 
Bull-Leaping on Indus Seals
 
Jumping over a bull was a popular sport amongst the Indus people. A seal from Banawali (c.2300 – 1700 BCE) shows an acrobat leaping over a bull. Another seal from Mohenjo-Daro (c.2600 – 1900 BCE) depicts two people participating in the sport simultaneously: one person jumps from the back of the bull and lands in front, and is shown in various stages of leaping, while another person jumps from the front.
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on April 01, 2016 3
In the Mahabharata, Draupadi has been portrayed as a dutiful, benign, wife to the Pandava brothers. Although she plays an extremely important role in the epic – after all, it was her humiliating disrobing that had set the ball rolling for an eventual conflict in the battlefields of Kurukshetra – she was dependant on the Pandavas for protection, and looked upon Krishna as her confidant and guide.
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on March 07, 2016 3
Note: This article has been published on Esamskriti.
A cylinder seal discovered at the Indus Valley site of Kalibangan (K-65) has a complex narrative. It shows a goddess figure wearing a horned headdress, having the hind part of a tiger. She is wearing a long head-scarf, and both her hands are covered with bangles. On either side of her, two men are trying to spear each other. They are holding the hands of a lady who is wearing a long head-scarf, bangles in one arm, and a long skirt.
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on January 23, 2016 10
The Pashupati Seal 
 
The famous Pashupati seal (Mohenjo-Daro Seal No.420) shows a figure with three faces, seated on a throne in a yogic posture. He is wearing a horned head-dress with a cluster of feathers or leafy branches in the center. His body is adorned with many necklaces, and his arms are covered with bangles. He is surrounded by four wild animals – elephant, rhinoceros, tiger and water buffalo. Below his throne are a pair of ibexes.
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on January 03, 2016 39
Note: This article has been published on heritageonline.in

The Gond tribes of Central India have been in the news lately because of their linguistic connections to the Indus Valley civilization.

According to Gondi scholar Dr.Motiravan Kangale, the letters of the Gondi script, which can be found inscribed in the interiors of the Gotuls (youth dormitories) in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, resemble the Indus script - in particular, the Late Harappan style of writing. He provided a number of decipherments of the Indus seal inscriptions using the root morphemes of the proto-Dravidian Gondi language.
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on October 07, 2015 41

The Indus Seals

Nearly a hundred years after the Indus Valley civilization was first discovered in the 1920s, the language of the Indus seals remains shrouded in a veil of mystery. 

The Indus seals date from the earliest period of the Harappan civilization from c.3500 BCE. Most of them are an inch square – roughly as big as a postage stamp – and generally made of steatite (soapstone). Typically, a brief script was incised along the top of the seal. The rest of the seal was occupied by an image in relief, which generally depicted one or more animals or a yogi seated in a meditating posture.

Till date, nearly 4000 inscribed texts have been found, containing around 420 unique signs, of which 31 signs are used frequently. Since the unique symbols are in excess of 400, the Indus script is believed to be logo-syllabic i.e. some of the signs express an idea or a word, while the others represent a sound. The inscribed texts are very brief with an average of five signs. 
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