[Y-Indology] Animals in Indus Valley Civilization

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Mahavir Chavan writes:

 

> Animals in Indus Valley Civilization

>

> On the seals found in Mohan-Jo-Daro and Harappa, there are pictures

> of animals. I am looking for the list of animals and birds in Indus

> Valley Civilization. If anyone knows more about this subject, please

> tell me.

>

> Mahavir Chavan

 

It is difficult to give an authoritative list of Indus animals on

seals, since so many of the animals and birds found there are

mythological. They include unicorns, tigers and elephants with divine

horns, goats/markhors with plants/signs for tails, and lots of

composite creatures -- e.g., horned animals with trunks and weird (and

maybe human) faces. You see these a lot hanging around sacrificial

scenes, e.g., on the famous seal M-1186. There are also half human and

half tiger creatures.

 

It is interesting that nearly all animals depicted on seals are males,

with unusually prominent genitalia (for illustrations, see page 19 from

my last Harvard Roundtable slide lecture on the mythological functions

of the seals, given earlier this year; you can download it [item 1.1]

from http://www.safarmer.com/downloads ). On p. 19 in the middle you

can also see one of those odd horned/trunked animals with an apparent

human face. Also on that page: a goat, bison, unicorn, zebu, fairly

realistic in this case. But on previous pages you can see a

mythological markhor (a goat-like animal) carrying an Indus sign for a

tail, and a rhino with what appears to be an Indus sign for a horn!!

(Indus symbols turn up in odd places on seals, including the heads of

priests.)

 

If Harappan horses are on your mind -- as is well known, there weren't

any. :^)

 

For a full picture of all these animals, see the 2 vols. of the _Corpus

of Indus Seals and Inscriptions_.

 

If you want to compare what you find in the pictures with what is known

of Indus animals from the archaeological record, see the essays in the

indispensable _Indus Ethnobiology: New Perspectives from the Field_,

ed. Steven A. Weber and William R. Belcher (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington

Books, 2003). Articles there by Richard Meadow and Ajita Patel on Indus

fauna in general and by William Belcher on Indus fish, along with the

attached bibliographical data, cover the topic well.

 

Best,

Steve Farmer

http://www.safarmer.com/downloads

 

On Thursday, September 30, 2004, at 11:23 AM, Mahavir wrote:

 

>

> Animals in Indus Valley Civilization

>

> On the seals found in Mohan-Jo-Daro and Harappa, there are pictures

> of animals. I am looking for the list of animals and birds in Indus

> Valley Civilization. If anyone knows more about this subject, please

> tell me.

>

> Mahavir Chavan

>

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