Arts of the Indus Valley

Written and reviewed by Subhra Gupta, Humanities faculty at UniDrill (M.A. Sociology, University of Delhi · 7 years teaching Humanities). Based on NCERT Fine Arts Class XI (An Introduction to Indian Art Part I), Chapter 2.

A four-inch girl who has not moved in four thousand years

She stands with one hand on her hip, a stack of bangles up her arm and her other hand curled in what the textbook calls a traditional Indian dance gesture. She is only about four inches tall, yet she has attitude. She is the Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro, and she belongs to a civilisation whose arts emerged in the second half of the third millennium BCE. This chapter is about what that civilisation made, how it made it, and what each object tells us about daily life.

The artists of the Indus Valley worked in stone, metal, clay, shell and semi-precious stones. Their forms include sculptures, seals, pottery, jewellery and terracotta figures. They show fine artistic sensibility: human and animal figures are highly realistic, and the anatomical details are distinctive. In terracotta in particular, animals are modelled with extreme care.

Cities, sites and what they are known for

The two major sites, both on the Indus river, are Harappa in the north and Mohenjodaro in the south. They show one of the earliest examples of civic planning: houses, markets, storage facilities, offices and public baths arranged in a grid-like pattern, with a highly developed drainage system. Harappa and Mohenjodaro are in Pakistan, while the important excavated sites in India include Lothal and Dholavira in Gujarat, Rakhigarhi in Haryana, Ropar in Punjab and Kalibangan in Rajasthan.

Why it matters. The same two or three site names keep recurring in questions: Lothal for the dog, bird and bead factory, Mohenjodaro for the Dancing Girl and bearded man, and Daimabad for the proof that the casting tradition did not stop.

Stone statues: few but refined

Statues in stone, bronze or terracotta are not abundant at Harappan sites, but those that exist are refined. The stone statues found at Harappa and Mohenjodaro are excellent examples of handling three-dimensional volume. In stone there are two male figures that are extensively discussed: a torso in red sandstone and a bust of a bearded man in soapstone.

The torso. It has socket holes in the neck and shoulders, meant for fixing the head and arms separately. The frontal posture was chosen consciously, the shoulders are well modelled, and the abdomen is slightly prominent.

The bearded man. The figure is interpreted as a priest. He is draped in a shawl that comes under the right arm and covers the left shoulder, and the shawl is decorated with trefoil patterns. The eyes are slightly elongated and half closed, as if in meditative concentration. The nose is well formed and medium sized, the mouth average, with a close-cut moustache and short beard and whiskers. The ears look like double shells with a hole in the middle. The hair is parted in the middle and a plain woven fillet runs round the head. An armlet is worn on the right arm, and holes around the neck suggest a necklace.

Two views. For the exam: the bearded stone figure is interpreted as a priest. Another reading: "priest" is an interpretation, and scholars have long discussed whether the bust shows a priest, a ruler or some other important person, because the script that might name him has not been deciphered. Either way, the garment and the half closed eyes are the features to remember.

Bronze casting: the lost wax technique

Bronze casting was practised on a wide scale by the Harappans, using the lost wax technique. The steps are worth learning in order, because a cause-and-effect sequence like this is easy to turn into a question.

Pause and predict: why is it called the "lost" wax technique?

Check your answer: because the wax model is melted away and lost when the mould is heated. The wax is used only once, so each cast figure is unique. The empty space it leaves is what the metal fills.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: the Harappans used lost wax casting and the Daimabad finds show the tradition continued. In reality: metal casting techniques of the same nature are still practised in many parts of India, so this is one of the longest continuous craft traditions in the country. You will meet it again in Indian Bronze Sculpture, where lost wax casting reaches its later famous forms.

In bronze there are both human and animal figures. The best human example is the statue of a girl popularly known as the Dancing Girl. Among animal figures the buffalo, with its uplifted head, back and sweeping horns, and the goat are of high artistic merit. Bronze casting was popular at all the major centres: the copper dog and bird of Lothal are in no way inferior to the human figures of copper and bronze from Harappa and Mohenjodaro. The late Harappan and Chalcolithic sites such as Daimabad in Maharashtra yielded excellent metal sculptures of human and animal figures, which shows how the tradition of figure sculpture continued down the ages.

Terracotta: humble, but full of life

Indus people also made terracotta images, but compared with the stone and bronze statues, the terracotta human figures are crude. They are more realistic at the Gujarat sites and Kalibangan. The most important figures are those of the mother goddess. There are also a few figurines of bearded males with coiled hair, standing rigidly upright with legs slightly apart and arms parallel to the sides of the body. The repetition of this figure in exactly the same position suggests that he was a deity. A terracotta mask of a horned deity has also been found.

Not all terracotta was serious. The same craft gave toy carts with wheels, whistles, rattles, birds and animals, gamesmen and discs.

Mother goddess. The figures are usually crude standing females, wearing necklaces that hang over prominent breasts, a loin cloth and a girdle. The most distinctive feature is the fan-shaped head-dress with a cup-like projection on each side. The pellet eyes and beaked nose are very crude and the mouth is just a slit.

Seals: the Indus Valley's signature

Archaeologists have found thousands of seals, mostly made of steatite, and occasionally of agate, chert, copper, faience and terracotta. Some seals in ivory have also been found. They carry beautiful figures of animals such as the unicorn bull, rhinoceros, tiger, elephant, bison, goat and buffalo. The realistic rendering of these animals in various moods is remarkable.

The purpose of the seals was mainly commercial. They may also have been used as amulets, carried by their owners, perhaps as modern day identity cards. The standard Harappan seal was a square plaque, 2 × 2 inches, made from steatite. Every seal is engraved in a pictographic script that is yet to be deciphered. Motifs include the bull, with or without the hump, the elephant, tiger, goat and also monsters, and sometimes trees or human figures. Figures and animals are carved in intaglio on the surface, that is, cut into it, so that a pressed impression comes out raised.

The Pashupati seal. The most remarkable seal has a figure in the centre with animals around. It shows a human figure seated cross-legged. An elephant and a tiger appear to the right of the seated figure, a rhinoceros and a buffalo to the left, and two antelopes below the seat. Seals like this date from 2500 to 1900 BCE and were found in considerable numbers at sites such as Mohenjodaro.

Two views. For the exam: this seal is generally identified as the Pashupati seal by some scholars, whereas others identify the central figure as a female deity. Either answer is linked with the seal, and a question usually gives both names together. Another reading: because the script is undeciphered, there is no written label to settle the question, and the identification rests on how scholars read the posture and the surrounding animals.

Square or rectangular copper tablets have also been found, with an animal or a human figure on one side and an inscription on the other, or an inscription on both sides. The figures and signs are cut carefully with a burin. They seem to have been amulets. Unlike seals, whose inscriptions vary from one to another, the inscriptions on copper tablets seem to be associated with the animals shown on them.

Pottery: wheel-made and graceful

A large quantity of pottery excavated from the sites lets us follow the evolution of designs. Indus pottery is chiefly very fine wheel-made ware, with very few hand-made pieces. Plain pottery is more common than painted.

Household pottery comes in as many shapes and sizes as can be imagined for daily use. Straight and angular shapes are an exception, and graceful curves are the rule. Miniature vessels, mostly less than half an inch in height, are so marvellously crafted that they evoke admiration.

Pause and predict: a pot has one large hole at the bottom and small holes all over the wall. Was it for storing water?

Check your answer: No. Holes would let water run out. The design suggests a strainer for beverages, which is exactly why it is called perforated ware.

The painted earthen jar of Mohenjodaro. It was made on a potter's wheel, the shape manipulated by the pressure of the potter's fingers. After the clay was baked, it was painted in black and then highly polished as a finishing touch. The motifs are plants and geometric forms, simple but with a tendency towards abstraction.

Beads, ornaments and the way people dressed

Harappan men and women decorated themselves with ornaments made from every possible material, from precious metals and gemstones to bone and baked clay. Necklaces, fillets, armlets and finger-rings were worn by both sexes, while women wore girdles, earrings and anklets. Hoards of jewellery found at Mohenjodaro and Lothal include gold and semi-precious stone necklaces, copper bracelets and beads, gold earrings, faience pendants and buttons, and steatite and gemstone beads. A cemetery at Farmana in Haryana shows that bodies were buried with ornaments.

The bead industry was well developed, as the factories at Chanhudaro and Lothal show. Beads were made of carnelian, amethyst, jasper, crystal, quartz, steatite, turquoise and lapis lazuli, of metals such as copper, bronze and gold, and of shell, faience and terracotta. The shapes are varied: disc, cylindrical, spherical, barrel shaped and segmented. Some beads were made of two or more stones cemented together and some of stone with gold covers. Some were decorated by incising or painting and some had designs etched on them. The Harappans also made naturalistic models of animals, especially monkeys and squirrels, used as pin-heads and beads.

A large number of spindles and spindle whorls in houses show that spinning of cotton and wool was very common. The whorls are of expensive faience and also of cheap pottery and shell. Men and women wore two pieces of attire similar to the dhoti and shawl, and the shawl covered the left shoulder, passing below the right. Different hairstyles were in vogue and wearing a beard was popular among all. Cinnabar was used as a cosmetic and face paint, and lipstick and collyrium (eyeliner) were also known.

Famous works at a glance

The Dancing Girl's details are worth reading closely. Her long hair is tied in a bun. Bangles cover her left arm, a bracelet and an amulet or bangle adorn her right arm, and a cowry shell necklace is seen around her neck. Her right hand is on her hip and her left hand is clasped in a traditional Indian dance gesture. She has large eyes and a flat nose. The figure is full of expression and bodily vigour. The bronze bull from Mohenjodaro expresses the massiveness of the animal and the fury of its charge, with the head turned to the right and a cord round the neck.

Exam traps

60-second revision

Where this chapter connects

• Previous: Prehistoric Rock Paintings shows art before cities. Here art becomes a craft produced for trade, ornament and ritual.
• Next: Arts of the Mauryan Period brings monumental stone sculpture back in a very different, courtly and religious form.
• Later link: Indian Bronze Sculpture carries forward the lost wax tradition seen here.