Chapter 02: Arts of the Indus Valley - Notes
1. Introduction to Indus Valley Arts
Period: Emerged during the second half of the third millennium BCE.
Art Forms: Includes sculptures, seals, pottery, jewellery, terracotta figures, etc.
Artistic Sensibilities: Artists had fine artistic sensibilities and vivid imagination.
Realism: Delineation of human and animal figures was highly realistic, with unique anatomical details. Terracotta animal figures were carefully modeled.
Major Sites:
Pakistan: Harappa (north) and Mohenjodaro (south) – showcase early civic planning with grid patterns and developed drainage.
India: Lothal and Dholavira (Gujarat), Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Ropar (Punjab), Kalibangan (Rajasthan).
2. Stone Statues
Abundance & Refinement: Not abundant, but refined. Excellent examples of handling three-dimensional volumes.
Key Discoveries: Two male figures from Harappa and Mohenjodaro.
Torso: In red sandstone. Socket holes for head and arms. Frontal posture, well-baked shoulders, slightly prominent abdomen.
Bust of a Bearded Man (Priest): In soapstone.
Description: Draped in a shawl with trefoil patterns, coming under the right arm and covering the left shoulder.
Face: Elongated, half-closed eyes (meditative concentration), well-formed medium nose, average mouth with close-cut moustache, short beard and whiskers.
Ears: Resemble double shells with a hole.
Hair: Parted in the middle, plain woven fillet around the head.
Ornaments: Armlet on the right hand, holes around the neck suggest a necklace.
3. Bronze Casting
Technique: Practiced using the 'lost wax' (cire perdue) technique, which has a continuous tradition in India even today.
Process: Wax figure covered with clay, dried. Wax heated and drained through a tiny hole. Hollow mould filled with molten metal. Clay cover removed after cooling.
Figures: Human and animal figures.
Human: Best example is the 'Dancing Girl' statue from Mohenjodaro (approx. 4 inches high, copper).
Description: Long hair tied in a bun, bangles on left arm, bracelet and amulet/bangle on right arm, cowry shell necklace. Right hand on hip, left hand in traditional Indian dance gesture. Large eyes, flat nose. Full of expression and bodily vigour.
Animal: Buffalo (uplifted head, back, sweeping horns) and goat are of artistic merit.
Other Examples: Copper dog and bird of Lothal, bronze bull from Kalibangan.
Continuity: Metal casting appears to be a continuous tradition, with excellent examples from Late Harappan and Chalcolithic sites like Daimabad in Maharashtra.
4. Terracotta
Quantity & Realism: Terracotta images were made, but generally cruder than stone/bronze statues in the Indus Valley (more realistic in Gujarat sites and Kalibangan).
Important Figures:
Mother Goddess: Most important figures, usually crude standing female figures with prominent breasts, necklaces, loin cloth, and girdles. Distinctive fan-shaped headdress with cup-like projections, pellet eyes, beaked nose, and slit mouth.
Bearded Males: Few figurines with coiled hair, rigidly upright posture, slightly apart legs, arms parallel to sides. Repetition suggests deity.
Horned Deity: A terracotta mask found.
Other Terracotta Items: Toy carts with wheels, whistles, rattles, birds and animals, gamesmen, and discs.
5. Seals
Abundance: Thousands discovered.
Materials: Mostly steatite, occasionally agate, chert, copper, faience, and terracotta.
Imagery: Beautiful figures of animals (unicorn bull, rhinoceros, tiger, elephant, bison, goat, buffalo, etc.). Remarkable realistic rendering in various moods. Sometimes trees or human figures.
Purpose: Mainly commercial. Also used as amulets (perhaps as identity cards).
Standard Harappan Seal: Square plaque (2x2 inches) made from steatite.
Script: Engraved with a pictographic script, yet to be deciphered. Some seals in ivory.
Notable Seal: Pashupati Seal / Female Deity (identified differently by scholars).
Description: Human figure seated cross-legged. Elephant and tiger on the right, rhinoceros and buffalo on the left. Two antelopes below the seat.
Dating: 2500 and 1900 BCE, found in significant numbers at Mohenjodaro.
Technique: Figures and animals carved in intaglio (depressed below surface).
Copper Tablets: Square or rectangular, with animal/human figure on one side and inscription on the other (or inscription on both sides). Carefully cut with a burin. Appear to be amulets. Inscriptions often associated with the portrayed animals.
6. Pottery
Quantity: Large quantities excavated, showing evolution of design motifs.
Production: Chiefly very fine wheel-made wares (very few hand-made).
Types:
Plain Pottery: More common than painted. Generally red clay, with or without a fine red or grey slip. Includes knobbed ware.
Black Painted Ware: Fine coating of red slip with geometric and animal designs in glossy black paint.
Polychrome Pottery: Rare, small vases with geometric patterns in red, black, and green (rarely white and yellow).
Incised Ware: Rare, incised decoration confined to bases of pans (inside) and dishes of offering stands.
Perforated Pottery: Large hole at bottom, small holes all over, probably for straining beverages.
Shapes: Wide variety of shapes and sizes for daily practical use. Graceful curves are common; straight/angular shapes are exceptions. Miniature vessels (less than half an inch) show marvellous craftsmanship.
7. Beads and Ornaments
Decoration: Harappan men and women used a large variety of ornaments.
Materials: Precious metals, gemstones, bone, baked clay, carnelian, amethyst, jasper, crystal, quartz, steatite, turquoise, lapis lazuli, copper, bronze, gold, shell, faience, terracotta.
Common Ornaments (Both Sexes): Necklaces, fillets, armlets, finger-rings.
Women's Ornaments: Girdles, earrings, anklets.
Hoards: Found at Mohenjodaro and Lothal (gold/semi-precious stone necklaces, copper bracelets/beads, gold earrings/head ornaments, faience pendants/buttons, steatite/gemstone beads). All well-crafted.
Cemetery Find: At Farmana (Haryana), dead bodies were buried with ornaments.
Bead Industry: Well-developed, with factories discovered at Chanhudaro and Lothal.
Bead Shapes: Disc-shaped, cylindrical, spherical, barrel-shaped, segmented.
Special Beads: Some made of two or more stones cemented together, some of stone with gold covers. Decorated by incising, painting, or etching. Display great technical skill.
Naturalistic Models: Brilliant naturalistic models of animals (monkeys, squirrels) used as pin-heads and beads.
8. Clothing and Fashion
Spinning: Common, evidenced by numerous spindles and spindle whorls (from expensive faience to cheap pottery/shell).
Attire: Men and women wore two separate pieces of attire, similar to a dhoti and a shawl (shawl covered left shoulder, passing below the right).
Fashion Consciousness: People were conscious of fashion. Different hairstyles were in vogue. Beards were popular.
Cosmetics: Cinnabar used as cosmetic. Face paint, lipstick, and collyrium (eyeliner) were known.
Stone in Construction: Stone structural remains at Dholavira show its use in construction.
9. Artistic Skill of Indus Valley People
Versatility: Extremely skilled in various crafts: metal casting, stone carving, making and painting pottery, and making terracotta images.
Motifs: Used simplified motifs of animals, plants, and birds.
Specific Artworks Mentioned:
Dancing Girl (Mohenjodaro): Approx. 4-inch high copper figure. Long hair in a bun. Bangles on left arm, bracelet and amulet/bangle on right. Cowry shell necklace. Right hand on hip, left in traditional Indian dance gesture. Large eyes, flat nose. Full of expression and vigour.
Bull (Mohenjodaro): Bronze figure. Expresses massiveness and fury of charge. Head turned to right, cord around neck.
Male Torso (Harappa): Red sandstone figure. Socket holes for head/arms. Consciously adopted frontal posture. Well-baked shoulders, slightly prominent abdomen.
Painted Earthen Jar (Mohenjodaro): Potter's wheel, clay. Shape manipulated by potter's fingers. Baked, then painted with black. High polishing. Vegetal and geometric motifs. Simple designs with tendency towards abstraction.
Mother Goddess: Crude standing female figures. Necklaces over prominent breasts, loin cloth, girdle. Fan-shaped head-dress with cup-like projection (distinctive). Pellet eyes, beaked nose, slit mouth.
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