Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c7.s5: Pottery
Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c7.s5
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Pottery
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The pottery material from the Indus Valley was produced on the wheel. It is both plain and decorative with designs painted in black colour on a red surface. Half a dozen kilns in a potter's quarter where the ware was manufactured have been found. They are circular pits of 6'-7' diameter with a perforated floor and arrangement for smoke to escape. Red ochre or earth from Hurmuz seems to have been used for the red slip on the pots.
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The following designs are painted : intersecting circles, which are peculiar to the Indus Valley; sigmas and wavy lines; komb; sun-symbol, in one case with a thousand rays (Mackay, *Further Excavations* Pl. LXX, 39); punched circlets; stars; arrow-heads; four-petalled flowers (*Chauphuliā* चौफुलिया); check-board formed of squares in black against a red backgronnd; net; fret (*kuñjarāksha*); hatching, a common motif to distinguish one square or triangle from another; double inverted pots (*Uttāna-chamū*, RV. I. 164. 33); fish-scales (Skt. *Matsyaśalka*, Hindi, *Sahresā*, सहरेसा); a ribbon round the jars. Besides these geomatrical patterns figures of animals and birds, snakes or fishes occur. In some cases a row of animals is shown, a motif well-known in Elam and Sumer. Animal figures are generally associated with natural objects such as leaves (specially of *pīpal*) and trees or birds (peacock) perching on them. Human figures are a few, e. g. a fisherman carrying two nets suspended from a shoulder pole on two sides (Skt. *Vihaṅgikā*) (Vats, *Harappa*, LXIX, 16). On a pot-sherd from cemetry H is a hunting scene showing two antelopes with the hunter between them shooting the animal on the right with bow and arrow and the animal on left being torn by a pursuing dog. Polychrome pottery is a special ware at Amri in pre-Harappan levels and also at Nal in north Baluchistan. [Fig. 20].
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The types of pottery include goblets with a conical bottom, dishes, basins, flasks, norrow necked vases, cylindrical bottles, tumblers, corn-measures, spouted vases and a very special type of dish on stand, called offering stand or incense-burner, which is distinctively an Indus Valley ware, a sure sign of chalcolthic culture wherever it may be found.
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SPECIAL TYPES—Some special types in pottery are to be noted :—
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a. Knobbed pottery or pimpled ware ornamented on the outside with knobs, set closely in rows, only a few specimens being exposed. Similar pottery is known from Tell Asmar in Babylonia in levels corresponding to the Indus Valley. There also the number is limited. Probably they were associated with the mother cult illustrating her aspect of a thousand teats (*Sahasradhārā, Sahasra-ūdhas*).
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b. Perforated pottery is a peculiar type of cylindrical shape ranging from 2 to 20 inches. Either it served as a heater with live-coals, or as a religious vessel for sprinkling water through multiple perforations as one used even today in the expiatory ceremony for a child born under an ill-omened star (Hindi, Sattāisā, सत्ताइस).
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c. Minature pottery comprises a large number of tiny vessels, sometimes less than half an inch but well finished and polished with exquisite shapes. Specimens of fired clay are quite numerous, but majority are of faience. It was at one time suggested that they were meant for scented oil and cosmetics, but the tradition of minature pottery continued also in the historic period, e. g. Rajghat alone turning out about 500 specimens now in the Bharat Kala Bhavan. It was children's pottery, a kind of kindergarten to train the child's mind and eye in the different shapes used in domestic utensils. The custom for a potter to supply such tiny ware along with the bigger ones has come down to our own days in north India.
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d. Incised pottery. With scratched figures on the base of certain deep pans and dishes of offering stands. The marks are like pictographic signs.
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e. Animal-shaped pottery. A couchant ram hollow on the back is an instance of this type.
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The big storage jars have conical bottoms which were partially buried in the earth or placed on stands or a circular base. Some were actually found with interred bottoms. The Indus Valley pottery was essentially of a utilitarian character fulfilling the needs of drinking, eating, cooking, worshipping and storage etc., but the aesthetic appeal in the painted designs and perfect shapes specially in the minature pottery and burial pottery is no less eloquent. [Fig. 21].
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A special type of painted polychrome pottery shows the designs in several colours as red and green on a buff slip. A sherd from Chanhu-daro is painted with birds and animals in black, white and red on a yellow ground. These were no doubt connected with pre-Harappan Nal pottery which employs the full range of five basic colours (Pañcha varṇa) as red, blue, green, yellow and white.
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Burial pottery forms a class by itself. At Harappa in cemetry H, two distinct strata were exposed with a rich collection of grave pottery, the upper one of one hundred and twenty pot-burials and the lower one of earth-burials accompained by funeral pottery consisting of water-pots, bowls, offering dishes, saucers, flat covers, flasks, round vases etc. The shapes of the burial pots (ranging in hieght from 9¾" to 23¾") are round, ellipsoid marked by parallel finger grooves on the lower portion. The smaller jars were at once finished on the wheel, but the larger ones were made in two parts, the upper and the lower being joined afterwards. Pots of carinated type are all painted at the neck and are of smaller size. The burial pots from cemetery H. are different in shape and in their realistic painted motifs from the jars coming from the mounds with geometric and other patterns. Peacock is common on the burial jars. On one example is a goat of large size with enormous horns that are ornamented with eight trident-like devices, both being associated with Śiva. Other designs on the burial pots include stars, rayed orbs, wavy lines, continuous triangles, fish, leaves, plants, flying birds. The flat covers from the earth burials show very effective and regular designs. They in all cases were painted on the under side with ornaments of deer, peacocks, trees, leaves, stars, birds, fish, hands, tassels, etc., enclosed in concentric circles and having the same scenic effect as the assemblage of motifs on cross-bar medallions of later times (Vats, Harappa pl. LXIV; Smith, Jaina Stūpa at Mathūra, Plates 71-73).
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The painted pottery designs from the Indus Valley transmit to us a rich album of motifs pregnant with meaning, of which the full significance yet remains to be decoded. From what we know it is clear that the motifs were meant both for beauty and for serving a religious purpose which implies a symbolical character as in the case of the Vedic art symbols treated in the following chapter.
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Amongst miscellaneous objects are a small model cart with solid wheels, a whistle made in the form of a bird, rattles with clay pellets inside, cubical dice, spoons, spindle whorls, bird cages, and model cakes.
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FAIENCE—A fine kind of paste called faience was manufactured for making toy-figurines, ornaments as bracelets, studs, amulets, buttons, rings, minature pottery, balls, marbles, gamesmen, inlay pieces, spindle whorls, seals, plaques and weights.
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Faience was prepared from powdered quartz, or sometimes also with a binding material from steatite mixed with a powdered glaze which was then fired to form a vitreous substance that was finally glazed. In the process of manufacture a suitable colour was given to it by adding various mineral substances. The process of manufacture was complex. Three objects of faience are of high artistic merit, viz. a nibbling squirrel, a couchant ram and a figure of coalescing monkeys. Faience objects have been found in Mesopotamia, Syria, Western Asia and Egypt. Perhaps the Harappan people borrowed it from their neighbours in Mesopotamia where its use is popular at all levels of the excavated sites.
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Although faience was widely used in antiquity, the glazing of pottery was introduced in other countries at a later stage, and its earliest example has been found at Mohenjo-daro. In Egypt glazed pottery was unknown before Roman times. In Greece it was not known at all. In Mesopotamia it is ascribed to about 1000 B. C. This gives credit to the Indus Valley people for inventing the technique of glazing pottery. No true glass has been found in the Indus Valley although the use of glass is not far removed from the process of glazing pottery. To Egypt goes the credit of making true glass for the first time.
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JEWELLERY—One hoard at Harappa and four at Mohenjo-daro had been found. Recently in Wheeler’s excavation one more hoard came from Harappa. The Mohenjo-daro hoards were packed in silver jars and wrapped in cloth, but the one from Harappa was found in a hole dug down 7 or 8 feet beneath one of the cottages in coolie-lines. It consisted of nearly 500 pieces of gold from armlets to complete necklaces of multiple strings of beads and gold.
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Gold and silver were abundant metals in the Indus Valley. The source of gold was the distant gold mine of Kolar in South India, or they were also obtaining granular gold (Paipilika Suvarṇa) from Siberian mines and Central Asian washings through traders coming by the Kamboja-Dvārāvatī route which passed through Mohenjo-daro.
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Silver was obtained from distant sources in Afganistan and possibly from still remoter mines in north Burma. Some quantity may have been locally extracted from alloys containing lead.
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The actual jewellery worn by the people included gold plaques both round and rectangular (Padaka) having ornamental paste inlay in white colour, plain gold armlets, conical ornaments for the ears, and a great variety of multi-stringged necklaces and girdles. A distinguishing feature of the Indus Valley jewellery was the use of beads of gold, silver and other semi-precious stones, manufactured in a number of shapes and strung together as necklaces or girdles. The material of beads consisted of carnelian (Hindi तामड़ी ), chalcedony (Karketana), agate (Lekhāśma or Galvarka; Hindi हकीक ), lapis lazuli (Rījāvarta), steatite, faience, shell, pottery, and jadeite (Masāra). Lapis lazuli was scarce in the Indus Valley but abundant in Sumer. The etched carnelian bead was better known in Mesopotamia and Persia and also recovered by Woolley in the Royal Tombs at Ur of the Chaldees, in the 3rd and 2nd millenium B. C. pointing to trade relations between the West and Harappa.
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At Chanhu-daro a bead-maker’s shop was exposed throwing light on the different stages of bead industry. The rough stone (Khad-patthar खड़पत्थर ) was first split and sawn into a bar as at present (Chīrnā चीरना ). A wire bow with an abrasive like powdered quartz is used for this purpose at present and it does not appear that the technique has changed from what it was in the Indus Valley. The small rod of semi-precious stone (Skt. Maṇi, Persian Sang) about 3 inches in length and square in section was then flaked to a rough cylinder and finally ground and polished. The second part of the technique is called कोरना (koraṇā) i. e. making round and is still employed by the traditional lapidarists. The three-fold process of cutting, rounding and polishing being over, two more processes remained, viz. perforating a central longitudinal hole and finally cutting the rods to the required size of the bead. The process of drilling or boring (Hindi, bedhanā) was laborious but performed with simple tools and an adroitness gained after long experience. Today Cambay is the biggest centre of bead manufacture, specially agate, and it may not be surprising if the Harappan craftsmen of Rangpur and Lothal started the industry and have left behind their legacy.
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SHAPES OF BEADS—Cylindrical beads of varying lengths from long thin specimens to very short ones are common, some of them tipped at both ends with gold. Beads of cog-wheel type of thin discoid shape made of glazed paste have been found. Short barely-shaped (yava-madhyaka) and long barrel-shaped beads (harītakī-madhyaka) were popular. Other shapes included the rectangular and segmented beads (Hindi garerīnumā).
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CLASSES OF ORNAMENTS—(a) Head-bands made of thin flat strips of gold worn round the forehead both for beauty and for keeping the hair in position. They are now known as Pāt (Skt. Patra) and worn by Jat women in Rohtak area even today. These ribbon-like strips or fillets vary in length up to 16" and a little less than half an inch in width. Generally two holes are bored at the two ends, but there are specimens showing a number of holes bored along one edge to attach pendant strings of small pearls on the forehead.
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(b) Metal cones - Small cones of gold (Hindi, Sone kī kulfiyān, सोने की कुलफियाँ ) have been found in both the cities with a loop soldered inside the tip end. They were worn behind the ears and seem to be the same as Vedic kurīra.
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GIRDLES—A favourite ornament with women was the gold girdle. One specimen found in Hoard No. 2 of Mohenjo daro is 3' 4" in length. It consists of 6 strings having long barrel-shaped cylindrical beads of translucent red carnelian, each being 4.85" long by ·4 in diameter in the middle and ·3" at the two ends. They are separated from one another by spiral beads and a vertical bronze spacer pierced with holes for the strings. At each end of the girdle there is a semi-circular hollow flatened terminal of bronze originally gilded. This perfect specimen is evidence of the high mastery in this art attained by the Indus Valley goldsmiths. Of long carnelian beads even the inside was polished, the process of boring and polishing being managed from both ends and the holes meeting accurately in the middle. Very probably a copper drill with fine emery powder was used.
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Another necklace of special beauty consists of a single row of barrel-shaped beads of translucent green jadeite, a stone found in Central Asia. It is beautified by disc-shaped beads of gold separating the green jadeite ones and further by setting pendants of agate and jasper in the centre. Two necklaces of minute gold cylindrical beads and of globular beads (मटरमाला) are attractive. A fine choker (Kaṇṭhā) worn on the neck comes from Mahenjo-daro consisting of six strings of globular beads separated at intervals by flat gold spacers and finished with hemi-spherical hollow terminals at each end..
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MISCELLANEOUS ORNAMENTS — We also find finger rings of gold, silver, shell, copper and bronze; ear-rings which are limited in number due to the fact that they were not removed from the ears of women at the time of death, as is the practice upto the present day; but there is no example of nose-studs which are absent throughout the long history of Indian ornaments until the Muslim period. Bracelets were made of gold, silver, copper, bronze and faience which are pieces of real art. Pottery bangles were worn by the poorer people. They are generally crude, but an exceptionally well finished specimen made of very fine clay and coated with smooth pink slip was found.
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HAIR-PINS — Both men and women were fond of keeping long hair often gathered in a knot or bun at the back of the head. Fillets, combs and hair-pins helped in the make-up of coiffure styles. The hair-pins, together with handled mirrors and kohl pots and sticks point to a cult of beauty for adornment of the physical body referred to as a special feature (Upanishad) of Asura culture. Several hair-pins are worthy of note, e.g. a fine specimen of bronze surmounted by two heads of black bucks placed back to back each with spiral horns; (ii) another topped by spirals on either side similar to those found in Egypt; (iii) an ivory pin with an ibex; (iv) a pin topped by three monkeys seated in a ring with arms round each other's shoulder; (v) a pin with its top like the seed-vessel of a lotus. [Fig. 22].
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Ivory — A few ivory objects indicate the beginnings of this art by the Harappans. Elephant depicted on the seals roamed in the large forests in a wet climate. An interesting ivory plaque (1.05" x .4" thick) shows a male figure facing left with hands on hip and wearing a close-fitting cap and a short loin-cloth. He carries a quiver of arrows on the back. Such figures are seen on archaic seals from Susa in ancient Iran. Other ivory objects include collyrium sticks, combs, mirror handles and cylinders.
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Shell (Saṅkha) — Its supply was obtained from nearer home in Persian Gulf rather than the Gulf of Manar. Saṅkha articles both for inlay and ornaments were as popular as they are even body. The shapes and designs of inlay show (i) Petals, a common shape used for flower designs laid against a circular centre to form the corona (ii) Stepped design, it does not appear on painted pottery at Mohenjo-daro although popular at Nal in north Baluchistan and on the painted ware of the First Period at Susa. It is an open question whether this motif was intended to represent a *ziggurat* i.e. multi-terraced temple, or the battlement motif on citadel walls conspicuous in Achaemenian art and found also at Bharhut, Sanchi and Mathura. It may be the same as the *Pañcha-paṭṭika* motif of early Buddhist literature. (iii) Cross—It is in two forms, one with arms of equal length found in many countries, and the other with one of the arms double the other. Specimens of the latter have been found besides the Indus Valley in Elam and early Babylonia. (iv) Rosettes, a fairly common design scattered in Iran, Mesopotamia and Egypt and continued throughout the historic art of India. (v) A two-foil arch design, in simple or complex form, is peculiar to the Indus Valley and not known outside. It is marked on the sides of antelopes and also of the rhinoceros (vi) Fret design - these are circles with their interior frecked in various ways. This motif is unknown at Susa and in Mesopotamia. (vii) Eye-design, a motif found in shell inlay and on painted pottery. Some inlay pieces of lozenge shape (*shakarpārā* or *larfidār*) are also known. (viii) *Pipal* leaf—only one inlay piece was found, although the design is popular on painted pottery. (ix) Animal figurines in shell or any other inlay are extremely rare at Mohenjo-daro, although common in Babylonia.
Linked texts (2)
- Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
- Harappā