The Development of Hindu Iconography c12.22

Language: English

c12.22.1

Though the objects now to be noted by me do not really fall in with the category of sealings, still I feel a brief reference to them will be of some use to us in our present study. A large number of ring-stones, ranging from half an inch to nearly four feet in diameter, have been found in the course of excavations at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa; the larger ones are made of stone, while the smaller ones are of different materials such as stone, faience, shell, or imitation carnelian. The most typical of them have their upper and lower surfaces undulating; in others, the lower surface is flat, and the top takes a quatrefoil form (Marshall). Two explanations were suggested by scholars with regard to the nature of these objects; according to some, the larger ones of them served as architectural members, while according to others they were stone money. But Marshall has raised very reasonable objections to both these suggestions, and his original interpretation that these are to be regarded as representations of *yoni*, the female organ of generation, as symbolising motherhood and fertility still appears to be the correct one.

c12.22.2

When they are compared to the numbers of phalli—they are so realistic that they cannot be explained in any other way (*cf.* the realism manifest in the earliest stone phalli of the historic period discovered at Gudimallam, Mathura and other places)—that have been discovered in the same region, there remains very little doubt about the truth of Marshall's explanation. But it must be borne in mind that in the Indus Valley both the phalli and the *yoni* stones appear to have served the purpose of cult objects separately, as seems to have also been the case with the early phalli and the *yoni* stones of subsequent days. In fact, the *lingam* in *arghya* (or *yoni*) design is comparatively late in appearance and even then in the conventional Sivalingas the spout-like projection, from which the *pūjābhāga* of the Sivalinga rises upward and which is taken by the uninitiated as symbolising *yoni*, is really a *praṇālī* or drain for the easy outflow of the volume of water usually poured on the top of the emblem by the numerous devotees of the god.¹ These phalli and the ring stones thus appear to have separately symbolised the principles of virility and fecundity, both of which are highly esteemed by all men in all ages. Marshall has referred to his own discovery of several curious stone discs, three of which were unearthed from the Bhir Mound at Taxila, one from inside the structures uncovered near the foot of Hathial (Taxila), and one at Kosam.

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The Hathial one is described by Marshall, thus: ‘It is of polished sandstone 3¼" in diameter, adorned on the upper surface with concentric bands of cross and cable patterns and with four nude female figures alternating with honey-suckle designs engraved in relief around the central hole’ (A.S.I.A.R., 1927-28, P. 66, Pl. XX, Fig. 7). It will be of interest now to compare with the above Taxila discs a partially broken reddish steatite circular disc, about 2½" in diameter, found at Rajghat, which contains on the outer side of its top surface a very wellcarved decorative design. The decoration consists of a palm tree with a horse by its side, beyond which is a female figure holding a bird in her outstretched right hand (there is an indistinct object beneath her right hand and a taurine symbol near her left shoulder); then follow in successive orders—a long-eared and short-tailed animal, a crane, the goddess again with her hands this time stretched downwards, some object which is broken, a second palm-tree, a bird, a small circular disc, the goddess again with the circular disc near her left shoulder, then a winged mythical animal and lastly a crane with a crab-like object near its legs. The goddess is thrice repeated with the various accessory figures noted above in between her three representations.

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But one thing to be noted here is that, unlike the Taxila disc just described, the device appears here on the top surface instead of on the side of the central depression of the disc, and the hole is not there; the surface near the central hole of this one is filled with a beautiful scroll design. The carving is so very beautifully executed