Indian Sculpture c8.25

c8.25

8. An ‘epiphany of a tree divinity.’ Mohenjo-Daro. Major scene in upper, minor scene in lower row.¹⁷⁷ Prominent are the combined figure of the animal, and the tree with its figure. The tree-arch in this case is closed at the bottom, where it issues from an elliptical shape. The leaves are set on long and centrifugal stalks. The figure inside the tree is crowned with a horn triśūla, and combines the animalic and the vegetative by its position in between them. It is faced by the combined animal and by another superhuman figure, the latter in an attitude of invocation and crowned with horns and by a leafy twig in the centre. The row of smaller figures below, of indistinct sex—as are also the main figures—officiate in the scene, clad in garments with slanting hem line, each with a twig on the head and with a sameness of posture. Their hollow-eyed faces appear to be masks, similar to the physiognomy of the mother-goddess.178 In this seal, as in others, though partly defaced in this case, pictographs have no mean share.