The Indus Civilization c10: VII. Customs and Amusements
The Indus Civilization c10
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VII. Customs and Amusements
c10.2
A VERY interesting aspect of the discoveries made in the Indus valley is the large number of toys and objects used in games which have been unearthed both at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. Those that have survived are made of pottery, shell, and ivory, but wood must also have been largely used for this purpose, although it has, of course, long since perished. The favourite toy seems to have been a little pottery cart, to judge from the number of specimens, usually in a damaged condition, which have been found. These miniature carts are practically identical in design, on a small scale, with the farm carts seen in the villages round Mohenjo-daro to-day, and the presence of these toys in the city is ample proof that the full-sized vehicle was well known and in constant use in the Indus valley. No model which can be said to represent a war-chariot, or anything like it, has yet come to light, which supports the view that these people were not war-like and were unthreatened by enemies until their civilization was nearing its end.
c10.3
The children in those days seem to have enjoyed modelling in clay as much as the modern child, for numerous animals and figurines have been found which are so poorly made and baked that they must certainly be of childish workmanship. Small models of bulls have been discovered, some of them with the model carts, a fact which is evidence that this animal was used for draught purposes even in those early times, while the small seated clay figures unearthed from time to time were probably used in the ever-popular game of "houses." No dolls have as yet come to light, perhaps because they were made of perishable material. Rattles in the form of hollow balls of clay with pellets inside were common, some of the specimens being gaily decorated with lines of red paint. Hollow animals served this purpose as well, but they do not seem to have been so popular, probably because they did not stand such hard wear.
c10.4
Little toy birds, a few of which are crudely coloured and most provided with stick legs, are quite well known, while a small model of a bird with its beak open—evidently singing —in conjunction with some miniature cages which have been found, seems to show that song-birds were kept as pets. These cages occur in both cities and one of them has an obviously tame bird, perhaps a bulbul, coming out of the door, while other examples may have been intended to house a cricket or other chirping insect. A whistle shaped like a bird, by means of which various call-notes may have been imitated, was evidently very popular, while another favourite toy was a small animal climbing up a pole; up to the present the animal is still unidentified, but it was probably a common pet.
c10.5
Little scale-pans of pottery, pierced at the edge with holes for suspension, have been found at both Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, and from their crudeness, these also appear to be the work of children. The making of model household vessels was also a favourite pastime, and some of the specimens have the finger-prints of the amateur potters indelibly baked in the clay.
c10.6
More ingenious toys are the bull with a nodding head worked by a stiff fibre (Pl. K, 8) and the curious monkey-like animal with movable arms. Figures which ran up and down a string, and whose progress could be accelerated at will by manipulating a cord, were evidently known, for some have been found with angular perforations for this purpose. The majority of these more complex toys are obviously not the work of children, and were probably made by professional toy-makers.
c10.7
Several common games in the Indus valley involved the use of dice, of which both cubical and tabular specimens have been found. The former kind, which are like modern dice although considerably larger, were made of pottery or stone, the best examples being of really excellent workmanship (Pl. K, 6). Each side of these cubical dice has a number pitted on it, the numbers running from one to six, and so arranged that one is opposite two, three opposite four and five opposite six, contrary to the modern method of marking, where the sum of each pair of opposite sides is seven. Some of the pottery examples are considerably worn at the edges, but even so, they must always have been thrown on to something soft, as they are too fragile for rough usage. Sometimes the numbers were inlaid.
c10.8
The tabular dice, which were invariably made of ivory, are marked with the numbers one, two, and three on three sides and have the remaining side ornamented with longitudinal lines. Another method of distinguishing the sides was to incise various patterns on each, or more rarely, hieroglyphic signs whose meaning is, of course, unknown.
c10.9
Although it is obvious from the markings that some tabular objects served as dice, others have been found of the same shape, or sometimes three-sided or cylindrical, whose use is still unknown. These certainly cannot have been dice, for they have the same pattern incised, either on each face or on the two opposite ones, and they may therefore have been casting-bones whose significance depended not on the pattern which came uppermost but on the manner in which the objects themselves fell after being thrown. These divining-bones, if indeed they did serve that purpose, are as commonly found as the dice, and in several cases have been found in groups of three.
c10.10
It is not yet known whether the throwing of dice constituted a game in itself among the inhabitants of the Indus valley, but even so, it seems likely that they were used in other ways as well, for a number of objects have been discovered in both cities which are undoubtedly "men" used for the type of board game in which dice seem indispensable. The appearance of these “men” varies considerably, some being coarsely made objects of clay, while the best specimens are made of hard stone, such as agate and chalcedony, and show the finest workmanship. The pieces are sometimes the same shape as the modern halma-man, but others are conical, with a smooth rounded top and sloping sides. It is interesting to note that no two stone gamesmen of the latter type have yet been found of exactly the same size, and for this reason they may not have been used for games at all, but may have been lingas, phallic symbols which are described in Chapter III. In the case of the halma-shaped pieces, however, four of the same shape, size, and colour have been found together, while another group consisted of three red, two dark grey, and one yellowish-pink. Another kind of piece, usually made of faience, is tetrahedral in shape and is especially interesting in view of the fact that identical objects have been found at an early level at Ur.
c10.11
The boards on which the men were moved must have been made of wood, for none have survived, and the various positions may have been indicated on them by means of shell inlay, pieces of which have been found in some of the houses. Many boards have been unearthed from early levels at Ur, but it is uncertain whether precisely the same board-games were played in the Indus valley, although it is extremely likely to have been the case.
c10.12
Fortunately, however, a brick found at Mohenjo-daro is incised with rectangles in three rows of four, and this was evidently a game-board, or perhaps only part of one, as it seems to have come from a pavement. One of the squares on this brick is marked with crossed lines which may have denoted a “home,” and if it is assumed that the adjoining end bricks, now missing, were similarly marked and that there were originally ten rows of three, the game played upon them would have resembled the ancient Egyptian game of *Sent*. If, on the other hand, there were originally twenty-six compartments, arranged with twelve in three rows at one end, twelve in two rows at the other, and two between, it would resemble a Sumerian board found by Dr. Woolley at Ur. The pavement of a house or courtyard would have been quite a good place on which to mark out a game-board, and many unprofitable hours were no doubt whiled away by the servants who cut this board.
c10.13
Another brick has been discovered, but with one end missing, which seems to have been marked out for a game played with pebbles or beans. Four lines of shallow depressions, the best-preserved line having fifteen, are scooped out of one face of the brick; but there is nothing to distinguish one hole from another and the entire arrangement suggests a game-board used by various African tribes. Some of the African boards, which are all very similar except in the number of holes, are provided with compartments to take the forfeited pieces, and in the brick from Mohenjo-daro four holes standing apart from the rows probably served this purpose. This brick, also, may have come from a pavement.
c10.14
Marbles were played in the Indus valley, but some of the specimens found seem too good to have been used by children, being extraordinarily well made of hard stones, such as jasper and agate. It is not certain whether the marbles were used by themselves as a game or whether little gateways figured in it, as they sometimes did in very early days in Egypt; but up to the present no other apparatus has been found with them. Certain balls of shell carved in relief with a circle design may also have been used in a game, and it is evident that they were greatly valued by their owners, for in one instance a specimen was found with a hoard of jewellery buried in a metal jar beneath the pavement of a house.
c10.15
A large number of small cones of hard-baked pottery, shell, or, more rarely, stone, are difficult to explain, but as the once sharp points of many of them are missing, they are likely to have been tools or play-things. Their small size makes it evident that they were not used for decoration, as were certain pottery cones from Sumer. It has been suggested that they are miniature ninepins and that the marbles that are found were used to knock them down. As many of these objects tend to rock when stood upright, this seems a very probable explanation.
c10.16
In Chapter III, I suggested that dancing was perhaps included amongst the religious rituals, but that it also had a secular side is very probable. That dancing was accompanied by music is certain, for an elongated drum with a skin at each end is seen on two of the amulets. Another form of drum, or tambourine, appears to hang from the neck of one of the pottery male figurines. A pair of what are thought to be castanets have been found, and they probably served to mark the rhythm of the dance, as among strolling Arab players of to-day. Also, if we are correct in identifying certain signs in the script as harps and lyres, we may surmise that at least one musical instrument of this kind was in common use, as in Sumer, where Dr. Woolley has succeeded in restoring the remains of several specimens.
c10.17
The people of the Indus valley, or at least a large proportion of them, were undoubtedly flesh-eaters, for the remains of the stag, buffalo, pig, turtle, goat, and ox, and of various kinds of fish have all been found at Mohenjo-daro, although it is possible, as is mentioned later, that the horns of the first-named were ground up and used as medicine. The fowl was also domesticated, for its bones have been found in the Indus cities, but whether this bird is the same as the one that appears in the script is problematical, for the wild jungle-fowl doubtless once roamed the forests of Sind. It is in the large storage jars, sometimes used as larders, that the bones of oxen, sheep, and goats have mostly been discovered, but it is impossible to tell whether flesh was an every-day dish or reserved for special occasions. The fact that many of the animals, whose bones we have found, appear on the seals, and therefore may have been sacred, does not preclude the possibility that they were sometimes eaten at religious festivals. A bronze figure of a goat tied by the neck to a stump undoubtedly represents a sacrificial animal, and, as I have already stated, that animal is still widely used for this purpose in modern India.
c10.18
Some at least of the inhabitants of the Indus valley were fond of hunting, although perhaps few of the town-dwellers had opportunity to indulge in this sport. On two amulets men are shown in the act of shooting a large antelope and a wild goat with bows and arrows. To judge from the numbers of copper arrow-heads that have been found, especially at Mohenjo-daro, the bow must have been widely used; it is also carried by some of the figures in the pictographic script, as well as by a curious horned deity on some of the copper tablets. Small pellets of baked clay which have come to light may have been used in slings, or with a pellet bow, a weapon employed for bird-shooting by the modern Sindi.
c10.19
It is not known whether dogs were used in hunting, but three quite different breeds appear among the model animals; the first with its tail tightly curled over the back and with lop ears, the second with an upright tail and prick ears, and the third with a very short muzzle, almost like that of a bull-dog, but since the hind-quarters are missing from this model, we do not know the shape of the tail. Several roughly modelled clay figures have been found which represent a watch-dog tied to a post, others show this animal wearing a collar. A one-time sport in Sind was the worrying of boars by dogs, and, since this is also depicted on some very early seals from Elam, there are grounds for assuming that the boar was hunted in the same way in the Indus valley; indeed, the short-faced dog already described would have been eminently suitable for this purpose.
c10.20
It is possible that gamecock fighting was a sport, for, as has been said, two jungle-fowls that appear on an amulet-seal are portrayed in a fighting attitude. If the partridge also was trained to fight it would not be surprising, for even now in Sind this bird is kept in cages for this same purpose. They were frequently brought by their owners to the excavations in cages decorated with blue beads as a protection against the evil eye; their defiant counter-calls were a sound that became associated with Mohenjo-daro. It is quite possible that the little pottery cages that we occasionally find, one of which had a bird at its entrance, are actual models of partridge cages.
c10.21
A certain amount of trapping would doubtless have been carried on; indeed, two pottery traps have been found at Mohenjo-daro. The large number of fish-hooks show that fishing was a regular occupation, if not a sport, both in the Indus, which was probably quite close beside the city, and in the large pools left by the annual inundations.
c10.22
To eat their food the people of the Indus valley probably sat on mats round their dishes, though some of the richer folk may perhaps have used chairs and tables. Both of the latter articles have been identified by Mr. Smith and Mr. Gadd among the pictographs. These may, however, have been only used on ceremonial occasions, as even to-day in India quite wealthy people still prefer the floor. Whether knives were used at table is uncertain, though many have been found that could well have been used for this purpose; fingers probably took the place of forks. For spoons curious copper and pottery imitations of mussel-shells were used, and probably wooden ones also, which have perished. For drinking there were pottery cups of various shapes, and certain shell-ladles could also have been used.
c10.23
Pottery stands consisting of a dish set on a tall pedestal with a wide base perhaps held many of the dishes of a feast.
c10.24
Anciently Sind was probably as well supplied with fruit as it is in many parts to-day. Curries of various kinds were doubtless a favourite food, and stones for grinding the necessary spices are quite common in the Indus Valley cities. I have already mentioned certain pottery moulds that were used for making fancy cakes and the little rolling-pins for wafer bread, and we seem to be fully justified in the conviction that the people of the Indus valley had as large a range of comestibles as could be expected in such early times.
c10.25
Some, at least, of their feasts must have had their aftermath, and there is some reason to suspect that the city-dwellers suffered as much from digestive troubles as do the modern Indians. Apart from local simples, the properties of which were doubtless known to most housewives, other medicinal ingredients were used. The many horns of the Sambur deer found at Mohenjo-daro are unaccompanied by the other bones of that animal, and Colonel Sewell has suggested that these horns were powdered up and used as a medicine, a purpose which powdered stag's horn serves at the present day in India. A black substance of which specimens have been identified as *Silajit* is still in use in India as a specific for dyspepsia and diseases of the liver and spleen. It exudes from rocks in the Himalayas and is brought down by hill-men into India. At a site in Sind named Othmanjo-Buthi, which dates from the Indus Valley period or a little earlier, Mr. Majumdar found several cuttle-bones stored in pottery. This substance serves a multitude of uses in the Ayurvedic system and, as Dr. Prasad has explained, it enters into the composition of various digestive salts as well as being used for diseases of the ear, eye, throat, and skin.