The Indus Civilization c6.10

c6.10

The largest and most complete figure, also couchant, has the horns and body of a ram, and a long, pendulous object in front that is evidently an elephant’s trunk; this must be a fusion of two deities whose emblems were the ram and the elephant. Another of these stone statues, of which only a fragment now remains, was originally a large limestone figure of a bull. The animal’s head has sockets for the insertion of the ears and horns, which were, no doubt, made of some more valuable material, and, as is the case with bulls made of pottery, there is a garland round the neck. The damaged condition of all these religious figures of animals shows that they were purposely mutilated, but who did this, or when, is not known. As the human statuary is also smashed in the same way, it seems obvious that the wrecking was done by people who regarded the worship of such figures as idolatrous or hostile to their own beliefs; and as it must have taken place long before the arrival of the Aryan-speaking people who invaded India about 1500 B.C., it is possible that some of the hill people of Baluchistan were responsible for this damage.