The Indus Civilization c6.25

c6.25

Overwhelming evidence of the worship of animals on the part of the people of the Indus valley is provided by the seal-amulets, which portray a varied assortment of beasts. Among these is a powerful-looking bull with one horn, although it is probable that the representations fail to show the second horn behind the first (Pl. M, 12). Frederichs has identified this animal as the urus-bull (auroch), and he thinks that its two varieties, *Bos primigenius* and *Bos namadicus*, are plainly indicated on the seal-amulets. Other animals depicted are the elephant, the tiger, the buffalo, two kinds of oxen—one a short-horned animal and the other a humped bull—the rhinoceros, the crocodile, and a queer, composite beast with a human face, the trunk of an elephant, the horns and forequarters of a bull, and the hindquarters and tail of a tiger, which probably represents the fusion of several deities in one animal form.