The Indus Civilization c6.37

c6.37

Another type of hero, or demi-god, which may also have had some association with Sumer appears on three seal-amulets from Mohenjo-daro, where he is depicted struggling with two tigers. The figure, which is nude except for a very narrow band round the waist, has his face in profile surrounded by coils of hair, and is singularly like the early representations of the Sumerian Gilgamesh, the friend of Enkidu, who assisted that hero in his struggles with wild beasts. In Sumerian and very early Egyptian art, however, this figure is shown fighting lions, and it is quite probable that the Indus Valley version was adapted from one of another country, as tigers are substituted on the Indian amulets. Although the lion has now to be protected in India, it roamed over a considerable area in former days, but it always prefers open country, while the tiger inhabits the forest and dense jungle. It seems obvious that the latter animal must have dominated Sind and the Punjab in very early days, for the lion is never represented in any way in Indus Valley art, and, indeed, may have been quite unknown to the people of that culture.