Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c11.113

c11.113

The cattle are usually shown as tethered, either to one of the trees between which they stand or to an indeterminate object, which on a sherd from Mehi has taken on, presumably under Harappā influence, the form of the ‘sacred brazier’ so characteristic of the seals of that culture (Fig. 7, top). The presence on this same sherd, and on others, stylistically debased, of the heart-shaped pipal leaf on the trees, which in the earliest scenes are spiky abstractions, again must imply the introduction of motifs from the east, as we have seen reason to believe of its introduction into Nal ware. On one Kulli vessel, with its frieze in an exceptional state of completeness, one can see that a bull and a cow are represented, and it is likely that this was normally the case.