Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.138

c12.138

In addition to the glyptic art of the seals, the Harappā sites have produced some remarkable pieces of sculpture in the round. The unexpected naturalism of some of these has caused doubts to be thrown on their authenticity as third-millennium work. The red sandstone torso of a man from Harappā is perhaps the best-known piece, and its mature rendering of the human form, no less than the subtle but perceptible stylistic affinities it has to Indian sculpture of later date, has more than once caused its extreme antiquity to be questioned; the treatment of the heavy lines of the abdomen, for instance, is astonishingly similar to some work of Kushan date.