Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.179

c12.179

There is also evidence of some form of phallic worship, with representations of the male and female generative organs; of tree-worship in which a deity is shown in the branches of the sacred fig-tree or pipal, still regarded as a holy tree. In ancient times pipal leaves provided the motifs for many pottery-painters in the Harappā Culture and others under its influence, such as Kulli and Nal. The seal representations again show what must be sacred animals - such as the humped bull, whose privileged position today, as he noses his way unmolested through the bazaars, helping himself to whatever takes his holy fancy, must date back to the third millennium B.C. on the banks of the Indus and the Ravi. Other cult-animals on the seals stand in front of curious ‘mangers’ or ‘sacred braziers’ somehow connected with their worship.