Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c12.180

c12.180

The one or two seals on which a hero is shown defeating tigers or other beasts (Fig. 22, bottom right) suggest comparison with the Sumerian hero who battles with lions, Enkidu or Gilgamesh, and here perhaps there may be evidence of a faint strain of common tradition or even of Sumerian influence in religious matters during the time of the flourishing of the Harappā Culture. But, on all other counts, the religion as implied from the archaeological remains is significantly distinct from any others known in Western Asia, and is essentially Indian from the start. The absence of any building that can be interpreted convincingly as a temple may be due to the chances that such a structure may still be concealed beneath the stupa at Mohenjo-daro and that another has been bodily removed by the brick-robbers at Harappā; but it is nevertheless curious that no such building has been traced in these or any other site. We know that the formal plan of the Sumerian temple was already fixed in Al ’Ubaid times, and similarly in such a conservative civilization as that of Harappā one would expect a rigid and recognizable formula of temple-building from the earliest days. One would expect also to find minor shrines of recognizable plan outside the citadel areas. The absence of any such buildings does imply that household shrines were of more importance than centralized worship in specific temples.