Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c13.48

c13.48

The technique of painting is as assured and sophisticated as the forms of the vessels, and implies the use of a kiln at least as advanced as those known from the late period of Mohenjo-daro. Characteristic motifs are stars of various kinds, stylized plant forms, ring-and-dot patterns, groupings of straight and crinkled lines, and short lengths of zig-zag lines used to fill up backgrounds. And in addition to these more formal elements of design, there occur frequent representations of cattle, goats, peacocks and fishes, treated in a brilliantly decorative convention; sometimes in continuous scenes which encircle the vase and sometimes in panels or in the roundels afforded by the circular undersides of pot-covers (Fig. 29). These representations are not naturalistic, but are instinct with symbolism – a series of peacocks, between groups of star or sun motifs, have within themselves a circle containing the tiny figure of a man; on another vessel peacocks alternate with a sort of centaur with the horns of a goat or deer. One remarkable vase from the upper stratum has a continuous frieze of design beginning with two peacocks and followed by a group in which a man with wild, flying hair holds two cows, behind one of which is a dog. Then comes a band of pattern, to be followed by an extraordinary version of a humped bull whose enormous horns bear seven enigmatic objects like little standards, and then another man between two cows (or bulls), each with a single standard between its horns, for all the world recalling a Minoan bull with double-axe. The whole scene is filled in with stars, leaves, and zig-zags, and similar zig-zags crowd the background in another vessel, where humped cattle stand between stylized trees.