The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c13.26

c13.26

To a post-Harappan period belongs an alien cemetery, known as “cemetery H”, to the south of the citadel of Harappā, between it and cemetery R 37. Cemetery H comprised two strata,⁵ a lower and older known as stratum II, about 6 ft. below the present surface, and a higher, stratum I, overlying stratum II and extending beyond it towards the east at a depth of 2 or 3 ft. from the surface. In stratum II about two dozen extended burials were uncovered, in some instances with the knees slightly bent and generally with the heads towards the east or north-east. Some of the burials were regarded as "fractional", i.e. incomplete collections of bones assembled after the exposure of the body, but it is not clear whether these were true fractional burials or whether they were merely fragmentary burials, disturbed by later interments or other agencies. The accompanying red-ware pottery was distinctive, showing no significant affinity with the Harappan unless vaguely in the presence of "cake-stands", squatter and more elaborately moulded than those of the earlier culture. The pedestal foot is a feature of many of the better vessels, and there is a notable series of dish-lids, painted in black on the inside with highly stylized peacocks and other birds, slim-waisted bulls, fish, formalized plant-designs, and occasionally human beings in rigid, hieratic posture. The background is filled with wave-patterns, "eyes", stars and other objects, and the whole effect is completely different from that of the Harappan repertoire. Incidentally, the black paint shows a slight but distinctive tendency to "run" on the bright orange-red background, somewhat as though applied to blotting-paper. The later stratum I consisted of true fractional burials, the skull and a few long bones being enclosed in large urns with openings just large enough to take the separate bones after excarnation. Only babies were enclosed complete, in the "embryonic" position. The openings of the urns were closed by lids or by complete or fragmentary pots. The decoration of the urns, confined to friezes on the upper half, displayed the same general characters as that of the stratum II lids but was considerably more elaborate. Thus one urn depicts a beaked man holding two bulls, of which one is assailed by a dog, with peacocks and a large bull or goat, having trident-standards on its spreading horns, to complete the frieze: a scene which has been related to Vedic ideas of the migration of souls.¹ The slim-waisted animals, crested peacocks (sometimes carrying away little "soul-men") and general horror vacui recall the style of the underlying stratum II pots, and it may be supposed that the difference in scale and the more ambitious iconography of stratum I is due to functional rather than to cultural factors.