The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c17.1

c17.1

Though the seal-intaglios of the Indus civilization are in a class of their own, the general range of Harappan artistry is not comparable with that of the contemporary civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Individual achievement, however, is of sufficient quality to suggest that our picture is still far from complete, and in particular it may be that the art of wood-carving, of which a climate less sympathetic than that of Egypt has removed all vestige, was as developed in Harappan times as it was in later India. It is fair to presume that the artists who produced the little figurine of the dancing-girl, or the vital renderings of animal-forms on the steatite seals, represent an aesthetic capacity more broadly based than the recovered examples of it alone would indicate.