The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c17.111

c17.111

The intaglio designs on the seals include a wide range of animals associated in almost every case with groups of signs in a semi-pictographic script (below, p. 81). Some seals, however, bear script only, and some, which will be reserved for later consideration, bear human or semi-human forms. There are likewise purely linear designs, notably the swastika, but also multiple squares set concentrically, a criss-cross pattern, and a plain multiple cross. The animal most frequently represented is an ox-like beast seemingly with a single horn and nicknamed therefore the "unicorn"; it may be supposed that two horns are in fact intended, one behind the other, but it has been recalled that both Ktesias and Aristotle ascribed the unicorn to India and called it the Indian ass. In front of the beast is always a curious object which occurs in association with no other animal: a "standard" consisting of a bowl or table-top(?) on a central post, carrying a cage-like object under the nose of the animal. The significance of this object is unknown. It has been suggested that the cage-like object was in fact a bird-cage, but it may be doubted whether, if so, the ancient artist could have refrained from indicating the bird within. It has been designated a "sacred manger" or "sacred brazier"; an incense-holder may in fact have been intended. Whatever be the explanation, the ritual character of the scene is emphasized by a remarkable seal-impression from Mohenjo-daro showing a figure of a "unicorn" being carried in procession between two other objects, one of which was evidently a "standard" of the type under discussion.¹ On the other hand, under the nose of a "unicorn" on a cylinder-seal from Ur, either Indian or made under Indian influence, the "standard" is replaced by the "fish"-sign from the Indus script.² The "standard" itself scarcely occurs outside the Indus civilization, but may be recognized on a potsherd from Mehi in southern Baluchistan showing a typical Kulli-Mehi bull tethered to one.³