The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c17.118

c17.118

The buffalo, with its large swept-back horns, is rarely represented, but the Brahmani bull or zebu, with hump and heavy dewlap, occurs fairly abundantly, and its pronounced muscularity and dignified stance inspired the stone-cutter to his most masterly efforts. The one-horned rhinoceros is not a common type, but its angry, beady eye and hide are rendered with an observation and actuality that remind us of its physical survival in the Himalayan foothills at least until the sixteenth century A.D. Curiously, it is represented with a “manger” similar to that associated with the short-horned bull, presumably implying veneration. The tiger, too, is represented with a “manger”; the emphatic stripes and lowering head are again based on direct knowledge, as well it might, for the tiger survived in Sind into the nineteenth century. Four seals show the tiger looking backwards and upwards at a man sitting in a tree, which he holds with one hand whilst he extends the other. There is no indication that this is a hunting-scene, and a religious interpretation is more probable, though in what sense can only be surmised. On one seal at Mohenjo-daro the “manger” is placed in front of an elephant, which appears to be feeding out of it; otherwise, this animal is represented without adjuncts, and differs from most other seal-animals in being shown in a walking attitude. The species is probably that of the existing Indian elephant, though certain discrepancies in detail have been noted.¹ Two or three seals represent an antelope; one from Mohenjo-daro, bearing two admirably rendered crouching animals, is probably an intruder from Elam or Mesopotamia.² The fish-eating crocodile or gharial occurs on a number of seals, its scaly hide represented by hatching or dots. A seal of Harappan type from Ur shows a scorpion, but this animal has not with certainty been found on seals from the Indus valley itself. A fragmentary seal from Harappā appears to represent a hare. Finally, a double-sided lozenge-shaped seal with stepped edges from Harappā³ bears on one side a cross and on the other a splayed eagle with the head turned to the left and seemingly a snake above each wing. The motif is reminiscent of spread-eagles found in the environs of Mesopotamia; thus it occurs at Susa on the one side and at Tell Brak in Syria on the other. At Tell Brak a bronze example is dated to *c.* 2100 B.C.⁴ At Susa it may have been the symbol of Nin-Gir-Son, one of the forms of Nin-Ip, the divine hunter.⁵ In an Indian context, it was perhaps a prototype of Garuḍa who, as the vehicle of Viṣṇu, is represented flying with a snake in his beak.