The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c17.136

c17.136

Two other crude figure-sealings may be added, both from Harappā. One shows on one side a central squatting “Śiva” with a blurred group of animals on his left and the motif, already described, of a tree above a tiger on his right; on the other side a bull and a standing figure in front of a wooden structure, possibly with a second figure seated at its entrance. The second sealing bears on one side a central group of pictographs with two rearing and confronting animals (probably tigers) on one flank and, on the other, a nude woman upside down giving birth to what has been interpreted as a plant but may equally be a scorpion or even a crocodile; whilst on the other are a repetition of the pictographs and a scene representing a man with a curved knife in one hand and an uncertain object in the other, approaching a woman seated on the ground with upraised arms and dishevelled hair, possibly, as has been suggested, a scene of human sacrifice.⁵ Once more, the inadequacy of the seal-cutters in the representation of the human form is very noticeable; the interest of these figure-seals lies in their obscure subject-matter rather than their ingenuous artistry.