[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Archaeology, epigraphy and coins](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy) › [The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.wheeler-1953) › c19.5 # The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c19.5 The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c19.5 - **Language:** English ### [c19.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.wheeler-1953.c19.5) Other types suggesting links with Mesopotamia or with a common source have already been cited: that of a semi-human, semi-bovine monster attacking a horned tiger, a scene reminiscent of the semi-bovine Sumerian Eabani or Enkidu, created by the goddess Aruru to combat Gilgamesh, but fighting afterwards as his ally against wild beasts; and of a human figure gripping two tigers after the fashion of Gilgamesh and his lions. The astral trefoil (p. 64) may be another link between East and West. Indeed, it would be easy to show that, as manifested in the monuments, the Indus religion was a mélange of much that we already know of third-millennium Asiatic religious observance, augmented by specific anticipations of the later Hinduism. Even the Babylonian Tree of Life may have had its counterpart at Mohenjo-daro and Harappā, where seals display the sacred tree enshrining a three-horned deity (tree-spirit?) or springing from conjoined "unicorn" heads (p. 79), or standing alone, sometimes protected apparently by a wall or railing,² in the fashion of the sacred bodhi-tree of Buddhist India. And finally the importance—not necessarily the deification³—of water in the life of the Harappans is stressed by the Great Bath on the citadel of Mohenjo-daro and by the almost extravagant provision for bathing and drainage throughout the city, and may provide yet another link with the later Hinduism. The universal use of "tanks" in modern Indian ritual, and the practice of bathing at the beginning of the day and before principal meals may well derive ultimately from a usage of the pre-Aryan era as represented in the Indus civilization. - [Previous: c19.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.wheeler-1953.c19.4) - [Next: c19.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.wheeler-1953.c19.6) - [Up: c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.wheeler-1953.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.wheeler-1953.c19.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.wheeler-1953.c19.5) · Pramāṇa