Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c12.s4.1

v1.c12.s4.1

In the area J of Harappa a few terracotta toys (animal) were found with their fore and hind legs fashinoned in a large piece, i.e., without a division between the two legs. Vats is of the opinion that such toys are not found at Mohenjo-Daro. The animal figures, mostly in terracotta, have been found in very large numbers at Harappa. It offers a great variety of animal figures compared to those yet recorded from Mohenjo-Daro. These figures are fairly common in faience, specially the squirrels and rams. More rarely these were made of steatite, shell and bone. By far the largest number of these pottery toys are bulls, the humped variety being more common than the humpless ones. Amongst the aquatic animals are the crocodile, turtle and fish, and among the birds the duck, peacock, hen, kite, pigeon, sparrow, dove, parrot, owl are prominent. Besides these, there are steatite bird, faience parrot, steatite owl, terracotta pigeon, peacock, hen, duck, faience fish with white glaze, faience snakes, stone mongoose, humped bull in green faience, rhinoceros of burnt steatite and terracotta elephant and tigers at Harappa, which deserve special attention. (MSV, 182, 300-09)