A History of Agriculture in India v1.c20.s2.8

v1.c20.s2.8

Among the seals from Mohenjo-daro, Mackay (1938) recognized one with two birds in the position of fighting. He thought that they were Sonnerat cocks, whereas Gandert (1953) regards them as red jungle fowl. There are clay figurines from the same site and they are intended for the fowl. Most of them are fragmentary, but the evidence is cumulative. There is a cock in a position of display, a fragment with a comb and one which Mackay interprets as a hen with a food dish. This would point to breeding in captivity. This is confirmed by Sewell’s study of the bones which are larger than those of the wild bird. A femur from Mohenjo-daro measures 103 mm compared with 69 mm in the case of the wild bird. The femur of a modern table fowl (coll. Institute of Archaeology) measures 115 mm, which shows that the Indus Valley birds had been bred for size. Full domestication had, therefore, taken place, say, by 2000 B.C.