Abstract
Early Cult Figures from the Indus Valley SEALS showing the figure of an unidentified deity found at Mohenjo-daro have been identified tentatively by Sir John Marshall as Siva-Pasupati, but Saletore regards them as representations of Agni. The latter would weigh in favour of the Aryan hypothesis of Harappa cultural origins in the Indus Valley. Agni has no counterpart in the pre-Aryan cultures known to us. The argument in favour of the identification with Siva rests in part on the character of the trident-like head-dress, which Saletore maintains does not represent Siva's trident. This head-dress is regarded by A. Aiyappan (J. R. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Letters, 5, 3; 1940) as the key to the understanding of the nature of the religious representation intended by the seals on which the figures appear. Taken as a group, there can be little doubt that the sculptor intended to show two, not three, horns. Agni is shown as three or four horned, and though he is likened to various animals such as bull, steed, winged bird, or goat, nowhere is there any suggestion that he should have a pair of buffalo or bison horns. To the ethnologist the head-dress is full of interest. Its various forms find counterparts in the head-dresses of modern Indian tribes, the Bison-horn Gonds, the Koyas and Savaras of the Eastern Ghats and the Naga tribes of Assam. That of the Kalyo Kengyu warrior of the Naga Hills is almost a modern copy of that of the Mohenjo-daro figures. The meaning of the latter can only be gathered if considered from the ethnological angle, though identity of significance must not be postulated. Nevertheless, it would appear from modern instances that there are rites allocated with fertility and buffalo cults which still exist among many tribes and even Hindu castes in a vestigial and attenuated form but may well have been a living cult when the culture of Mohenjo-daro flourished. The Mohenjo-daro deity does not possess many attributes of the Siva of modern Hinduism, but his most fundamental qualities are suggestively indicated-the horns suggesting the trident and fertility, the phallic aspect and the pose and surroundings of Siva's yogic characteristics.”
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Research Items. Nature 147, 360–361 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147360a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147360a0