The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

38 PREHISTORIC AND EPIC PERIODS
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6. Seal with three-headed animal from Mohenjo-daro.
New Delhi, National Museum
7. Seal with three-headed god from Mohenjo-daro.
New Delhi, National Museum
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8. Seal with representation of bull /V^
from Mohenjo-daro.
New Delhi, National Museum /
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concepts. On one we find a horned deity seated
in yoga posture, who is probably to be recognized
as a prototype of the Hindu god Siva [7]
14
The central figure has three heads, and the trident
above his head is suggestive of the Buddhist
symbol known as the trisula. The horns are
presumably a Mesopotamian survival, and are
to be read as an indication of divinity. The central
personage is surrounded by a number of
wild beasts, perhaps as a reference to Siva's
function as Lord of Beasts or to suggest Siva's
dwelling as an ascetic in the wilderness. What
is perhaps the most interesting aspect of this
seal is that in it we have the earliest recognizable
representation of a divinity in human form in
Indian art. On other seals the representations
of horned female figures in trees are certainly
to be interpreted as the earliest portrayals of the
yakshi, the fertility- and tree-spirit that figures
so largely in later Buddhist art. Their appearance
furnishes positive proof that the cult of
tree-spirits mentioned in the Yajur and Atharva
Vedas had its origins in the Indus culture.
By far the greatest number of the Indus
Valley seals are carved with figures of bulls,
either the zebu or the urus ox, some of them
with objects resembling altars or mangers
before them [8]. Here again, while the iconography
cannot be positively identified, it seems
likely that this popular bovine emblem is related
to the cult of the bull as a fertility and lunar
symbol in ancient Mesopotamia and perhaps as
a prototype of Siva's attribute, the bull Nandi.
From the aesthetic point of view the designs
of the animal seals of the Indus culture are
the most satisfactory of all the finds. They are
the exact equivalents in animal sculpture of the
perfection of the human statuettes from Harappa.
It will be noted in the first place that whereas
the head and body are shown in profile, the
horns, eyes, and sometimes the hoofs are frontally
represented; in other words, this is a conceptual
rather than an optical rendering, which
means that the figure is a combination of those
different aspects of the body which appeared to
be significant to the artist,
combining a visual
and tactile impression of the object. This is a
method intended to give the most essential and
complete impression possible of the object. 15