HARAPPAN RELIGION

● In Harappa numerous terracotta figurines of women have been found. In one

figurine, a plant is shown growing out of the embryo of a woman.
● The image probably represents the goddess of earth, and was intimately
connected with the origin and growth of plants.
● The Harappans, therefore, looked upon the earth as a fertility goddess and
worshiped her in the same way as the Egyptians worshiped the Nile goddess
Isis.
● We do not, however, know whether the Harappans were a matriarchal people
like the Egyptians.
● According to A.L Basham ,as far as we can reconstruct it from our
fragmentary knowledge, the religion of the Harappa people had some
features suggesting those characteristics of later Hinduism which are not to
be found in the earliest stratum of Indian religious literature.

MOTHER GODDESS

● The worship of female goddesses was associated with fertility.The worship

of Mother Goddess was dominant.
● John Marshall even mentions the Mother Goddess worship as a precursor to
Shakthism.
● The Mother Goddess, for instance, reappears only after the lapse of over a
thousand years from the fall of Harappa.

MALE GOD

● As well as the figurines already mentioned, which may represent divinities,

there are a few in terracotta of bearded nude men with coiled hair, their
posture, rigidly upright, with the legs slightly apart, and the arms held
parallel to the sides of the body but not touching it, closely resembles the
stance called by the Jainas käyot-sarga, in which meditating teachers were
often portrayed in later times; the repetition of this figure, in exactly the
same posture, would suggest that he was a god.
● A terracotta mask of a horned deity has also been found.
 ● The most striking deity of the Harappa culture is the horned god of the seals
. He is depicted on three specimens, in two seated on a stool or small dais,
and in the third on the ground.
● In all three his posture is one well known to later Indian holy men, with the
legs drawn up close to the body and the two heels touching.
● The god's body is nude, except for many bangles and what appear to be
necklaces, and he wears a peculiar headdress, consisting of a pair of horns,
which may have been thought of as growing from his head, with a plant-like
object between them.

PASHUPATI SEAL

● On the largest of the seals he is surrounded by four wild animals, an

elephant, a tiger, a rhinoceros and a buffalo and Antelope and beneath his
stool are two deer.
● The animals, the plant-like growth from the head, and the fact that he is
ithyphallic, indicate that he is a fertility god.
● His face has a fierce tigerish aspect, and one authority has suggested that it is
not meant to be human: to the right and left of the head are small
protuberances which were believed by Sir John Marshall to represent a
second and third face on either side.
● Marshall boldly called this god "Proto-Siva", and the name has been
generally accepted; certainly the horned god has much in common with the
Siva of later Hinduism, who is, in his most important aspect, a fertility deity,
is known as Pašupati, "the Lord of Beasts", and is sometimes depicted with
three faces.
● The other similar horned deity seal is in Islamabad where is horn is
smoother.And debated to be a female figurine

PHALLIC WORSHIP

● They also worshiped Lingams and Yonis.

● Phallic stones have been identified from Dholavira,Harappa,Mohenjadaro
and Kalibhangan.
 ● Phallic worship was an important element of Harappa religion. Many
cone-shaped objects have been found, which are almost certainly formalized
representations of the phallus.
● The linga or phallic emblem in later Hinduism is the symbol of the god Siva,
who is more commonly worshiped thus than as an icon.
● It is a fair inference that these objects were connected with the ithyphallic
"Proto-Siva" of the seals.
● It has been suggested that certain large ring-shaped stones are formalized
representations of the female generative organ and were symbols of the
Mother Goddess, but this is most doubtful.

ANIMAL & TREE WORSHIP

● Animals played a big part in the religion of the Indus people.

● Though all the animals shown on the seals may not have been particularly
sacred.The most important of them is the one-horned animal unicorn which
may be identified with the rhinoceros.
● Next in importance is the humped bull. Similarly, the animals surrounding
'Pashupati Mahadeva' indicate that these were worshiped.

TREE WORSHIP

● The people of the Indus region also worshiped trees. The depiction of a deity
is represented on a seal amidst branches of the pipal.
● One very interesting seal depicts a horned goddess in a pīpal tree,
worshiped by a figure also wearing horns, with a human-headed goat
watching the ceremony and a row of seven pigtailed women, probably
priestesses, in attendance.
● One of the few traces of Sumerian contact is to be found in the seal showing
a hero grappling with two tigers ,a variant of a famous Mesopotamian motif
in which the hero Gilgamesh is depicted as fighting two lions. The rotund
face of the hero, and the peculiar treatment of his hair, suggest that he
represents the sun, and that the night-prowling tigers are the powers of
darkness.
 ● Evidently, therefore, the inhabitants of the Indus region worshiped gods in
the form of trees, animals, and human beings, but the gods were not placed
in temples, a practice that was common in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
● Nor can we say anything about the religious beliefs of the Harappans
without being able to read their script.
● Amulets have been found in large numbers. In all probability, the Harappans
believed that ghosts and evil forces were capable of harming them and,
therefore, they used amulets against them.
● Cylindricals seals have been identified from Kalibangan suggesting animal
sacrifice.
● A cylindrical seal which indicates Human sacrifice has been identified from
Kalibangan.Kalibangan and Lothal also provides evidence of Fire Altars.

FUNERARY PRACTICES

● Disposal of the dead has been an important religious activity of human

groups. This is because the attitude towards the dead is linked up with the
human beliefs regarding this life and life after death.
● The Harappan civilization has not yielded any monuments for the dead
which could equal the pyramids of Egypt or the Royal cemetery of the
Mesopotamian city of Ur, in its grandeur.
● Until Sir Mortimer Wheeler's work at Harappa in 1946 nothing was known
with certainty of the way in which these people disposed of their dead; but
from a cemetery then discovered, containing at least 57 graves, it appears
that burial was the usual rite.
● However, we have certain evidence about the burial practices of the
Harappans In Harappa many graves have been discovered. Dead bodies were
generally placed in a north-south orientation. Bodies were laid on their
backs. A large number of earthen pots were placed in the grave
● In some cases the dead were buried with ornaments like shell bangles,
necklace, and an earring. In some cases copper mirrors, mother of pearl
shells, antimony sticks etc. were kept in the grave. A number of graves were
constructed with bricks
● A coffin burial has been found at Harappa. At Kalibangan some other kinds
of burial practices were encountered. Small circular pits containing large
urns and accompanied by pottery have been found.
● But they did not have any skeletal remains. Some other burial pits with
collected bones have also been found. From Lothal some examples of pairs
of skeletons with a male and a female in each case buried together.
● Multiple burials were identified from Lothal and Rakhigarhi.Ropar had the
most number of Burials and a burial of a man with a dog.Rojdi has the burial
of two infants.
● These practices show that the disposal of the dead among the Harappans was
different from the one followed subsequently.
● In the historical phases the predominant System seems to have been
cremation At the same time the careful placement of bodies. provided with
ornaments and toiletries is indicative of some belief in life after death. What
that belief was is unknown to us.
● A study of the various kinds of objects found in excavations shows that
different regions of the Harappan civilization followed different kinds of
religious practices.
● Fire worship was prevalent in Kalibangan and Lothal but unknown in
Harappa and Mohenjodaro.
● Ritual bathing evidenced at Mohenjo Daro might have been absent in
Harappa.
● The burial practices show wide variation ranging from extended inhumation
to double burials and pot burials. Finds in Kalibangan also show that
different kinds of burial practices were being followed in the same
settlement.
● Hence,This kind of diversity of religious beliefs and practices even in the
same settlement reflects the complex nature of the urban centers.
● Unlike tribal societies where every member of the tribe follows similar kinds
of religious practices, the urban centers are characterized by the presence of
people following different kinds of religious practices.
● This apparently means that urban centers were formed by the political and
economic integration of varied social groups.
● Also, an urban center means the presence of traders from different regions
with their own religious practices.
● These groups retained their social mores and customs but lost their political
and economic independence.