A Harappan Seal

 

The Harappan Civilization's seals were one of their most remarkable and artistic creations. Since 1921, approximately 3500 seals have been discovered. The Indus Valley Civilization was the first known urban civilization, flourishing on the banks of the Indus River in the second half of the third millennium BCE. Since 1921, numerous sculptures, jewels, seals, potteries, and other artifacts have been excavated from these sites. In this article on Harappan Civilization seals, we will look at the nature and characteristics of the seals of the Indus Valley Civilization.

Seals of Harappan

• Small objects called seals were carved out of stones and burned to make them more durable in the ancient civilization of the Indus Valley.
• These seals were used for commercial purposes such as sealing the mouths of jars by pressing the seals against soft clays, creating clay tags for sacks that transported goods to various destinations, and trading activities.
• A large number of seals were discovered near the Indus Valley Civilization's port city of Lothal.
• Several Harappan seals have also been discovered in Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and along the Arabian Peninsula's coasts. Similarly, Mesopotamia seals were discovered in Lothal. This confirms that seals were used in trading and that trade took place between the two world's great ancient civilizations (Harappan and Mesopotamia civilizations).
• The seals discovered at various sites of the Indus Valley Civilization are of various sizes and shapes. The seals come in triangle, square, rectangle, and circle shapes. However, square-shaped seals outnumbered other shapes in the Harappan civilization.
• The majority of these seals were made of Steatite, a relatively soft stone found in river beds. Aside from that, copper, terracotta, chert, faience, and agate were used to make those seals. Archaeologists have also discovered gold and ivory seals from the Harappa sites in recent years.
• Some Harappan civilization seals were discovered on the dead bodies. These seals have a threaded hole, implying that they were used as amulets or as a necklace.
• The majority of the seals have symbols or pictographic scripts on one side, which are thought to be Indus Valley Civilization scripts.
• The vast majority of these scripts were written from right to left. However, there are some seals where the scripts have been written in a bidirectional style (i.e. the right to left on one line and left to right on the next line).
• Animal impressions were carved on the surfaces of the seals on the other sides. Tiger, buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, bison, goat, unicorn, ibex, humped bull, crocodile, and other animal motifs were used.
• A typical Harappan seal is square in shape, with a series of symbols along the top, an animal in the centre, and one or more symbols at the bottom.

Pashupati Seal

• The Pashupati seal is the most famous seal of the Indus Valley Civilization. It is a steatite seal with a carved human figure, possibly a deity, sitting cross-legged. Pashupati is the name of the deity.
• He is depicted in the seal wearing a three-horned headgear and surrounded by animals, including an elephant and a tiger on the left side, a rhinoceros and a buffalo on the right side, and two antelopes below the figure.

Pashupati Seal

• The steatite seal measures 3.56 cm by 3.53 cm and has a thickness of 0.76 cm.
• It features a human figure seated on a platform and facing forward in the centre. The figure's legs are bent at the knees, with the heels touching and the toes pointing down. With the thumbs facing away from the body, the arms extend outwards and lightly rest on the knees. The arms are adorned with eight small and three large bangles. A double band wraps around the waist and covers the chest with what appear to be necklaces. The figure is adorned with a tall and ornate headdress that features a central fan-shaped structure flanked by two large striated horns.
• The human figure is flanked by four wild animals: an elephant and a tiger on one side, a water buffalo, and an Indian rhinoceros on the other. Two deer or ibexes stand beneath the dais, their curved horns almost touching in the centre.
• There are seven Indus script symbols at the top of the seal, the last of which appears to be displaced downwards due to a lack of horizontal space.

Other Seals

Seal	Description	Image
Unicorn Seal	One of the largest Seal
Bull Seal from Harappa	It featured the motif of a majestic zebu bull with wide curving horns. The zebu bull may represent the herd's leader who protects them, or it may represent a sacrificial animal. It featured the motif of a majestic zebu bull with wide curving horns. The zebu bull may represent the herd's leader who protects them, or it may represent a sacrificial animal.