Indus Valley Art

1. Indus Valley Art

2. Indus Valley Art I • The Indus Valley is one of the world's earliest urban civilizations, along with its contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt • Date: 3300 BCE to 1500 BCE • The civilization is noted for its cities built of bricks, roadside drainage system, and multistoried houses. • So planned cities

3. Main sites • Apart from these recent ones unearthed at • Dholavira (Gujarat) • Kalibangan are also important

4. Though it seems to have been a very well advanced society we know little about it because the script has not yet been deciphered (cannot be read) • So a lot of mystery about various facets of the civilization from its origin to extinction

5. Mohenjodaro excavated site

6. Art • Varied and extremely curious kinds of artifacts have been found from Indus valley sites • Sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry, and anatomically detailed figurines in terracotta, bronze, and steatite (a kind of soapstone) have been found at excavation sites.

7. Seals • Steatite seals have images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of inscriptions, including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley Civilization. • Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods and most probably had other uses as well. • Many of them preserved in National Museum, Delhi

10. Usually indentified as a Proto Shiva seal Siva as Pasupati

11. The Pashupati Seal: This seal depicts what is probably the modern Hindu God, Shiv. Lord Shiv is surrounded by various animals like the rhino, the buffalo, the elephant and deer

12. tiger. He wears a crown of horns on his head. He is believed to have been considered by the Indus Valley Civilization people as the lord of the animals. • The Unicorn Seal: This is based on a fictional animal that the Indus Valley Civilization people had conjured up. It is an example of early fictional art.

13. Sculpture • Sculpture appeared to have made great advancements based on the various artifacts that have been found. • The Indus Valley Civilization made sculptures mainly in stone, metal and terra-cotta. • The famous bust of the bearded man, and the male torso are examples of such work.

14. Bearded man excavated from Mohenjodaro Authority Stylized Well developed sculptural style

16. The Indus Valley Civilization had also made great advances in metal sculptures using a fascinating technique to make sculptures out of bronze. The process was known as the lost wax process. • . A beautiful example of such work, is the naked dancing girl found at Mohenjo-Daro. She is covered with jewellery, wearing several necklaces and bangles. Bronze figures of buffalos and the humped bull have also been found.

18. The Indus Valley Civilization also made several sculptures out of terra-cotta, a fine example being a figure of the Mother Goddess. It shows the Mother Goddess as a mark of fertility and prosperity. The Indus Valley Civilization had also developed skills in pottery and painting. They used a special type of clay, which was baked. Once the pot was made, the painters would paint beautiful designs, the theme being birds, animals and men