SmartSurat  #  Hinduism

Figurines

An abundance of figurines has been found from the Indus valley remains, some of animals, and some of male and female human forms. At least some of the figurines uncovered in excavations may well have been no more than ornaments or children's toys. Mohenjo-daro, for example, has yielded terracotta model carts and toy animals. But some figurines clearly belonged to the cultic world of the Harappan people. Many of the male and female figurines have heads with horns or similar appendages and might well have been deities like the so-called Proto-Siva. Male figurines are sometimes characterized by goat-like beards, but like the figures on the seals, it is impossible to say whether other figurines are male or female. Many are also part animal. However, male figurines are less numerous than female ones and Basham suggested that the rigidly upright male figurines all reproduced in the same stance, and with beards and coiled hair, are indicative of a single deity.        A much publicized figurine is the dancing girl cast in bronze found at Mohenjo-daro. She is slim and naked, except for her bangled arms and a necklace. She is long limbed (the arms somewhat disproportionately so), has elaborately plaited hair - a feature of many of the female figurines from the same period - and her facial features are Australoid / Dravidian. What was she? Was she an ornament? A figure of a dancing girl? A doll? Or was she a temple dancer or a temple prostitute as many writers suggest? There is something provocative about her stance with one hand placed on her hip but we have no context in which to place her.