SmartSurat  #  Hinduism

The great bath

The most impressive edifice at Mohenjo-daro was the ' great bath ', as it has been called. This was 39 feet long, 23 feet wide and 8 feet deep. It was hardly a public bath since the houses of the main city had their own bathing facilities, so excavators have been keen to suggest some connection of it to the religious cult. It is surrounded by larger buildings and also much smaller rooms but there is no evidence to suggest that any of these were used as temple structures. A terracotta mask of a horned being and distinctive head-dresses excavated in the vicinity have led some to suggest that the whole area was one devoted to religious practices, the ' great bath ' being the site of ritual purification before worship of a horned deity. Given the emphasis on ritual purification in water in subsequent Hindu practice, it is an attractive speculation but there is no written evidence to support such an idea.