Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

Perhaps the most impressive sculpture discovered is a robed male

figure (FIG. 6-3) with half-closed eyes, a low forehead, and a closely

trimmed beard with shaved upper lip. He wears a headband with a

central circular emblem, matched by a similar armband. Holes on

each side of his neck suggest that he also wore a necklace of precious

metal.Trefoils (cloverlike designs with three stylized leaves) decorate

his elegant robe. They, as well as the circles of the head- and arm-

bands, originally held red paste and shell inlays, as did the eyes. Art

historians often compare the Mohenjo-daro statuette to Sumerian

sculptures, in which the trefoil motif appears in sacred contexts, and

scholars usually refer to the person portrayed as a “priest-king,” the

ambiguous term used for some Sumerian leaders. The identity and

rank of the Mohenjo-daro figure, however, are uncertain. Nonethe-

less, the elaborate costume and precious materials make clear that he

too was an elite individual.

HARAPPA Quite different in style is the miniature red-sand-

stone torso of a nude male figure (FIG. 6-4) found at Harappa.

Scholars usually compare this figure, which is less than four inches

tall, to Greek statues of much later date, but the treatment of

anatomy separates it sharply from the classical tradition. The highly

polished surface of the stone and the swelling curves of the abdomen

reveal the Indus artist’s interest in the fluid movement of a living

body, not in the logical anatomical structure of Greek sculpture.

This sense of pulsating vigor and the emphasis on sensuous surfaces

would continue to be chief characteristics of South Asian sculpture

for thousands of years.

INDUS SEALSThe most common Indus art objects are steatite

seals with incised designs. They are similar in many ways to the stamp

seals found at contemporaneous sites in Mesopotamia (see “Meso-

potamian Seals,” Chapter 2, page 39). Most of the Indus examples

have an animal or tiny narrative carved on the face, along with an

as-yet-untranslated script. On the back, a boss (circular knob) with a

hole permitted insertion of a string so that the seal could be worn or

hung on a wall. As in the ancient Near East, the Indus peoples some-

times used the seals to make impressions on clay, apparently for se-

curing trade goods wrapped in textiles. The animals most frequently

represented include the humped bull, elephant, rhinoceros, and tiger.

Each is portrayed in strict profile, as in the paintings and reliefs of all

other early cultures. Some of the narrative seals appear to show that

the Indus peoples considered trees sacred, as both Buddhists and

India and Pakistan 159

6-3Robed male figure, from Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan, ca. 2000–

1900 bce.Steatite, 6^7 – 8 high. National Museum of Pakistan, Karachi.

Little art survives from the Indus Civilization, and all of it is of small

scale. This bearded figure, which scholars think represents a priest-king,

has iconographic similarities to some Sumerian sculptures.

6-4Nude male torso, from Harappa, Pakistan, ca. 2000–1900 bce.

Red sandstone, 3–^34 high. National Museum, New Delhi.

This miniature figure, with its emphasis on sensuous polished surfaces

and swelling curves, already displays many of the stylistic traits that

would characterize South Asian sculpture for thousands of years.

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