valley.^9 In any case, a common ritual in later Indian settings is very similar
to the Mesopotamian libations and became known in India as abhis.eka
(libations). Disposal of the dead appears to have been done differently at
various stages of the civilization’s history or in different areas of the valley:
these included inhumation in graves and burial in urns.^10 Finally, earlier
speculation that one famous seal depicted a proto-S ́iva in a yogic posture,
suggesting that both S ́aivism (worship of S ́iva) and yoga had their roots in
this culture, has been disputed by subsequent scholars, and remains, at the
least, a highly controversial hypothesis.
What have been the religious contributions of agricultural societies?
Because no documents exist to supplement our knowledge of the early agri-
cultural context, it is difficult to state definitively what was practiced in
those communities in the first few millennia BCE. But it is apparent that
agricultural lifestyles and motifs have persisted through the history of
Indian civilization and religion, even into the present day. It is also apparent
that agricultural motifs have filtered their way into certain “classical” forms
of Indian religion, especially those associated with Hinduism, in almost every
period. It is worth speculating, in general terms, as to what some of the
possible contributions of agricultural communities have been to the religious
life of India. Here are some possibilities.
- The land was generally understood to be feminine, the matrix and giver
of life. The agricultural process may therefore have had sexual imageries
(e.g., the furrow as female, the furrowing pick as male creative principle).
In later sources, we have many intimations of this association between land
and the female/goddess: terra-cotta female figurines that suggest fertility;
an early icon was that of Lajja ̄ Gauri, a goddess squatting naked on her
haunches, apparently representing the land’s creativity; there were associa-
tions in literature and mythology between landscape (especially land and
rivers) and goddesses.^11 - Goddesses had at least one of their roots in agricultural settings.
Goddesses, especially those in “folk” settings, even today, often represented
the forces of nature, its creativity, and barrenness; its power and/or
willfulness. This natural force of the goddess may have been enhanced by
her social force, insofar as she would have represented the role of women
in matrilineal settings. - Cyclicality in Indian speculation may have received impetus from
agricultural settings, inasmuch as agriculture and its seasons were cyclical.
Lunar chronometry (measuring time by the cycles of the moon, which
appeared in classical chronometry around the fourth century BCE) may have
its roots in agricultural settings as well, where the moon was often perceived
as feminine. Cyclicality may also have been associated with the menstrual
cycle. The term karma(the law of cause and effect) was apparently first
18 Sources of Indian Religion