The arts of the Indus Valley Civilisation emerged during the second half of the third millennium BCE. The forms of art found from various sites of the civilisation include sculptures, seals, pottery, jewellery, terracotta figures, etc.
The artists of that time surely had fine artistic sensibilities and a vivid imagination. Their delineation of human and animal figures was highly realistic in nature, since the anatomical details included in them were unique, and, in the case of terracotta art, the modelling of animal figures was done in an extremely careful manner.
Must read: Urban planning and culture in the Indus Valley Civilization
Stone Statues
Statues whether in stone, bronze or terracotta found in Harappan sites are not abundant, but refined. The stone statuaries found at Harappa and Mohenjodaro are excellent examples of handling three- dimensional volumes. In stone are two male figures—one is a torso in red sandstone and the other is a bust of a bearded man in soapstone.
Bronze Casting
The art of bronze-casting was practised on a wide scale by the Harappans. Their bronze statues were made using the ‘lost wax’ technique in which the wax figures were first covered with a coating of clay and allowed to dry. Then the wax was heated and the molten wax was drained out through a tiny hole made in the clay cover. The hollow mould thus created was filled with molten metal which took the original shape of the object. Once the metal cooled, the clay cover was completely removed. In bronze we find
human as well as animal figures, the best example of the former being the statue of a girl popularly titled ‘Dancing Girl’.
Must read: Architecture of the Indus Valley Civilization
Terracotta
The Indus Valley people made terracotta images also but compared to the stone and bronze statues the terracotta representations of human form are crude in the Indus Valley. The most important among the Indus figures are those representing the mother goddess. Toy carts with wheels, whistles, rattles, birds and animals, gamesmen and discs were also rendered in terracotta.
Seals
Archaeologists have discovered thousands of seals, mostly made of steatite, and occasionally of agate, chert, copper, faience and terracotta, with beautiful figures of animals, such as unicorn bull, rhinoceros, tiger, elephant, bison, goat, buffalo, etc. The standard Harappan seal was a square plaque 2×2 square
inches, made from steatite. Every seal is engraved in a pictographic script which is yet to be deciphered.
Must read: Decline of the Indus Valley Civilization
Pottery
The Indus Valley pottery consists chiefly of very fine wheel-made wares, very few being hand-made. Plain pottery is more common than painted ware.
Plain pottery is generally of red clay, with or without a fine red or grey slip. It includes knobbed ware, ornamented with rows of knobs.
The black painted ware has a fine coating of red slip on which geometric and animal designs are executed in glossy black paint.
Polychrome pottery is rare and mainly comprises small vases decorated with geometric patterns in red, black, and green, rarely white and yellow.
Incised ware is also rare and the incised decoration was confined to the bases of the pans, always inside and to the dishes of offering stands.
Perforated pottery includes a large hole at the bottom and small holes all over the wall, and was probably used for straining beverages.
Beads and Ornaments
The Harappan men and women decorated themselves with a large variety of ornaments produced from every conceivable material ranging from precious metals and gemstones to bone and baked clay. While necklaces, fillets, armlets and finger -rings were commonly worn by both sexes, women wore girdles, earrings and anklets.
Must read: Harappan society
The bead industry seems to have been well developed as evident from the factories discovered at Chanhudaro and Lothal. Beads were made of carnelian, amethyst, jasper, crystal, quartz, steatite, turquoise, lapis lazuli, etc. Metals like copper, bronze and gold, and shell, faience and terracotta or burnt clay were also used for manufacturing beads. The beads are in varying shapes—disc-shaped, cylindrical, spherical, barrel-shaped, and segmented.
Other arts
The Harappan people also made brilliantly naturalistic models of animals, especially monkeys and squirrels, used as pin-heads and beads.
It is evident from the discovery of a large number of spindles and spindle whorls in the houses of the Indus Valley that spinning of cotton and wool was very common.
From archaeological finds it appears that the people of the Indus Valley were conscious of fashion. Different hairstyles were in vogue and wearing of a beard was popular among all. Cinnabar was used as a cosmetic and face paint, lipstick and collyrium (eyeliner) were also known to them.
Thus, the artists and craftsmen of the Indus Valley were extremely skilled in a variety of crafts—metal casting, stone carving, making and painting pottery and making terracotta images using simplified motifs of animals, plants and birds.
External link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilisation
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
QUES . The famous female figurine known as ‘Dancing Girl’, found at Mohenjo-daro, is made of UPSC PRELIMS 2025
(a) carnelian
(b) clay
(c) bronze
(d) gold
Ans (c)
QUES . Which of the following animals was not represented in seals and terracotta art of Harappan Sculpture? UPSC PRELIMS 2002
(a) Cow
(b) Elephant
(c) Rhinoceros
(d) Tiger
Ans (a)
