Page 73 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

892 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

goddess Aruru, who created the monster to do combat be understood by reference to the creation myths found
with the hero Gilgamesh, though the monster ultimately in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda. This is perhaps our
became Gilgamesh’s ally and fought with Gilgamesh best evidence for a connection between the Indus civi-
against wild animals. The second motif is a well- lization and later, historical, India.
documented Mesopotamian combat scene, with Gilga-
mesh fighting off rampant animals on either side. The Transformation
A male deity, usually shown with bull or water buffalo of Indus Civilization
horns, is central in Indus religion. He is paired with a What happened to the ancient cities and peoples of the
number of different female images.The plant and animal Indus? Mohenjo Daro was largely abandoned by 1900
imagery of the Indus civilization can be seen as repre- BCE. The same is true for the other four Indus cities,
senting specific aspects of this great heaven-earth, male- although a small settlement remained at Harappa—the
female duality. There are many portrayals of composite so-called Cemetery H people. Older theories that hold
animals, some with three heads on one body, human tor- that the cities and civilization were destroyed by invad-
sos on four legged bodies, men with bull’s heads (like the ing Aryan tribes, as depicted in the Rig Veda, make very
Minoan Minotaur), tigers with horns, unicorns with ele- little sense, since there is no evidence for the sacking of
phanttrunks,andunicornsgrowingoutoftrees.Thereisno any of the Indus settlements.There is also a lack of agree-
good evidence for fire worship,as seen in laterVedic India. ment in the date of the transformation of the Indus civ-
A seal from the Indus site of Chanhu Daro, just south ilization around 2100–1900 BCE and the date of the
of Mohenjo Daro, has a representation of a bull sexually Vedic texts (c. 1000 BCE).The proposition that a natural
ravishing a prostrate human female.The archaeologist F. dam formed across the Indus River in Sind and flooded
R. Allchin interprets this as representing the duality of out the civilization has been widely critiqued and is not
heaven (the bull) and earth (the female), a theme that can a viable proposition.

Table 1.
Indus Civilization and Indus Post-Urban Civilization
REGION/Period Site Count Average Site Size (in hectares) Settled Area (in hectares)
SIND
Indus civilization 86 8.0 688
Post-urban 6 5.6 34
CHOLISTAN
Indus civilization 174 5.6 974
Post-urban 41 5.1 209
BALUCHISTAN
Kulli-Quetta /Indus 129 5.8 748
Post-urban 0 0.0 0
SAURASHTRA
Sorath Indus 310 5.4 1,674
Post-urban 198 4.3 815
EAST
Indus civilization 218 13.5 2,943
Post-urban 853 3.5 2,985