Art of Indus Valley Civilisation

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September 28, 2016 by slatelive

• Figurines are realistic and teraccotta art was done in a very careful manner.
• Harappa and Mohenjodaro showcase one of the earliest example of civic painting.
• Important sites discovered in India
  Lothal & Dholavira in Gujarat.
  Rakhigarhi in Haryana
  Ropar in Punjab.
  Kalibangan and Balathal in Rajasthan.

Stone statues
They are excellent examples of handling three dimentional volumes
Two male statues
1)A torso in red standstone.
2)Bust of a bearded man in steatite

Bearded man:It’s interpreted as a priest. Draped in shawl coming under the right arm and covering the left shoulder.The shawl is decorated with trefoil patterns.Eyes are half closed as if in meditation.

Bronze casting
Used lost wax technique.
Eg; Dancing girl (found in Mohenjo Daro)
The technique was popular at all the major centers of Indus valley civilization.

Terracotta
Compared to stone and bronze statues, terracotta representations are crude in Indus Valley.
They are more realistic in Gujarat sites and Kalibangan.
Important figures
Mother goddess
Beared males with coiled hair. Their posture upright, legs slightly apart and arms parallel to the sides of the body.
Repetition of the figure in exactly same position suggest he was a diety.
Terracotta mask of an horned diety has also been found.
Toy carts of many types are also found.

Seals

• Thousands of seals were discovered.
• They are made mainly of steatite and occasionally of agate, chert, copper, faience and terracotta.
• The seals contain beautiful figures of animals such as unicorn bull, rhinoceros, tiger, elephant bison, goat, buffalo etc. Some times trees and human figures are also depicted.
• Seals were produced for commercial purpose.
• They were also used as amulets and perhaps served the purpose of modern-day identity cards.
• Pictographic scripts are engraved on every seals.
• Some seals are made of gold and ivory.
• A remarkable seal is one depicted with a figure in the centre and animals around.
• The seal is generally identified as Pashupati seal. But,some identify  it as a female deity.
• The seal depicts a human figure seated cross-legged.

Pottery

• Indus valley pottery consists chiefly of very fine wheel made wares and very few hand made ones.
• Plain pottery is more common than painted wares.
• Plain pottery is more of red clay.
• The black painted ware has a fine coating of red slip on which geometric and animal designs are executed in glossy black paints.
• 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.
• Perforated pottery was probably used to strain liquid.

Beads and ornaments.

• They are made of precious metal and gemstone to bone and baked clay.
• Necklace, armlets and finger-rings were worn by both the sexes.
• Women wore girdles, earrings and anklets.
• beads were of various size and shapes.
• Great technical skill has been displayed in the manufacture of beads

Clothing

• Large number of spindles and spindle whorls discovered in the houses of Indus valley.
• This shows that spinning of cotton and wool was very common.
• Both rich and poor practiced spinning.: Whorls made of expensive faience and cheap pottery were discovered
• Men and women wore two separate pieces of attire similar to dhoti an shawl.
• The people were conscious of fashion.
• Different haristyles were in vogue and wearing beard was popular.
• Cinnabar was used as a cosmetic and face paints, lipstick and eyeliner were known to them.

In short artists and craftsmen of Indus Valley were extremely skilled in a variety of crafts- metal casting, stone carving, making and painting pottery and making terracotta images.