Arts and Crafts-The Indus Valley Civilization

Introduction: Crafts of Indus Valley included pottery making,dying,metal working in bronze and bead making.Bead materials included: Jade from Himalayas,Lapis lazuli from Afganistan,turcoise from persia,amethyst from mewar in India,and steatite, which was found locally. Seals found in Indus valley civilization About 2500 seals are found in Indus valley civilisation.It is usually a rectangular of square.The script with animal figure is engraved on square seal.Most of the seals found to be solid.Although that these seals are made of Ivory.They were used in two ways.They used coins for trading.The figures of horned animal,buffalo,tiger,goat and elephant were carved on them.The maximum number is of single horned animals.A variety of animals shapes were made on seals with symbols in hieroglyphs.Some seals have only script engraved while some others have human and semi-human figures engraved on them.On some seals there are various patterns releted to geometry.The Indian elephant,bull,rhinoceros tiger are prominent among the animals figures depicted.Tiger depiction has happened only in the sites of sindh region.Outside sindh region only on the seal of kalibanga the depiction of tiger is found.Three alligators and the fish are depected on clay mudra of chhundaro.There is picture of an Garuda on one of the harrappan postures and a rabbit on the other.Pashupati's shiva pictures is inscribed on one of the coins of Mohanjodaro.There are also pictures of some trees on various mudras of which peepal and acacia are prominent.Mr.Mckay has identified a tree by its flag. swathika symbolas are identified on the coins.Small sized currencies are found in lothal in the phase from in the begenning to end along with simple ones.No currency have been recieved from alamgirpur.On the other hand have been found from harappa,mohenjodaro and lothal.About 1200 seals have been found from mohenjdaro the size fo seal ranged from about 1cm to 5cm. Bead The people of harrapan civilization uses very beautiful beads made of precious and semi precious stone onyx ,turquoise,redstone and celandine.The site from bead making factory has been made from chanhudaro and lothal.Gold and silver beads has also been found.A pleothora of jewellery has also found in mohenjodaro.It includes gold beads and other jewellery. Terracotta figurines They were probabbly used as toys or idols.The pictures of animals,birds,men and women are engraved on them.Of these pictures found on three quaters of terraquota.They are made of clay.Among animal birds, figurines of bull,buffalo,sheep,tiger,boar,rhiniceros,bear,monkey,peacock,parrot,duck and pegion have been found.Apart from this the shape of bullock cart and thela cart has also been found.The shape of humped backed bull has also been found in terracota.Horse evidence comes from evidence of artifact from mohenjodaro.In some sculptures,the shape of half human has also been made, that is faces some animals are made of human.Human figuries are solid where as animal figurines are hallow.Most of the figurines are made by hand.But some are also molded.Among water animals figurines of crocodiles,fish and tortoise are found from harrappa.The statues of harrappa and mohenjadaro do not have figure of cow.There are more women than men.This is an important thing.Ranganath Rao has mentioned the reciept of two figurines of cow from lothal.

Metal idols So far these have been recieved from mohenjodaro,chanhandaro,lothal and kalibanga.A bronze statue of a naked dancer has been found from mohenjodaro and chahundaro.A necklace has been adorned around his neck. A single bronze car has been found from chahundaro and harrappa.The shape of copper bull has been obtained from lothal.The shape of copper bull has also been found from kalibanga. Stone Art The harrappan civilization was backward in stone art.The available stone sculptures are made of alabaster,limestone,shale,grandstone and graystone.All the idols are have been found in almost in fragmented condition. Limitations of art of Indus civilisations

The number of arts indus civilisations is limited .They do not have same diversity of expression as found in contemporary of cultures egypt and mespotamia.