Harappan Sculptures

Harappan sculpture revealed a high degree of workmanship.

Figurines of children are common find among harappan sculptures.Many children figurines are are actually children nursing at breast of mothers. The position of the figurine is usually a nursing infant situated on the left hip, leaving other arm to do other stuffs of home. Harrapan figures are mostly nude and beautifully ornamented with bracelets, necklaces etc. one toy many figurines have is a small disc which are part of game 'pittu'.

Figurines of women are probably are most plentiful figures of harappan civilisation.They are easily distinguished by curving and pear shaped body with large protuding breasts. They are basically two fold emphasizing sexual nature of female and at the same time the nurturing nature.Clothing includes their short skirts, almost every figure was crafted as terracotta but few at the end of civilisation were bronze.Cinnabar was used as cosmetic and face paint ,lipstick etc .

Figurines of men are bit harder to find during that time ,they were very simple and very less accessorized as most of the figures were nude. Male jewelry typically included one necklace and one bangle in an arm.Different hairstyles were in vogue and beard was popular and in few shawl covered the left shoulder and passed below right arm.The human figurines reflect the common use of figurines in all cultures during that time period, to celebrate procreation and childbirth.

The stone sculpture- Among stone images in harappa two male statues are noteworthy as one is beautifully ornamented and other one is naked. There are beautiful pieces of red stone found which are carved with minute details.They were prolific in art of house building, clay statuary ,making of
ornaments of gold and silver,cutting of beads into semi precious stones like agate, ivory carving and weaving.

The bronze sculpture- Harappan artists also knew bronze casting as they used special lost wax process in which wax figures were covered with a coating of clay, then wax was heated and hollow mould created was filled with the metal which took the shape of sculpture.Basically the sculptures were of terracotta like that of the Mother Goddess as symbol of fertility and prosperity,high crested head dress, chaplets around neck,long series of pendant necklace and broad girdle indicate profound artist.

Pottery- Pottery was found in large quantities of different  artistic shape, special clay was there which was painted with different deigns of birds ,animals, men etc. Pictorial motifs consisted of geometrical patterns like horizontal lines, circles, leaves etc in which most were found written from right to left which made them come to a solution that there language was dravidian other connecting with that of brahmi script.

Seals- Many scripts were found in seals ,which were more than 2000 in number, some of which give very useful information like their culture and civilization. Most of the seals have figures of real animals while some also have of mythical animals, the seals found were rectangular circular and even cylindrical in shape.They even have short inscription of pictorial writing,  example :Pashupati seal ,unicorn seal etc.
Today the present civilisation is composite product resulting from fusion of several cultures in which harappan played the most important role.