Religious Practises of Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley civilization was primarily an urban civilization, with well-planned towns intended to meet the requirements of the people who lived in them as well as the physical and climatic constraints they encountered. Many writers have been interested in discovering predecessors to the religious rituals and deities of much later Indian faiths, therefore the religion and belief system of the Indus Valley people have gotten a lot of study. However, because of the scarcity of evidence, which is subject to several interpretations, and the fact that the Indus script remains untranslated.

Table of Contents

1. Religious Practises of IVC
2. Religious Beliefs of Indus People
3. Seals of IVC
4. Advent of Vedic Culture
5. Conclusion

Religious Practises of IVC

• It is true that the cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro flourished around 3000 BC.
• The fact that they were well-planned cities supports the argument that urban planning and the level of sophistication that went into its execution could not have been possible without corresponding development in various fields over several centuries.
• It’s questionable if the technology and expertise used to build such massive cities were entirely indigenous or imported.
• Some portions of understanding of base numbers, metallurgy, astrology, and some elements of Hinduism, yoga, and other schools of thought might have been left by this enormous and fascinating society.
• Many Harappan religious reconstructions are based on the premise that later traditions reveal similarities with earlier ones.
• This is due to the fact that archaeologists frequently shift from the known to the unknown, or from the present to the past.
• While this is feasible for stone quarns and pots, it becomes more speculative when applied to “religious” symbols.

Religious Beliefs of Indus People

• Along with male and female deities, the Indus people most likely worshipped Mother Goddess.
• They worshipped a father God who was likely a founder of the race and a prototype of Siva as the Lord of the Animals.
• They were familiar with some type of yoga and meditation.
• They believed in some form of tree of life, portrayed on seals as a Pipal or Acacia tree, protected by a guardian spirit against an evil power signified by a tiger.
• The guardian spirit is shown in seals as a bull, a serpent, a goat, a legendary creature, or an animal.
• They worshipped fertility symbols like round stones and perforated stones, which predated the worship of Siva and Parvathi in the form Sivalinga.
• They might have believed in magical rites, charms, and amulets, as well as ghosts and demons.
• They typically cremated the dead and left certain artefacts as offerings for their afterlives.
• The great bath of Mohenjo-Daro, or the much larger one discovered recently at the Dholavira site in Kutch, was most likely a prototype temple ponds, or sacred tank, found in ancient temples of southern India, where people might have taken purification baths or collectively participated in some kind of ritual bath on important occasions.
• The presence of baths and the presence of animals in the Indus seals imply that they may have utilised water and animals in sacrifice rituals as offerings or for expiation and ceremonial cleaning.
• Archaeologists have discovered no structures resembling temples, palaces, or monuments.
• In reality, most other modern civilisations have some sort of major monument.
• Despite the presence of granaries and public baths, the lack of a palace or temple led historians to think that the Indus Valley culture was egalitarian.
• They might have used their understanding of brick construction and geometric patterns to construct sacrifice altars.
• However, no sacrifice altars or pits have been discovered in the excavations at the Indus Valley sites.

Seals of IVC

Seals of IVC

• The Mohenjo-daro seal, also known as the “sacrifice” seal, of which only a few instances have been discovered, is widely assumed to depict a religious ceremony of some kind, however readings of the imagery and interpretations of the scene differ greatly.
• The majority of Indus seals portray a single animal with no evident narrative significance.
• Several are more sophisticated, with symbolic patterns and human or semi-human characters in action.
• A bull-man or bull-woman can be depicted fighting a spectacular horned beast with hooves, a tail, and massive horns.
• Men can be seen hiding in trees from tigers, while another can be seen fighting two tigers at once in a pattern reminiscent of the Master of Animals.
• It was thought to be one of the oldest portrayals of the Hindu god Shiva, with “Pashupati” (Lord of Animals) being one of his epithets, or a “proto-Shiva” deity.
• Though the mix of features in the Pashupati seal is unique, some of them can be found in other Indus seals.

Pasupathi seal *12 NCERT

Vedic Culture

Advent of Vedic Culture

• The Indus people created a massive civilisation that inexplicably vanished by 1800 BC, only to be replaced by Vedic culture in portions of India.
• They were familiar with a written script that has yet to be deciphered and which they utilised in their seals.
• The Aryan colonisation of the Indo-Gangetic Plains marked the beginning of the Vedic Age.
• The Vedic Age lasted from 1500 BC until 600 BC. After the demise of the Indus Valley Civilisation around 1400 BC, this was the next significant civilization in ancient India.
• The Vedas were written during this time period, thus the name.

Conclusion

Conclusion

Historians know relatively little about the Indus valley people’s religious practices. The Indus valley civilization spanned an area in the Indian subcontinent greater than modern-day Europe during its heyday. The civilisation existed between 3500 and 2000 BC, with predecessors extending back to the Neolithic era between 7000 and 6000 BC.