The Indus Valley Civilization developed rich art and craft traditions, as seen in their architecture like well-planned cities, public baths and granaries, as well as sculptures crafted from stone, bronze and terracotta depicting humans and animals. Pottery, seals with pictographic scripts, and ornaments made from materials like steatite, copper and gold also demonstrate the advanced artistic skills of Indus Valley peoples. Art provided insights into the culture and beliefs of one of the earliest urban civilizations.

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2. Indus Valley Civilization Art
Shalini Tiwari
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Drawing & Painting
Govt. Girls PG College, Badalpur
Gautam Buddha Nagar

3. Objectives:
The followings are the aims and objectives of the present
topic:
1. To systematically explore the Indus Valley Civilization in
various parts of Indian subcontinent.
2. To understand the subject, materials, style and
technique of Indus Valley Civilization art.

4. Introduction
The Indus Valley Civilization is one of the world’s oldest urban civilization (2750-
1750 BCE), in the Northwestern area of Indian subcontinent. The main area is
now in Pakistan and northwest India. Indus Valley Civilization is also known as
Harappan culture.
This civilization is largest known civilization which spread across the Indus
river basin over 5,00,000 square miles. There were two main cities in Indus
Valley Civilization – Mohenjodaro and Harappa and other centers were
Lothal(Gujarat), Chanhudaro, Dhaulvira((Gujarat), kalibanga(Rajasthan),
Ropar(Punjab) and Rakhigarhi(Haryana).
In 1921s Dayaram Sahani rediscoverd Harappa after excavation. Harappa
is an archaeological site in Punjab near the Ravi river.
The Indus Valley Civilization is contemporary to the Civilization of Egypt,
Mesopotamia and Crete.

5. Mohenjodaro
Mohenjodaro means Mound of the dead is situated in Sindh. It was built in
26th century BCE and one of the largest cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. It
was the most advanced city of its time with wonderful civil engineering and
city planning.
Mohenjodaro was abandoned in 1900 BCE with the decline of the Indus
Valley Civilization. In 1922 Rakhaldas Bandopadhyay, an officer of the
Archaeological survey of India, rediscovered this city. In 1930s, John Marshall
conducted a major excavation at this site.
Art & Craft
Indus Valley Civilization was very rich in art and craft. Various forms of Art an craft
developed in this civilization such as Architecture, Sculpture, Pottery, Terracotta toys
and pots, Seals, gold jewelry etc.

6. 1. Architecture:
The excavation at Harappa and Mohenjodaro and other sites of Indus
valley civilization revealed the existence of a very modern urban civilization.
Cities were properly walled and built on a geometric pattern. Drainage system
was well planned in the city. There are various examples of Indus valley
civilization Architecture:
1. Houses: Houses were made of burnt mud bricks. Houses were double
storied with bathroom, kitchen and a well.
2. Public building/Administrative building(85/85 feet): Public building were
big in size and had pillered halls and courtyards.
3. The great bath(39/23/8 feet): Public bath was discovered at Mohenjodaro
which shows the importance f ritualistic bathing and cleanliness in this
culture.
4. Granaries: Granaries were used to store grains which shows the organised
collection and distribution system.
5. Dockyard: There is remains of Dockyard in Lothal (Gujarat) which is the
proof of trade by sea.

7. 2. Sculpture:
The Harappans had the knowledge of
sculpting. The human and animal figures
were highly realistic. Various materials were
used in sculpture such as stone, bronze,
copper, terracotta etc.
1. Stone Statues: Stone statues of
Harappa, mohenjodaro are the best
examples of handling three dimensional
volumes.
• Bust of a bearded priest: This bust found
at Mohenjodaro and made up of steatite.
Source: pinterest.com

8. • Torso:
1. Male torso(4 inchs) – This torso made up of red lime stone
and found from Harappa. The head, arms and legs are
carved separately and socketed into the drilled holes of the
torso.
2. Female dancer(4 inches) - This torso made up of blackish
lime stone and found from Harappa. Body is twisted from
the waist upward. The whole weight of body on right leg and
left leg is in dance position.
2. Bronze Statue: The art of bronze casting was
practised by the Harappans on a wide scale. They
made bronze statues by using the ‘lost wax’ technique.
• Dancing girl statue(4 inches): One of the best
sculptures from the Indus Valley is Dancing girl bronze
statue.
Source: pinterest.com

9. 3. Terracotta:
Terracotta statues were
made in the Indus Valley
civilization but compared to stone
and bronze statues terracotta
statues are crude. There are two
types of terracotta statues –
Human and animals but the most
important terracotta statue is
‘Mother Goddess’ .
Source: ncert.nic.in

10. 3. Pottery:
Large quantity of different shaped and sized pots excavated from the Indus valley.
Plain pottery is common more than painted pots. Incised pots, perforated pottery,
miniature vessels are some examples of different shapes and sizes of pots. The black
painted pot has a coating of red slip with geometrical and animal motifs.
Source: pinterest.com
Source: flickr.com
Source: pinterest.com

11. 4. Seals:
• Thousands of seals have been discovered from Indus Valley made of steatite,
copper and terracotta with beautiful figures of animals such as rhinoceros, elephant,
unicorn bull, tiger, bison, goat and buffalo etc.
• The seals are generally in rectangle shape but some are in circle and few are in
cylinder shape.
• There is a pictographic script engraved on the seals.
• Seals were used for mainly commercial purpose.
• Some gold and ivory seals have been found also.
• The most remarkable seal was identified as a Pashupati seal.
Source: triumphias.com Source: en.wikipedia.org

12. 5. Beads and Ornaments:
The large variety of ornaments have been found from the Indus
Valley. Harappan men and women decorated themselves with different ornaments
made of different materials such as gold, copper, bone and baked clay.
Beads were made of steatite, jasper, crystal, quartz, turquoise, lapis lazuli, copper,
gold, bronze and terracotta.
Source: bbc.co.uk

13. Assignment/Quiz
1. . Write a short note on Indus valley civilization.
2. Explain the art and craft of Harappa and Mohenjodaro.
3. Describe the architecture and sculpture of Indus valley civilization.

14. References:
• Rao, Rajesh P. N., Yadav, Nisha; Vahia, Mayank N.; Joglekar, Hrishikesh;
Adhikari, R.; Mahadevan, Iravatham (May 2009). Entropic Evidence for
Linguistic Structure in the Indus Script.
• Clark, Sharri R. (2007). The social lives of figurines : recontextualizing the
third millennium BC terracotta figurines from Harappa, Pakistan. Harvard
• Rao, Shikaripura Ranganatha (1973). Lothal and the Indus civilization.
London : Asia Publishing House.
• Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (1997). Trade and Technology of the Indus
Valley : New Insights from Harappa, Pakistan.

15. Suggestive readings:
1. Avinash Bahadur Verma - Bhartiya Chitra Kala Ka itihas
2. G.K. Agrawal- Kala aur Kalam
3. Percy Brown - Indian Paintings
4. Dr. Shyam Bihari Agrawal - Bhartiya Chitra Kala Ka itihas