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8 cultural practices of Harappan Era that has still been continued till today

Move to bring ‘Dancing Girl’ back from India

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The Dancing Girl


LAHORE: A writ petition filed in the Lahore High Court on Monday has requested that directions be issued to the federal government to bring back from India the ‘Dancing Girl’ bronze statue excavated from Moenjodaro in 1926.

Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffrey, the petitioner, has asked the LHC to take suo motu notice in this regard. He claims that the statue is the property of the Lahore Museum. It was taken to India around 60 years ago at the request of the National Arts Council, Delhi, and was never brought back.

Mr Jaffrey says the statue has the same historic importance as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in Europe. He calls it a marker of Pakistan’s cultural heritage which needs to be protected.

The statue is 10.5 centimetres tall and nearly 5,000 years old. Some of the most famous archaeologists in the world have described it as one of the most captivating pieces of art from the Indus site.

In a recent statement, Jamal Shah, director general of the Pakistan National Museum of Arts, hinted that the government was considering writing to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation to bring the statue back. “This is important if we want to protect our heritage.”

Dancing Girl (sculpture)
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Dancing Girl (bronze), Mohenjo-daro

Artist unknown, pre-historic
Year c. 2500 BC
Type bronze
Dimensions 10.5 cm × 5 cm (4 1/8 in × 2 in )
Location National Museum, New Delhi, Delhi
Dancing Girl is a prehistoric bronze sculpture made in approximately 2500 BCE in the Indus Valley Civilisation city of Mohenjo-daro (in modern-day Pakistan), which was one of the earliest human cities. The statuette is 10.5 centimetres (4.1 in) tall, and depicts a young woman or girl with stylized proportions standing in a confident, naturalistic pose. Dancing Girl is well-regarded as a work of art, and is a cultural artefact of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The statuette was discovered by British archaeologist Ernest Mackay in 1926, prior to the Partition of India. It is held by the National Museum, New Delhi, and ownership is disputed by Pakistan.
Description[edit]
A bronze statuette DANCING GIRL is 10.5 centimetres (4.1 in) high and about 5,000 years old.[1] It was found in the "HR area" of Mohenjo-daro in 1926 by Ernest Mackay.[1] Although it is in a standing position, it was named "Dancing Girl" with an assumption of her profession. This is one of two bronze art works found at Mohenjo-daro that show more flexible features when compared to other more formal poses. The girl is naked, wears a number of bangles and a necklace and is shown in a natural standing position with one hand on her hip.[2] She wears 24 to 25 bangles on her left arm and 4 bangles on her right arm, and some object was held in her left hand, which is resting on her thigh; both arms are unusually long.[3] One arm completely filled with bangles which is similar to Banjara lady. Her necklace has three big pendants. She has her long hair styled in a big bun that is resting on her shoulder. This statue is a cultural artifact reflecting the aesthetics of a female body as conceptualized during that historical period.[4]

Expert opinions[edit]

Second bronze statuette of a girl c.2500 BC, now displayed at Karachi Museum, Pakistan.
In 1973, British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler described the item as his favorite statuette:

"She's about fifteen years old I should think, not more, but she stands there with bangles all the way up her arm and nothing else on. A girl perfectly, for the moment, perfectly confident of herself and the world. There's nothing like her, I think, in the world." [5]

John Marshall, another archeologist at Mohenjo-daro, described the figure as "a young girl, her hand on her hip in a half-impudent posture, and legs slightly forward as she beats time to the music with her legs and feet".[6] He is known to reacted with surprise when he saw this statuette. He said "When I first saw them I found it difficult to believe that they were prehistoric." [7] The archaeologist Gregory Possehl described Dancing Girl as "the most captivating piece of art from an Indus site" and qualified the description of her as a dancer by stating that, "We may not be certain that she was a dancer, but she was good at what she did and she knew it."[8]

The statue led to two important discoveries about the civilization: first that they knew metal blending, casting and other sophisticated methods, and secondly that entertainment, especially dance was part of the culture.[1] The bronze girl was made using the lost-wax casting technique and shows the expertise of the people in making bronze works during that time.[2] The statue is displayed at National Museum, New Delhi.[1] A similar bronze statuette was found by Mackay during his final full season of 1930–31 at DK-G area in a house at Mohenjo-daro. The preservation, as well as quality of craftsmanship, is inferior to that of the well known Dancing Girl.[8] This second bronze female figure is displayed at Karachi Museum, Pakistan.[9]

An engraving on a piece of red potsherd, discovered at Bhirrana, India, a Harappan site in Fatehabad district in Haryana, shows an image that is evocative of Dancing Girl. The excavation team leader, L. S. Rao, Superintending Archaeologist, Excavation Branch, ASI, remarked that, “... the delineation [of the lines in the potsherd] is so true to the stance, including the disposition of the hands, of the bronze that it appears that the craftsman of Bhirrana had first-hand knowledge of the former”.[10][11]

Pakistan's demand[edit]
Some Pakistani politicians and experts have demanded that the Dancing Girl be "returned" to Pakistan.[12] In 2016 Pakistani barrister, Javed Iqbal Jaffery, petitioned the Lahore High Court for the return of the statue, claiming that it had been "taken from Pakistan 60 years ago on the request of the National Arts Council in Delhi but never returned." According to him, the Dancing Girl was to Pakistan what Da Vinci's Mona Lisa was to Europe.[13]


Pre-History & Archaeology




Hover over the image to see more details.

Dancing Girl
C. 2500 B.C.

Place of Origin: Mohenjodaro
Materials: Bronze
Dimensions: 10.5 x 5 x 2.5 cm.
Acc. No. 5721/195

One of the rarest artefacts world-over, a unique blend of antiqueness and art indexing the lifestyle, taste and cultural excellence of a people in such remote past as about five millenniums from now, the tiny bronze-cast, the statue of a young lady now unanimously called 'Indus dancing girl', represents a stylistically poised female figure performing a dance. The forward thrust of the left leg and backwards tilted right, the gesture of the hands, demeanour of the face and uplifted head, all speak of absorption in dance, perhaps one of those early styles that combined drama with dance, and dialogue with body-gestures. As was not unusual in the lifestyle of early days, the young lady has been cast as nude. The statue, recovered in excavation from 'HR area' of Mohenjo-Daro, is suggestive of two major breaks-through, one, that the Indus artists knew metal blending and casting and perhaps other technical aspects of metallurgy, and two, that a well developed society Indus people had innovated dance and other performing arts as modes of entertainment.

Large eyes, flat nose, well-fed cheeks, bunched curly hair and broad forehead define the iconography of the lady, while a tall figure with large legs and arms, high neck, subdued belly, moderately sized breasts and sensuously modeled waist-part along vagina, her anatomy. The adornment of her left arm is widely different from the right. While just two, though heavy, rings adorn her right arm, the left is covered in entirety with heavy ringed bangles. Besides, the figure has been cast as wearing on her breasts a necklace with four 'phalis' like shaped pendants. Though a small work of art, it is impressive and surpasses in plasticity and sensuousness the heavily ornate terracotta figurines.
We are not giving it back!:p: no way!
 
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Pre-History & Archaeology of Pakistan


Weight(s) and Measurements


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Weight(s) and Measurements
C, 2500 B.C.

Place of Origin: Mohenjo-Daro
Materials: Weight: Chert
Balance: Copper
Dimensions: Balance Stick : 12 x 0.3 cm
Balance Plate: 15.7 x 5.7 cm
Weight: Biggest: 2.4 x 2.4 x 1.8 cm
Smallest: 0.7 x 0.7 x 0.6 cm
Acc. No. DK-80/2604 and DK I-355/2605 (Balance)

An index to an advanced stage of trade, and its essential element, the recovery of this balance and weights from Mohenjo-Daro suggests that Harappan settlers not only pursued systematic trade activities but also had in prevalence weights and measures ensuring accuracy, consistency, transparency and fairness of trade-system and commercial behaviour. Far ahead of the primitive measuring vessels of bartering goods Harappan settlers maintained consistent standards of weights and regularized weights' based pricing system. Though re-fabricated, this balance is estimated to be about four and a half millenniums old. These finds attest with great certainty the advanced stage of trade amongst Harappan settlers.

The recovered weights range from the heavier ones with lifting rings attached to those of micro-miniaturised sizes used probably by jewelers for weighing precious metals, jewellery items and perhaps some rare and scarce spices. Harappan settlers seem to have decimal system in use for defining higher weights as also for measuring lengths. It seems some central authority controlled and ensured adherence to strict standards and fairness in trade and commercial activities. A large number of small rectangular blocks - both cubical and cylindrical made of tawny chert and marked with light grey bands, have been excavated from Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. The archaeologists have identified these blocks as weights. Interestingly, all these finds are well finished and have polished faces. Occasionally they also have beveled edges, though none of them bears an inscription or mark indicating a weight and value. Along such weights Mohenjo-Daro excavations have also revealed a copper balance.
Human Mask (puppet)
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Human Mask (puppet)
2700-2200 B.C.
Place of Origin: Mohenjodaro
Materials: Terracotta
Dimensions: 5.1 x 3.1 x 2.1 cm
Acc. No. D. K. 9208/250

This hollow mask was discovered through excavations at Mohenjodaro. The figurine was prepared by an open single mould. One horn of this mask is complete and other one is partly missing. There are two single holes below the ears. The two elongated eyes of this figure are downcast. The forehead of this mask is comparatively broader than the male terracotta's from Harappa. The nose is quite prominent and the top portion of the head is an arch type, whereas in other masks it is in straight line.

This terracotta mask was found at a depth of 5.67 mt.- 6.80 mt. below the surface and its art style is different from the other three masks found. It is interesting to note that masks discovered from the lowest level do not have mongoloid facial expression and their eyes are oblique. The horns are curved and beard is marked with incised lines. This figure resembles in style with another mask discovered on the surface at Mohenjodaro and also with another mask of a goat. The two side cavities at the edge were made for fixing with some kind of thread. The edge of this mask was carefully made and the extra clay was removed. The horns, ears and other facial details were prepared in the next stage.

Climbing Monkey
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Climbing Monkey
C. 2500 B.C.

Place of origin: Harappa
Materials: Terracotta
Dimensions: 6 x 4 x 4 cm
Acc. No. 11625/216

One of the most outstanding features of Harappan potter, or rather Harappan people, was their exceptional love for nature seeking its expression in artefacts replicating animals, wild or domestic in his medium which was essentially clay scope for representing its other forms, trees plants, mountains... being nil. He seems to have been extra-sensitive, caring, emotional and a child-like curious when moulding his clay to discover in it the form of an animal, no matter even if it is a fierce rhino or wild bull. More than the realism of its body he would discover in it its mind, its basic nature and a body-posture that suits it. This tiny terracotta figurine not only portrays a form, a monkey, but also a monkey's mind, naughty and mischievous like a child.

Realistic as regards its form and nature, the figurine represents a monkey as climbing upwards firmly holding in its hands a thin pole, obviously suggestive of a tree-branch. Maybe, the pole is a post-restoration replacement of the tree-branch. In any case more important is the posture of the animal, the firmness of grip of the hands and feet and the posture of face looking carefree away into a different direction. The position of arms, legs, tail and neck is very realistically portrayed. The hair on the body, face and spinal column are shown by incised lines. The potter's use of some sophisticated tool for carving details is quite obvious. The figurine has a hole between the joined hands and legs to allow him to move up and down along the pole. The end of the tail of the figurine is turned down.
Toy cart

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Toy cart
C. 2500 B.C.
Place of Origin: Harappa
Materials: Clay
Dimensions: Height: 11 cm
Acc. No. HR 13974/222
A toy but indexing life's actual mode, as it was then lived, this plaything, cast in fine clay, assembled using clay wheels and trolley for containing goods, and wooden shafts, is a tiny model of the carts that the Harappan settlers used in their day-today life for transporting their loads, and sometimes also passengers. Tracts of land around his settlements were flat alluvial plains where to plough fields or to draw carts, that is, from cultivation to transportation, besides the source of this dairyman's nourishing food, the cattle was the Indus man's ultimate power. The carts' tracks revealed in excavations and a number of two-wheeled tiny cart models recovered from various Harappan sites attest the massive use of bulls-driven carts by the Indus man. Excavations of various Harappan sites have revealed such tiny models of about six types of carts.

A highly simplified form, the toy cart consists of two wheels with hubs, even in thickness and perfectly rounded, a trolley shaped like a bowl with a rectangular frame and two projections on its underside to attach it to the axel, a wooden shaft, the axel, for holding the wheels, draw-shaft, and another, the yoke holding the cart over the bulls' shoulders. The wheels and the trolley's projections are holed for the axle to pass through. A perfect mechanism, the trolley's projected part also has yet another hole in the centre to attach it with draw-shaft and finally with the yoke affording the cart complete form. In every likeness such carts were used for covering short to medium distances.
 
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Ancient Hindu Airforce - note the Swastika


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Hindu pedigree - note tikka on forehead.


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Another exposition of culture - note sitting with crossed legs. Proto- what? Do I detect Harappan influence??


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British India

View attachment 479356
I don't understand why are you so restless?
Whenever we mention IVC Pakistani members try to takeover the threado_O
I don't understand this desparation,I guess you are trying to prove something that you are not ,maybe trying to find historical roots of Pakistan which doesn't exist!:rofl:
:devil:
 
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Should anyone tell these zealots that the ancient Harrapans were beef eaters and had a religion similar to Babylon?

Can you name the gods of Harappans and what religion they practiced? There are hundreds of gods listed for Mesopotamia but none for IVC. Only fire altars were found in some harappan sites.
 
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Should anyone tell these zealots that the ancient Harrapans were beef eaters and had a religion similar to Babylon?
Religion similar to Babylon?
I am sorry but you are grossly misinformed
Ever saw the pashupati seal and fire altars??

Can you name the gods of Harappans and what religion they practiced? There are hundreds of gods listed for Mesopotamia but none for IVC. Only fire altars were found in some harappan sites.
They even found women with vermilion on her forehead !
The late IVC sites even have shivlingas
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Its actually called proto ajrak :D
:o:really dude!
 
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