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Religion in Indus Valley Civilization

Scholars are unable to draw a conclusion regarding the religion of Indus people. Unlike Mesopotamia or Egypt, there was no such buildings discovered so that we can conclude it might be a temple or involve any kind of public worship. However some historians are of the opinion that Harappan people were Hindus.

The Harappan religion was polytheistic. They used cattle, elephants and other animals to represent their Gods. The Harappan seals were amulets addressed to the Harappan Gods. The Gods of the Harappans depicted on their seals represented the Gods of the various economic corporations in the Indus Valley. The unicorn God, probably represented `Ma`, while the cattle God probably represented Kali or Uma, Amma or Pravarti, the mother goddess.

Pashupati Seal & Horned SealThe bulk of public buildings in the city seemed to be solely oriented towards the economy and making life comfortable for the Harappans. We do, however, have a number of tantalizing figures on various seals and statues. What we gather from these figures, is that the Harappans probably exercised some sort of goddess worship. There is, however, some sort of male god that has the head of a man with the horns of a bull. In addition, we believe from various artifacts that the Harappans also may have worshipped natural objects or animistic forces, but the circumstances of this worship can only be guessed at. No temple has yet been discovered. From the Pashupati seal, it is certain that they worshipped Shiva. There is an image of Shiva, seated on a stool flanked by an elephant. Numerous pottery figurines of Mother Goddesses have also been found. Nature worship must have been part of their ritual as revealed in the seals. There is a scene of a horned goddess, before whom another horned deity is kneeling and animals as some male figures wearing the horns of a goat or a bull, some animals standing on rectangular pedestals, composite animals having body of a ram and trunk of an elephant, a limestone bull having a garland round his neck and a unicorn being carried in a procession.

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