Harappan (Indus Valley) Civilisation: Origins, Features and Decline — Part 4: 6. Social Life and Society

6. Social Life and Society

The social structure presents many unresolved questions. Evidence suggests a relatively egalitarian society. Rare objects made of valuable materials — miniature faience pots, gold jewellery — are concentrated in large settlements like Mohenjodaro and Harappa and rarely found in smaller settlements. All gold jewellery recovered from Harappan sites was found in hoards, suggesting it was precious. Notably, the quality of construction was the same for small and large houses.

Burial evidence provides clues to social difference. The dead were generally laid in pits, sometimes brick-lined. Some graves contained pottery and ornaments, suggesting belief in an afterlife. Jewellery has been found in burials of both men and women. At the Harappa cemetery, an ornament of three shell rings, a jasper bead, and hundreds of micro-beads was found near the skull of a male. Some individuals were buried with copper mirrors. On the whole, the Harappans did not believe in burying large quantities of precious things with the dead — in contrast to Egyptian royal burials.

The question of political authority remains unresolved. No palace with spectacular finds has been identified. The so-called priest-king statue at Mohenjodaro (a seated, shawled stone figure) was labelled using a Mesopotamian analogy. Some archaeologists believe Harappan society had no rulers and that everyone enjoyed equal status. Others believe there was no single ruler but several city-specific rulers. A third view argues for a single state, given the uniformity of artefacts, planned settlements, and the standardised brick system across the entire civilisation.

7. Religion and Ritual Practices

Harappan religious beliefs are reconstructed primarily from material evidence, with significant uncertainty.

Terracotta figurines of women — heavily jewelled, with elaborate head-dresses — have been interpreted as mother goddess figures associated with fertility. Rare stone statuary of men in a standardised posture (seated, one hand on the knee) — the priest-king — is thought to represent a figure of ritual authority.

The Great Bath at Mohenjodaro, given its elaborate construction and prominent position on the Citadel, is widely interpreted as a structure for ritual bathing. Since most houses in Mohenjodaro already had individual bathrooms, the Great Bath was evidently not an ordinary public bath.

Fire altars — brick-lined fire pits — have been found at Kalibangan and Lothal, suggesting fire rituals were practised. At Kalibangan, a series of fire altars on the Citadel platform is interpreted as a ritual complex.

Seals provide further evidence of religious beliefs. The famous Pashupati Seal depicts a three-faced figure seated cross-legged in a yogic posture on a raised platform, surrounded by powerful animals — elephant, tiger, rhinoceros, buffalo, and deer. This has been interpreted as an early form of the deity Shiva in his role as Pashupati (Lord of Animals). Conical stone objects have been classified as lingas (symbols of Shiva). The unicorn (one-horned animal) depicted on many seals appears to be a mythical composite creature with symbolic significance. Plant motifs on seals suggest nature worship.

Scholars caution against reading too much later Hindu symbolism into Harappan religion, since these interpretations rest on analogies between present-day and ancient traditions.

8. Writing System and Script

The Harappan script is one of the great unsolved mysteries of the ancient world. Writing has been found on seals, copper tools, rims of jars, copper and terracotta tablets, jewellery, bone rods, and on a signboard at Dholavira.

The script has between 375 and 400 signs — far too many for an alphabetical system (where each sign represents a vowel or consonant). It was evidently logographic or syllabic in nature. Most inscriptions are short; the longest known contains only about 26 signs. The script appears to have been written from right to left, as some seals show wider spacing on the right and cramping on the left, suggesting the engraver began on the right and ran short of space.

Despite decades of scholarly effort, the script remains undeciphered, largely because no bilingual inscription (comparable to the Rosetta Stone for Egyptian hieroglyphics) has been found. Until it is deciphered, questions about the language(s) spoken by the Harappans cannot be resolved. It is clear that the script served practical purposes — recording ownership and contents of traded goods — and possibly administrative and ritual functions as well.