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Buffalo on Sarasvati epigraphs

m0267 Water-buffalo 2257 m0268 Water-buffalo

2445

m0525At m0525Bt 1713 Buffalo

m0526At m0526Bt 3329 Buffalo m1430Bt

m1430C m1430At Pict-101: Person throwing a spear at

a buffalo and placing one foot on its head; three persons standing near a tree at the

centre. 2819 Pict-60: Composite animal with the body of an ox and three

heads [one each of one-horned bull (looking forward), antelope (looking backward)

and bison (looking downwards)] at right; a goat standing on its hindlegs and

browsing from a tree at the center.

Harappa. Two tablets. Seated figure or deity with reed house

or shrine at one side. Left: H95-2524; Right: H95-2487.

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Harappa. Planoconvex molded tablet found on Mound ET. A. Reverse. a female deity

battling two tigers and standing above an elephant and below a six-spoked wheel;

b. Obverse. A person spearing with a barbed spear a buffalo in front of a seated

horned deity wearing bangles and with a plumed headdress. The person presses his

foot down the buffalo’s head. An alligator with a narrow snout is on the top

register. “We have found two other broken tablets at Harappa that appear to have

been made from the same mold that was used to create the scene of a deity

battling two tigers and standing above an elephant. One was found in a room

located on the southern slope of Mount ET in 1996 and

another example comes from excavations on Mound F in

the 1930s. However, the flat obverse of both of these

broken tablets does not show the spearing of a buffalo,

rather it depicts the more well-known scene showing a

tiger looking back over its shoulder at a person sitting on

the branch of a tree. Several other flat or twisted

rectangular terracotta tablets found at Harappa combine

these two narrative scenes of a figure strangling two tigers on one side of a tablet,

and the tiger looking back over its shoulder at a figure in a tree on the other side.”

[JM Kenoyer, 1998, p. 115].

Ligatured statuette: elephant, buffalo and feline. Nausharo.

NS 91.02.32.01.LXXXII. C. Jarrige, 1992: 132-5. “Hollow three-

headed animal figurine. The most complete figure is of an

elephant with a hollow trunk. Two horns of a water buffalo

curve along the cheeks of the elephant, and the bottom jaw of

a feline with bared teeth appears at the back of the elephant’s

head. This complex figure is finely modeled and incised with

delicate strokes to portray the character of the elephant. Such

multiple-headed animals are depicted on seals and must represent important myths.

This object may have been used as a puppet or sacred figure in a cult ritual. Ca. 2300-

2200 BCE.” (JM Kenoyer, 1998, p. 219).

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