Harappan seals

Topic: Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"

Meaning

A Harappan seal was a small stamp, usually square and made of steatite (a soft stone). It carried an animal picture, such as the unicorn or a bull, and a short line of the still-undeciphered Indus script, probably the owner's name and title. It was pressed into wet clay to make a sealing, which closed and marked bags or packages of goods.

Seals are the most typical Harappan object. They tell us about Harappan trade, writing, beliefs and administration. Since we cannot read the script, seals are one of our main windows into this civilisation.

Explanation

Why seals were needed

• Harappan merchants traded over long distances: inside the subcontinent, and by sea through the Persian Gulf to Dilmun (Bahrain), Magan (Oman) and Mesopotamia.
• Goods passed through many hands on these long journeys.
• The owner needed a way to show who sent the goods.

• The receiver needed proof that nobody had opened or tampered with them on the way.

• Seals did both jobs. They worked like an early customs or authentication device, meaning a mark that proves something is genuine.

Material and design

• Material: steatite, a soft stone that is easy to carve. After carving it was fired (heated) so it became hard.
• Standard format:
• an animal motif, most often the unicorn, also the bull and other animals

• a short line of script above it, probably the owner's name or title.

• The picture had its own use.

• Many people who handled the goods could not read.

• They could still recognise the animal, so the seal could be identified without reading the script.

• Some seals show boats or ships. This supports the idea of sea trade through the Persian Gulf.

• Some seals show figures linked to belief, such as the well-known "proto-Shiva" or "Pashupati" seal from Mohenjodaro (a seated figure surrounded by animals). This is why seals are also used to study Harappan religion.

How a seal worked: seal versus sealing

• A seal is the carved stamp itself. The carving is cut into the stone.
• A sealing is the impression the seal leaves when pressed into wet clay.
• How it worked:
• A bag or package was tied with cord, and a lump of clay was placed over the knot.
• The seal was pressed into the clay to make a sealing.
• If the sealing reached its destination unbroken, the goods had not been touched, and the stamp showed who had sent them.

The script on the seals

• The script is called Sindhu lipi, and it has not been deciphered (read) to date.
• It has 375–400 distinct signs. That is too many for an alphabet, so it was probably logo-syllabic (some signs stand for whole words, others for sounds).
• It was written right to left.
• On many seals the signs are squeezed together on the left side.

• This shows the engraver started on the right and ran out of space on the left.

• Seal inscriptions are short. The longest known Indus inscription has only about 26 signs.

• The script also appears on copper tools, jar rims, copper and terracotta tablets, jewellery, bone rods and the Dholavira signboard. It is not limited to seals.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation, c. 3500–1300 BCE. Its mature phase was c. 2600–1900 BCE, when seals were in common use.
• Region and sites: across the Harappan area, including major sites such as Harappa and Mohenjodaro. Gujarat sites like Lothal and Dholavira were linked to trade and writing.
• Evidence from outside India:
• Persian Gulf seals carry Harappan motifs, which shows that Harappan seal designs travelled with trade.
• A Mesopotamian cylinder seal with a humped-bull motif shows contact in the other direction, from Mesopotamia towards the Harappans.
• Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets (clay tablets in wedge-shaped writing), including those from the time of Sargon of Akkad, record trade with Meluhha, the Akkadian name for the Indus region.

• Literary references to Meluhhan trade date to c. 2350–1794 BCE. Archaeological evidence suggests the trade began c. 2600 BCE [2].

• Supporting finds: Harappan carnelian beads at Susa (Iran), Harappan objects in Oman, and Dilmun weights that followed the Harappan standard. All of these confirm the trade network in which seals were used.

• Limits of the evidence: we cannot read the script. So the use of seals is worked out from where they were found and from sealings, not from anything the Harappans wrote themselves.

Don't confuse with

• Sealing: this is the clay impression made by a seal, not the seal. Seals are carved stamps. Sealings are what was left on the goods.
• Mesopotamian cylinder seal: this is a cylinder rolled across clay. The typical Harappan seal is a flat, usually square stamp. A Mesopotamian cylinder seal with a humped bull shows contact between the two regions, but it is not a Harappan seal.
• Harappan weights: these were made of chert (a hard stone), were cubical and carried no marks or writing. Seals were made of steatite and carried a picture and script.
• Dholavira signboard: this was a large public sign of 10 big symbols, each sign about 37 cm high. The symbols were made of white gypsum inlay set into a wooden board about 3 m long, found at the citadel's north gate [3]. It was probably a city nameplate. Seal inscriptions, by contrast, are small, personal and short.

Prelims Hooks

• Harappan seals were mostly made of steatite and combine an animal motif (most often the unicorn) with a line of script.
• Seals were used to make sealings (clay impressions) that secured goods in long-distance trade.
• The Indus script on seals has 375–400 signs, is written right to left, and remains undeciphered.
• The longest known Indus inscription has about 26 signs. Seal texts are short.
• Trap: Persian Gulf seals with Harappan motifs and a Mesopotamian cylinder seal with a humped bull are evidence of Harappan foreign contact, but they were found outside India or made outside India.
• Pairs: Dilmun = Bahrain; Magan = Oman; Meluhha = Indus region. Boats shown on seals support sea trade.

Mains Points

• Seals as proof of an organised trade system: seals and sealings, together with standardised weights, show a regulated economic system. Goods could be tracked, checked and certified across long distances, even though other evidence shows no clear, strong central ruler. This links to the debate on how Harappan society was governed.
• Seals as cross-checked evidence: Harappan-style seals in the Persian Gulf, carnelian beads at Susa, and Mesopotamian records of Meluhha support each other. Together they make Harappan trade one of the few Bronze Age trade systems confirmed by both archaeology and written records.
• What seals cannot tell us: the script is undeciphered, so seals cannot tell us names, languages or ideas directly. Every claim about the owners, their titles or their beliefs is an informed guess based on the pictures and where the seals were found. This limit should be stated in any answer on Harappan society, religion or administration.

Related concepts

• Harappan trade
• Meluhha
• Unicorn seal
• Harappan script
• Boustrophedon
• Harappan weights

Read more

• Long-distance trade, seals, script, weights