One of the most remarkable discoveries from Mohenjo-daro was a steatite statue dubbed the “Priest-King of Mohenjo-daro.” Standing approximately seven inches tall, it displays some Mesopotamian influence, such as the full beard and shaved upper lip, and the hair pulled back with a fillet or “head-band.” Although it does not display the “royal bun” worn by Sumerian rulers, other statue heads discovered at Mohenjo-daro also exhibit this distinctive hairstyle.

The Sky Garment

Another important detail to note is the “trefoil” pattern (three-leaf clover shape) on the cloak of the Priest-King. The hollow interior of the trefoil was filled with a red glass paste of which only traces remain. Bovine figurines etched with the same trefoil pattern have been found at Uruk and Lagash, and are also depicted on an “Intercultural” style chlorite vessels. The trefoil motif would persist in Mesopotamia from the Jemdet Nasr to the Ur III period. Its appearance in the Indus Valley points to some cultural interchange between the two.

Asko Parpola, an Indologist from the University of Helsinki, observes that it was common for West Asian gods and divine kings to wear “festive clothes with golden stars, rosettes and so forth sewn on to them. These were known in Sumerian and Akkadian texts as “sky garments.”¹Parpola 2015, 231 The custom persisted into later periods. Thus the Greek poet, Nonnos, refers to a Syrian deity “clad in a patterned robe like the sky” who is named Starclad “since by night starry mantles illuminate the sky.”²Parpola 2015, 231 Parpola notes also that in Vedic texts (the oldest texts of Hinduism) there is a type of “sky garment” known as the tarpya that was worn by Varuna, the divine king in the Hindu pantheon, who was also associated with the night sky. This same garment was worn by Indian kings during their investiture. Vedic texts describe the garment as having images of “sacrificial fireplaces” sewn onto it which were said to be the heavenly fireplaces of pious ancient sages.³Parpola 2015, 231; It is curious to note the similarity between the the trefoil shape and the pottery hearths of the Kura Araxes culture. No doubt this was a practical and common shape for a hearth. The cloak worn by the Priest-King of Mohenjo-daro should probably be interpreted as one these tarpya or “sky garments.” If so, then we are confronted with an important question. To what degree may the Rigveda be used as a guide for interpreting the history and culture of the Indus Valley Civilization?

The Rigveda

The Rigveda is the oldest sacred text of Hinduism. Unlike Classical Sanskrit, which was codified in the 5th century BC and hasn’t change since, the style and vocabulary of Vedic Sanskrit varies considerably. One of the foremost scholars of Sanskrit, M. B. Emeneau, dates the Rigveda from approximately 1200-1000 BC. Renfrew notes however that this is only a guess and an “earlier date is perfectly possible.”⁴Renfrew 1987, 179 Neither Vedic nor Classical Sanskrit are spoken today.

The Rigveda is composed of ten books which fill approximately one thousand pages in modern translation. The best known Hindu gods such as Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma rarely appear in the Rigveda, if at all. Instead we encounter the storm god, Indra, the fire god, Agni, and the sky god, Varuna. Indra is especially prominent in the Rigveda, oftentimes in connection with a mysterious substance named soma.

The precise identity of soma is unknown although its consumption by warriors before going into war indicates a stimulant drug such as ephedra.

Indo-Europeans

The brilliant linguist and jurist, Sir William Jones (1746-1794), was a pioneer in Sanskrit research. Since his discoveries have a direct bearing on our understanding of the Rigveda, and have broader implications for how we understand the Harrapan civilization, it is worth our while to get to know him. His mother, a widow of modest means, perceived that her son had a natural gift for languages. At great personal expense she enrolled him at Harrow where he received a classical education. Jones would go on to study at Oxford where he became a master of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian. He cemented his reputation as a scholar with his translations of early Persian and Arabic texts.

The choice of Calcutta was serendipitous. Immediately upon arrival, Jones began to apply himself to learning Sanskrit with the goal of compiling a treatise on Hindu and Islamic law. As Jones studied the language, he began to notice the many striking similarities between Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. In his famous “Third Annual Discourse” made before the Asiatic Society in 1786, Jones argued that,

Jones argued that Persian, German, and Celtic should also be included with these others in a single language family—Indo-European. It was a momentous discovery, for it meant that people who lived in India spoke a language related to that which was spoken in Europe, despite their being separated by so great a distance and culture. Historians would eventually devise an explanation for this apparent anomaly; Indo-European speaking peoples migrated from the Eurasian steppes, one settling in Europe and the other in Iran and India. Many variations of this theory have been proposed, with the date for the migration (or wave of migrations) estimated at anywhere from 7000 BC to 1200 BC.

The Indo-Europeans and the Indus Valley

The Rigveda alludes to the migration of an Indo-European into “the land of the seven rivers”—which is modern day Punjab. Unlike Homer’s Iliad—another Indo-European text—the Rigveda does not narrate events but is comprised exclusively of hymns and ritual prescriptions. Although its value for historical research is limited, Possehl argues that some historical clues may nevertheless be gleaned from the text. The heroes of the Rigveda, the Aryas, are depicted in the Rigveda as invaders who have entered a “new land filled with non-Aryan peoples” named the Dasyus.⁵Possehl 1996, 65

Traditionally, the conflict between the Aryas and Dasyus has been understood in terms of an invasion of the Punjab by a war-like group of Indo-European speaking peoples equipped with chariots and horses. The Asyus displaced the native Dasyus, who are described in the Vedas as a “dusky skinned people.” Sir Mortimer Wheeler argued that the Dasyus were Harappans and that the many references in the Rigveda to fortified cities are none other than the impressive Early Bronze cities of the Harappans, recently discovered. Thus Wheeler writes,

Wheeler asks, “Where are—or were—these citadels?” If they are not the great cities of the Harappans then where are they?

The scholarly consensus today is that there is no connection between the Indus Valley Civilization and the Dasyus of the Rigveda since the Harappan civilization is generally thought to have disappeared from the Indus Valley by around 1900 BC whereas the entry of the Indo-Europeans into the region occurred at least 500 years later, c.1400-1200 BC.⁷Parpola 2015, 106 Such a large time gap precludes any possibility of a connection between the Harappan civilization and the invasion of the Aryas described in the Rigveda. But then we are left with the original question raised by Wheeler. Where are the fortified cities of the Dasyus which are so often mentioned in the Rigveda? No ancient cities have been found in the Punjab besides Harappan ones.

One is forced to conclude that either that the fortified citadels of the Dasyus are a literary fiction, or look for them elsewhere.⁸Keay observes that the Sanskrit term ‘pur’ may not have meant city or stronghold in Vedic literature, but may be translated ‘settlement’ or ‘village’ (Keay 2010, 23). Alternatively, Parpola transfers the conflict between the Dasyus and the Indo-European tribes from the Punjab to the BMAC (Bactria-Margiana Archeological Complex) of Afghanistan, where fortresses have been found which date to c. 1900 BC. Parpola therefore equates the Dasyus (shortened to Dasa) with the early Scythians who inhabited that region (Parpola 2015, 98 ff.). It seems to me that Wheeler’s identification of the Dasyus with the Harappans cannot be completely discounted, especially if the end of the Harappan civilization can be lowered somewhat, to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.