2016/11/25 by Shereen Ratnagar · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
paper · doi:10.1177/2348448916665714
openalex publication_date 2016/11/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
There has been a tendency since the time of initial excavation of Mohenjo-daro by John Marshall to apply some familiar notions about early religions to the finds at Harappan sites, so that clay figurines of women found in various domestic structures were taken to represent the seemingly universal ‘Mother Goddess’. We are now learning that bronze-age ‘religions’ could have assumed immensely varied forms of ritual, belief and physical representations. There could have been varieties of shamanistic or other forms of ritual to ward off evil spirits or sources of harm. The female clay figurines were, therefore, likely to have been home-made representations of women of the house kept to ward off evil forces, rather than being idols of the Mother Goddess, as has been so far largely accepted.