Pashupati seal

Uncommon card · No. 171207

The Pashupati seal (also Mahayogi seal, Proto-Śhiva seal the adjective "so-called" sometimes applied to "Pashupati"), is a steatite seal which was uncovered in Mohenjo-daro, a major urban site of the Indus Valley Civilisation ("IVC") in present-day Pakistan, during excavations in 1928 or 1929 when the region was under British rule. The excavations were carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India, the official body responsible for preservation and excavation. The seal depicts a seated figure that is possibly tricephalic (having three heads). The seated figure has been thought to be ithyphallic, an interpretation that has been questioned by many, but was still held by the IVC specialist Jonathan Mark Kenoyer in a publication of 2003. The man has a horned headdress and is surrounded by animals. He may represent a horned deity. It has one of the more complicated designs in the thousands of seals found from the Indus Valley civilization, and is unusual in having a human figure as the main...

Read on Wikipedia · Image unknown Indus Valley Civilization sealmaker from Mohenjodaro archaeological site, Public domain