India's Scientific Heritage
DANCING GIRL FROM MOHENJO-DARO

-Gunakar Muley

The National Museum in New Delhi is one of the richest storehouses of India's cultural and scientific heritage. Among the prehistoric and protohistoric objects displayed in the very first gallery in the Museum's ground floor, there is a bronze figure from Mohenjo-daro (now in Pakistan). Made in circa 2500 B.C., it is an image of a naked young girl in a dancing pose. Though the figure's height is only 10.8 cms., it tells us a lot about the metal technology that was developed in the Indus Valley Civilization, also called the Harappan Culture.

The bronze Dancing Girl from Mohenjo-daro is the most outstanding item among the objects displayed in the gallery. It is the first sculpture in dancing gesture discovered in the Indian subcontinent. It is also one of the earliest cast bronzes in this cultural area. But its most interesting aspect is that in casting it the Harappan metallurgists used an advanced technique known as the lost-wax (cire perdue) process.

The Harappan tradition of bronze casting so well begun did not continue unabated. The art of producing bronze sculptures emerged again during the Kushan period. The collection of bronze and metallic sculptures in the National Museum, covering the period from the 6th to the 19th centuries, is very rich in variety and quality. There are a large number of bronze images of Nataraja Shiva, one of the best among them being the figure in the pose of Chaturatandava, that is with the legs forming a square, from Tiruvarangulam (Pudukkottai District, Tamilnadu). Belonging to early Chola period (circa 975 A.D.), the 71.5 cms. high bronze image is one among the outstanding sculptures in the possession of the Museum.

There is a vast gap of time and space between the Dancing Girl from Mohenjo-daro and the Chaturatandava Shiva from Tiruvarangulam. The bronze girl was cast in north-west India around circa 2500 B.C. The Chaturatandava Shiva was created in south India in the 10th century A.D. There is a gap of some 3500 years between the two. But there are some similarities also. One is Nartaki, a dancing girl, possibly a professional Devadasi. The other is Nataraja, the Lord of dance and music. The features of the unclad body of the dancing girl show her to be that of the Proto-Australoid type which, perhaps, constituted a segment of the mixed Harappan society. The concept of Proto-Shiva also appears to be the contribution of the Indus Valley Civilization.

The most important similarity between the two bronze images is the technique employed      in their casting. In ancient Sanskrit treatises like Manasara and Manasollasa the method is described as Madhuchchhishtavidhan or the lost-wax mode (the French word for it is cire perdue).

The lost-wax process is an elaborate one. To cast a small solid (ghana) statue, such as the dancing girl, it was first modelled in wax. The wax model was then covered with a layer of fine clay and after this was added a thick outer coating of coarse clay. The mould was first allowed to dry and then heated so that the wax could melt and run out. Molten metal could then be poured into the hollow of the hard mould thus prepared. The mould had to be broken open to get the object cast.

To cast a hollow (sushira) bronze statue, first a clay core was made and allowed to dry. On it was then prepared the model in wax the thickness of which depended on the thickness of the metal required. Rest of the process was as above. To prevent the shifting of the inner core thin rods were inserted to attach it to the outer mould. This technique of lost-wax casting is not much different from that followed today, but to cast large single statues was beyond the capacity of the Harappan craftsman.

The Harappan civilization, which flourished during circa 2500-2000 B.C., has produced a large number of copper and bronze objects. It appears that there was a sudden abundance of metal in the Indus culture. The Harappans were, right from the start, well acquainted with not only copper metallurgy but also bronze technology. But this technology could not have been realised all of a sudden. The beginning was made with native copper available in small quantities in the form of nuggets , which could be shaped by hammering and also beaten out into sheets. Then it was discovered that, when heated, copper becomes plastic, even liquid, and can take the shape of any container into which it is poured. Copper melts at 10830 C.

But native copper was scarce. Man had to learn to extract copper from its ore. Fortunately, some copper ores, because of their bright colours, were already known. For example, the green coloured malachite [CuCO3.Cu(OH)2] was used as eye-paint in ancient Egypt. It is also the most easily reduced ore of copper. But reduction or smelting is a complex process and therefore must have originated only at a few centres of the Ancient World.

The next stages are alloying and casting. When copper is alloyed with tin, lead, arsenic etc. casting is easier and the product obtained is superior. A good quality bronze is obtained by alloying copper with 8 to 11 per cent tin. In the bronze objects from Mohenjo-daro the presence of tin is 4.5 to 13 per cent. Surely, the mixing was deliberately done to obtain suitable bronzes. The Harappan metallurgists were able to work not only with open moulds but, as we have seen, also with the advanced and complex lost-wax process. Most of the Harappan tools are simple. But their razors, chisels, arrowheads and fishhooks are among the best in the Ancient World. They had also made the true saw and were using tubular drills for making fine steatite beads.

How did the Harappans happen to achieve this metal prosperity and technological status? It is rather a difficult question to answer, because the pre-Harappan developments of copper-bronze metallurgy are not sufficiently clear. The mountain region extending from Anatolia to Afghanistan is rich in copper ores, more so its eastern side. Presently the site Tal-i-Iblis near the Kerman range in south-east Iran is regarded as the earliest known centre of copper metallurgy. The smelting equipment discovered from this site is datable to circa 4500 B.C. From here the knowledge is believed to have spread to the west and the east. Towards the east Mundigak in Afghanistan and some pre-Harappan sites from Baluchistan provide evidence of copper and bronze metallurgy.

The pre-Harappan (circa 3500-2300 B.C.) sites (Nal, Kulli, Mehi etc.) discovered in Baluchistan are rich in copper and bronze objects. The Mehi cemetery among its grave-goods has yielded a unique copper mirror 12.7 cms in diameter, having a copper handle representing a female figure with breasts and arms akimbo; the head is provided by the reflection of the mirrror's user! There is nothing like the Mehi mirror in the contemporary Western Asia, nor in the later more advanced Harappan culture. This shows that the Baluchi metal-smiths of the period were well-acquainted with copper-bronze metallurgy.

In the Harappan culture it is a full-fledged technology. What were its sources of copper? Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Oman, Rajasthan and Bihar all have copper mines. But it could not have been possible for the Harappans to exploit the distant mines, such as that of Bihar. Analyses of copper-bronze objects and ores from several mines suggests that the Harappans must have obtained much of their copper from the Khetri mines of Rajasthan. In addition to this source, the mines in Baluchistan and Afghanistan might have been also tapped by the Harappans. Tin, a scarce metal, must have been imported from Baluchistan and eastern Iran. The more than 200 Harappan artifacts that have been analysed show that only 23% were alloyed with tin, 12% with arsenic and 8% with lead.

The advent of metal was a revolutionary event in the history of mankind. Though stone tools were still in use in the Harappan culture, it was the metal that gave momentum to its socio-economic development. Metallurgy increased production, gave rise to several specialised crafts and also revealed some chemical and physical laws. Metallurgy must have also played a prominent role in the advancement of urbanization.

The Indus Civilization had several urban centres. For the evolution of a urban society the primary requirement was the agricultural surplus. The soft alluvial soil of the Indus plains was capable of providing such surplus. What was needed was better tools for agriculture such as the metal ploughshare. Thus , when new mines were tapped and metal became abundant the Harappan society began to progress rapidly. All this led to the need of planned cities. That is why right from the beginning the Indus cities are pre-planned.
Metallurgy is a full-time specialist's job. We have evidence of sixteen copper furnaces from Harappa, a number of copper workshops in Lothal and large quantities of copper oxide ore from a brick-lined pit at Mohenjo-daro. All this suggests that copper technology was a developed craft in the Indus Civilization. The operations of mining, smelting and casting are so elaborate that normally it is not possible to find time to work in the fields or look after cattle. Thus, withdrawn from direct food production, the Harappan metal-workers must have formed an independent class of their own. The class of priests was most probably the first one to depend on agricultural surplus. The next class to join the rank was that of the craftsmen, including the metallurgists. In the Harappan society the metallurgists most probably held a privilaged position.   

The climax of the Harappan metal technology can be observed in the four exquisite bronzes obtained from Daimabad (Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra) and now preserved in the National Museum. Assigned to the late Harappan Chalcolithic times (2000-1800 B.C.), they consist of a chariot yoked to a pair of bullocks driven by a naked man, an elephant, a rhinoceros and a buffalo. They stand nearly 28 cms high and all together weigh about 65 kg. This hoard has not been thoroughly studied as yet.

With the decline of the Harappans the bronze technology developed by them also came to a close. The copper artifacts of the post-Harappan Chalcolithic cultures (second millennium B.C.) of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra show no influence on them of the Indus metallurgy. Similar is the case with the Copper Hoards discovered at several places in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Datable to about 1100 B.C., they are a great puzzle for the archaeologists. The metalcraft that was developed in the first urbanised society of the Indian subcontinent has its own independent identity.