DID HARAPPAN MYTHOLOGY INVENT AHIMSA?

The scarcity of weapons, armies and indicators of monarchs or dictators in Harappa suggests a culture that minimised violence, and used trade as a tool to avoid conflict

- DEVDUTT PATTANAIK

A woman whose lower half is that of a tiger. An Indian sphinx! That's a supernatural image found in Harappan seals, indicating that the cities that thrived 4,500 years ago in the northwestern part of India had mythic imagination. Contemporary civilisations like Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Egypt had many more such supernatural images.

So I have always wondered how the Harappans imagined the world. What gods and goddesses did they worship? Or was their world-view, like Buddhist and Jain mythology, devoid of a great creator figure who fashioned the world? Instead, did they believe that nature is eternal? Did they venerate celibate sages who helped them cope with existential angst? Mythology can generally be divided into three types: polytheism, monotheism and atheism. When the British began ruling India after 18th century, they believed that history followed a linear trajectory: from primitive polytheism to refined monotheism, culminating in ultra-refined atheism. Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire after 300 CE was seen as the end of paganism. The 17th century Enlightenment was seen as the end of religion and the birth of reason and rationality.

In the 19th century, the British translated ancient Indian texts and excavated ancient Indian historical sites. They tried to give India a history based on their framework. They argued Veda was the polytheistic phase and Gita was the monotheistic phase. Buddhism was the atheistic phase but it was crushed by the Brahmins. Now, the British were completing what Buddha began-introducing rationality. The British also were introducing something new-science.

When archaeologists discovered Harappa 100 years ago, they assumed it represented the polytheistic phase of Indian civilisation.