This video is the first in a series about the arts of Asia. So, we'll be
starting off with the Indus Valley, but before we begin, I just wanted to cover a
few key ideas about what there is to gain from studying the arts of Asia. So,
first of all: is a new perception of your own culture and appreciation of that of
others; a heightened understanding of the role art can play in society; and a
better understanding of how reality can be defined and organized. So, many of us
are familiar with the traditions of Western art ideas of linear perspective
and the kind of iconography we tend to see in Western art, however, we'll see
very different types of iconography and ways to organize space and to tell
narratives or to tell stories in the arts of Asia. So let's begin that
exploration, as I mentioned we'll start off with the Indus Valley. So we
move on to this particular area South Asia or what's known as the subcontinent.
Zooming in on the Indus Valley, you can see it's outlined here at -- very lush area,
easy for farming, or easier than some areas. We'll be focusing in on two
cultures primarily Mohenjo-daro, but also looking at one example of art from
Harappa. And the whole culture is often called Harappan, so you may hear that as
well, in addition to just being called "Indus Valley". You may encounter the term the Harappan culture.
The mature period of this culture runs from about
2500 to 1900 BCE, but I have it at 3000 to 1900 (on the slide) because you really do start to
see a lot of these settlements very early on. And, there's over a
thousand settlements that have been discovered along the Indus River, which
is this great river that runs from many rivers extending down from the Himalayas
to form this massive waterway that then extends down into the Arabian Sea.
So, the Indus River -- there's just another image and another map again to orient
you. It's in modern-day Pakistan. So you can see that here. And, of course, you
should be familiar with other river cultures, the most famous probably being
Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates, and then, of course, the Nile
culture or the Egyptian culture around the Nile, but, of course, we also have the
Yellow River in China which will talk about in the next lecture. So,
Mohenjo-Daro -- the city that we'll be focusing on primarily
connected to the Indus Valley. It was a very organized city. We see a nice grid
system in place. We see standardized bricks indicating that there was some
kind of central control and some kind of central production in terms of the kinds
of structures that we were being built in the kind of materials that were being
used. Scholars often talk about how hygienic it was compared to other
compared to other cultures because you can see that there were sewage systems
thus to drain this kind of human waste away from places where you lived. So,
looking at this culture, you can see that it was highly organized, pretty densely
populated, and that you did seem to have some kind of overarching governmental
system. But, what we don't find in Mohenjo-Daro are large palaces or indications of very
large ceremonial or ritual centers. We do however have this one great bath which
we'll talk about in just a minute that seemed to indicate some kind of ritual,
but it's still something that scholars are debating about and trying to figure
out exactly how that functioned. This image here of course is an artist's
reconstruction at what Mohenjo-Daro may have looked like just to give you a
sense of what the city would have looked like thousands of years ago. And this is
a plan of the city to give you a sense of the overall grid structure or grid
plan of the city. Things that have been discovered in burials include jewelry
indicating that great time and care was taken in burying the dead, however, as
this civilization comes to decline, we'll start to see many more
people who were very speedily buried because they seem to been more in a rush,
especially if there was some kind of invasion or infighting within these
cities. Of course, there wouldn't have been as much care and as many objects
buried with the dead. But here are just some images to give you a sense of some
of the objects that have been discovered. Here's a view of Mohenjo-Daro as it
looks today to give you a sense of those regularized bricks, how structures were
created, the small rooms within buildings, there were houses -- private houses within
this particular city. There are these structures that have
been called citadels, so these elevated areas in the city. This gives a sense of
something that would have been a protective feature for the city. We do
see walls around these cities, however, there are very few weapons that have
been discovered or very limited weapons, so we tend to think of this society as
less involved in warfare than we see in a lot of other societies -- so very limited
warfare early on during the high point of the civilization, so these elevated
structures could have been used for ritual purposes or for religious
purposes. There was a stupa added later on which
is a Buddhist structure, and we'll talk about that and the symbolism of the
stupa in a later lecture. Again we see baked bricks and the idea that the
bricks were standardized. So, one of the first or the first key work that we'll
cover is the great bath, so this is a very important structure that was sealed
so that the water could not drain out. It seems to connect to ideas of
cleanliness or purity that we also see later on in Hinduism. So, we see these
kind of ritual baths later on in Hinduism, so a lot of scholars want to
connect this to a possible early practice or this idea of
originating an idea of cleanliness when practicing a certain ritual. We do not
think that it was just a swimming pool or something where people hung out to
bathe because it is in such an important area of the city and because it is so
large. We do believe that it was for ritual purposes, but again research is
still being conducted on that and we still are looking for more answers as to
exactly how this was used. There's just another view so you can see it from a
different angle and then here is an reconstruction of how the baths would
have looked it would have had a colonnade or at least supports around
with a kind of portico and then a central open area where individuals
could have gone into the bath and again we believe this was probably for ritual
or religious purposes not just for recreational [purposes]. So one of our first
sculptures to examine is the so-called Priest-King, although some people believe
this figure to be more of a shaman or an ancestor figure, but he's clearly an
individual of status. He has a kind of band around his
forehead, looking almost like a diadem or kind of crown. His beard is marked by
this kind of stylization -- these vertical lines -- indicating wisdom and
experience. His facial features are very large that kind of draws us in to look
more closely. His eyes would have probably been inlaid with shell or some
kind of inlay. His very nice garment -- he has this garment that runs across one
shoulder and underneath the arm of the other on the other side -- you can see that
there's a kind of patterning running across this garment which would have
been of course very expensive and very beautiful. It's important to remember
that textiles were incredibly expensive in the ancient world. We live in a world
where textiles tends to be very inexpensive, but for someone to have
something with this much decoration with this kind of trefoil design -- so I've just
noted that as trefoil -- which is a three lobe design -- and as I mentioned
originally probably would have had a colorful inlay
within these areas here. Obviously there is some damage. Originally this figure
may have been in a kneeling position. There are other male figures that have
been discovered that look similar to this Priest-King who are kneeling so it
could be some kind of ritual or offering, so we don't think that this is a god
because we assume he may have been in this kneeling position. He also has
jewelry of course around his arm. And just to clarify this as the front of the
figure and this is the back of the figure. The fact that his eyes are kind
of semi-squinted could perhaps indicate more of a shaman or someone who's
connecting to the divine, but that's just one possible theory that has been put
forth about this figure. In addition to the Priest-King figures or these figures
that might be ancestors or shamans that we just saw, we also have a figure of a
mother goddess. There are actually quite a few of these that have been
discovered in the Indus Valley. So this one is from Mohenjo-Daro -- relatively small,
about four inches -- but she's a great precursor to the kind of fertility
the kind of fertility figures that we tend to see in India a little bit later
on. Figures that are called the "yakshi". So, we'll talk about
those in a later lecture. So, this figure of the mother goddess -- you
can see both her breasts and her hips are exaggerated.
She has very elaborate -- a kind of jewelry or body adornment -- similar to what we saw
on the other figure. So when we were looking at some of the real jewelry
earlier [from the burials], you can now actually see it on the sculptures of the Priests-King and
then also here on the mother goddess. So you can see a necklace
with a pendant in the middle between her breasts. You also see a neck necklace
here -- a choker and then also a kind of headdress. She may have had an even
more elaborate headdress that has obviously kind of broken off. These
figures are somewhat rudimentary, but indicate a kind of interest or worship
or reverence to this type of mother goddess figure who clearly is identified
by her very female characteristics: those wide hips, the breasts, things that we
associate with maternal figures and kind of an exaggerated femininity. And, of
course, if you're familiar with some of the mother goddess figures in
Paleolithic Europe this creates a nice kind of parallel to
what's going on in cultures in other areas. Alright -- a more unusual figure
who doesn't seem to demonstrate those kind of exaggerated physical
characteristics is the dancing girl or sometimes called "the courtesan."
And this particular figure doesn't seem to be a kind of goddess figure she seems
more like a kind of girl you might have encountered in the Indus Valley because
her body is less exaggerated, but she does have extensive body adornment,
so those bangles along her arm go all the way from the top of the arm all the
way down to the bottom. She has a few bangles on this side. She has a necklace.
So, again this interest in body adornment seems to be shown in a lot of the
artworks that we see and then also in the objects and the burials. But she also
had the nice rhythm to her representation. It's made out of bronze --
so made out of metal -- a more expensive material than the terracotta or baked
clay that we just saw. So clearly this must have been an important figure. But
there still are a lot of theories about it, but it's just a really striking work
of art just in the sense of motion and dancing -- the jewelry that she wears, again
it gives us some nice hints about life in the Indus Valley. So I also want to
cover some of the seals that have been discovered
associated with the Indus Valley. We see a lot of bulls on these seals. Some
people have thought some of them, with what looks like a single horn, look like
look like unicorns, which I'll show you in a second, and then there are also some
interesting male figures in yogic postures ,so we'll look at that also in
just a minute. These seals are carved on relatively soft stones and then
covered with a kind of coating and then fired to harden them. They include
images of bulls for example that may have been symbols of virility, but also
writing, so some people have theorized that the Indus Valley and some of the
earliest writing in the world. So the sad thing is we have yet to
determine how to read this script. We do know that it was written, or that it was
read, from right to left, but beyond that there's very little that we
know about it. There are a couple of theories whether
the symbols indicate certain words -- that each one is a certain word. Some people
think that it's an Indo-European language connecting it to northern India,
while other people believe it's more of a Dravidian language or connected to
southern India because some people have theorized that people from
the Indus Valley eventually migrated down to southern India. This is again
hotly contested. There's some research that seems to connect it more to the
South Indian tradition and there's a playlist that includes a talk
that supports that theory, so in my playlist for Indus Valley, you can refer
to that. But again, this is something that people should continue to research and
hopefully one day we will discover what this text means. These
seals were used to mark goods, so people could mark their personal identity with
these particular stamps or seals. Here's a seal with a bowl this is the one with
the single horn that some people have called the unicorn. Again, you can see
that script running from right to left, and how you could use this like a stamp to mark goods or belongings. Here's one where you actually see an
imprint of that seal showing an elephant. This is the most famous of the seals.
This is a square stamp seal with seated figure in yogic posture. Some people have
called this a Proto-Shiva. Some people have talked about it including
some Buddhist symbolism. Let's go through some of the different
interpretations. So, looking at this figure it has three phases -- one, two, three. So
that's one interpretation which connects it nicely to Shiva because we tend to
see those multiple phases and some representations of Shiva from
Hinduism later on, but some people have just called it a "Lord of Animals or some
kind of person who is in charge of animals because you have a water buffalo,
you have a rhinoceros, you have a tiger, of an elephant, all surrounding this
clearly very powerful figure in this yogic posture. Many scholars have tried
to identify exactly what yogic posture he is in. He has an elaborate headdress
again connecting him to the animals, but also this idea of power with the
headdress. And we know that the Indus Valley traded with
traded with Mesopotamia and horned headdresses were symbols of divinity and
power in the Near East, and so you may have that same kind of idea here.
Again, we have writing along the top, however we have not deciphered it. He's
again a figure of status seated on a kind of throne -- so on this elevated
platform. And then also there seem to be deer figures right underneath his
platform and that connects him nicely to the Buddha because there's a tradition
that or there's the idea that the Buddha gave his first sermon in a deer park, so
we often see representations of the Buddha with the deer underneath him or
nearby, so the deer is often connected to the Buddha. So a mystery of a seal, but
possibly an indication of future religious iconography to come. A final
work to look at is just this nude male torso from Harappa. We've been primarily
looking at works from Mohenjo-Daro, but here we see a work -- very small, three and
a half inches, made of red limestone -- and it's incredibly
naturalistic. You have that soft belly. You have a very fleshy representation
here. Some people have even believed that it doesn't date from the Indus culture
just because it looked so realistic -- so I give you this term "NATURALISM": the
depiction of things as accurately as possible because in this particular work
you do tend to see or you do seem to see this very naturalistic human form. Some
people have also thought this suggests the practice of yoga in
the Indus Valley because of the idea of the control of the breath and getting
that breath into the belly. So both that previous seal -- if we could
return to it -- which possibly shows the practice of yoga and Shiva is even
connected to the practice of yoga, too, and this idea breathing or drawing the
breath into the belly also connects to this idea of yoga, so some people have
said the Indus Valley was this idyllic, hygienic, peaceful society where people
were practicing yoga and these two works of art possibly supported that theory.
So finishing up around 1900 BCE, we start to see this decline of the Indus Valley
Civilization. One theory is there was an Aryan invasion from the West, and so
these people [Indus inhabitants] were displaced and thus moved down to South India, however, the
Aryans probably didn't come until a little bit later so that could be a
problem with that first theory. There may have also been an earthquake that
changed the course of the river or caused it to become heavily silted and
so this made it difficult to farm. There's also the idea of heavy
deforestation because of the production of all these bricks in order to build
these cities, so again that idea of kind of destroying
one society by over development or by overly destroying your
environment. Anyways, so possible crop failure or possible invasion, but we do
see an increase in violence in the society around 1900 or 1800 BCE, so we
definitely see that there is a decline, but we'll pick back up with this society a
couple hundred years later.