Harappan Terracotta Art

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About the Book Harappan Civilization was contemporary of Mesopotamian and Egypt. Harappan traders were having their colony at Ur & Kish (Mesopotamia) and they were having long distance trade with west & central Africa.

This book presents a detailed documentation work of Harappan terracotta Art which includes collection mostly of India and few rare items from Pakistan. The Volume covers the Harappan terracotta’s, Male, Female, Animal, Bird & other terracotta object figurines. This book is a digital photo documentation of 180 rare Harappan terracotta objects.

There are eight chapters in this volume. The first chapter is on Harappan civilization.

The Second chapter is on excavated Harappan sites. Till today we have excavated 212 Harappan sites in south Asia. Third chapter presents the catalogue data of female terracotta’s. Fourth chapter is detail catalogue data of Male terracotta figurines. The Fifth chapter is on Harappan Animal figurines. The Sixth chapter is on miniature terracotta’s Birds figurines. The Seventh chapter is on other terracotta’s objects and eighth chapter is on list of Harappan sites. At the end there is Harappan Bibliography.

About the Author Dr. D.P. Sharma is an Archaeologist, Musicologist and Art historian. He did his M.A: in Ancient history from Allahabad University and D.phil. research on Art and Architecture of lower Ganga-Yamuna doab region from University of Allahabad. From 1980 to 1985 he was working as Registering officer Antiquities at Allahabad and Varanasi regions. During 1983-84 he was awarded common- wealth scholarship and he qualified M.A. Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology, University of London. He did excavation at Sussex (U.K.) and inclement (France) under Dr. Mark Newcomer and Prof. Gourhan. During 2004 he visited South Africa and participated in excavation at Swartkrans cave under Prof. Clark. Since 1985-2005 he had been working as head of Harappan and prehistoric collection of National Museum, New Delhi. He became Associate Professor & H.O.D. Musicology in National Museum Institute in 2005. Dr. Sharma has published 212 Papers and 40 Books in which few are as below: Panorama of Harappan Civilization, Early Harappan and Indus Sarasvati Civilization Vol. I & II, Harappan Art, Late Harappan and decline, Glimpses of Harappan Civilization, Prehistoric Art and Archaeology Vol. I, Gupta Classical Art, Harappan Minor Art & Crafts, Harappan Jeweler, Harappan Terracotta, Harappan Seals, Harappan Potteries, Garuda in Asian Art, Harappan Architecture, Copper Hoard Weapons of South Asia, Musicology for Beginners, Fundamentals of Musicology, Decipherment of Harappan Script 2 vols., Religion and Social System of Harappan, Antiquity Laws and Museum-Administration, O.C.P. & Copper Hoard (end), Harappan script on its way to Decipherments, Harappan Science & Metal Technology, Archaeology of lower Doab, Vol. I & II, Lost Sarswati Civilization, Bharat Ka Puratattva (Hindi), Mauryan Art, Allahabad through the Ages (ed.) and Roots of South Asian Art Vol. I & II, Mathura Kusan Art Vol. I, II & III (press). At present he is working As Director in Bharat Kala Bhavan, Banaras Hindu University, and Varanasi.

Preface My earlier publications on Harappan civilization like Harappan Seals, Sealing and Copper Tablets, Panorama of Harappan Civilization, Decipherment of Harappan script, Bharat aur Sindhu Sabhyta, Harappan Art, Early Harappan and Indus Sarasvati Civilization is already in the hands of the readers. My four other books Harappan Jeweler, Mature Harappan, Late Harappan and Urban Planning and Settlements of Harappan Civilization are in the press. Till today I have written 40 books on different aspects of Harappan civilization. The present book Harappan Terracotta Art covers Harappan Terracotta images. Digital photo documentation of the excavated material is assuming greater importance due to role of multimedia information to the door steps of the user. It is being introduced first time by D.P. Sharma in the Harappan gallery of National Museum, few Delhi and Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum, Varanasi. B.B. Lal, S.R. Rao, M. J. Kenoyer, G.L. Possehl, D.P. Agarwal, Vas ant Shinde, R.S. Bisht, Raja Ram, M.K. Dhavalikar, J.P. Joshi, K.N. Dikshit, Y.S. Sonavane, S.P. Gupta, Naynjot Lahiri, Robert Knox, Madhubala, Amrendranath, Kadambini, Sashi Asthana, A.K. Sharma, Madhuri Sharma have clone lot in this direction and they have published several papers and books on Harappan Archaeology. Harappan Civilization was contemporary of Mesopotamian and Egypt civilizations and Harappan traders were having their colony at Ur. in Mesopotamia and they were having long distance trade with Harappans. Some Art historian named Harappan Art as Industrial Art. However this term is most appropriate for Seals, Shell, Jeweler, Ivory, and Copper etc. We cannot term stone, Bronze and terracotta figurines as Industrial art. These are basic decorative item of Harappans. According to Author and Jaya Menon most appropriate term for these types of Art should be Minor Arts and Crafts of Harappan Civilization.

This Volume covers mostly Harappan Terracotta Art. This is a digital photo documentation of 180 rare Harappan terracotta objects. There are eight chapters in this volume. It covers Female, Male, Animal, Bird & other terracotta’s figurines. The first chapter is on Harappan civilization.

According to author it hardly matters if we name it Harappan or Indus Sarasvati, its meaning is same. Second chapter is on excavated Harappan sites in south Asia. Till today we have excavated 212 Harappan sites in north west part of south Asia. The third chapter has the catalogue data of female figurines. Fourth chapter is on detail description of male figurines. Fifth chapter is on Harappan Animal figurines. Six chapters are on Miniature Bird Figurines, Seventh chapter is on other terracotta Material and The Eight chapter presents a list of Harappan sites. In last it also contains detail Harappan Bibliography.

The text was gone through by Dr. B.L. Nag arch, Former Director of ASI who edited this volume and the author is grateful to him. Discussion with Nayanjot Lahiri, B.R. Mani, Alok Tripathi, Pramod Trivedi, D.Y. Sharma, K.P. Nautical, Kuldeep Bhan, Vas ant Shinde and Arundhati Banerji added quite a bit to the authors' knowledge and he is indebted to all of them. The author records his appreciation for cooperation and assistance received by Rohini Pande, S.N. Pathak, Madhuri Sharma, Kadambini Pandey, Devangana Sharma, Anuj Pandey, Ajit Kumar Chaudhary, Bahadur Kumar Kannaujiya, Prakash Rao and Ashish Kumar. Mr. J.C. Arora and Tejveer Singh who prepared the photographs, Mr. Raju Gharai. Pratibha Parashar, R.R. Singh Chauhan and Sanjib Kumar Singh did academic help.

The author has also consulted the publications of B.B. Lal, J. Mark Kenoyer, Pramod Trivedi, B.R. Mani, Subhra Pramanik, Upendar Singh, J... Pandey, Amy G. Postel, G. Possehl, H. Kondo, Shereen Ratnagar, Jaya Menon, Chundamani and gopal, R.S. Bisht, Amrendra nath, J.P. Joshi and M.L. igam and learnt from the new discovery. Author is also beholden to Ian Glover and Marks newcomer both retired Professors who had been his teachers at Institute of Archaeology, London.

Author is also grateful to his other teachers R.K. Verma, VN. Misra, G.R. Sharma, J. . . Pal, B.B. Misra, R.V Joshi, M.K. Dhavalikar, O.P. Yadav, J.S. egi, YD. Mishra who taught him Archaeology at Allahabad University and Deccan College Poona.

The author is thankfull to Dr. Radhey Shyam Shukla of Pratibha Prakashan, Delhi for publishing thi book within short period.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages