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The Pashupati seal (also Mahayogi seal, Proto-Śiva seal the adjective "so-called" sometimes applied to "Pashupati"), is a steatite Impression seal which was uncovered in Mohenjo-daro, now in modern day Pakistan, a major urban site of the Indus Valley Civilisation ("IVC"), during excavations in 1928 or 1929, when the region was under British Raj. 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 Three-headed (having three heads). The seated figure has been thought to be ithyphallic, an interpretation that has been questioned by many,For example, Wendy Doniger, in , page 34, 2009, Viking: "... the Indus seal we all once interpreted as an ithyphallic Shiva Pashupati is probably just someone sitting cross-legged, as South Asians are inclined to do, with a bulging loincloth knot...". but was still held by the IVC specialist Jonathan Mark Kenoyer in a publication of 2003.Kenoyer, 403 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 and largest element; in most seals this is an animal. "stamp-seal", British Museum It had been claimed to be one of the earliest depictions of the Hinduism god Shiva—"Pashupati" (Lord of animals) being one of his epithets, or a "proto-Shiva" deity.
Though the combination of elements in the Pashupati seal is unique, there are a group of other Indus seals that have some of them. One, also from Mohenjo-daro (find number DK 12050) and now in Islamabad, has a nude three-faced horned deity seated on a throne in a yogic position, wearing bangles on its arms. In this case no animals are depicted, and there is some dispute as to the gender of the figure, despite it seeming to have a beard.Kenoyer, 402–403
The Pashupati seal is in the National Museum of India, having been moved there with the other Mohenjo-daro finds before independence. These were reserved for the future national museum, finally founded in 1949,Singh (2015), 111–112 and the seal was allocated to the Dominion of India at Partition in 1947.
The seal is carved in steatite and measures 3.56 cm by 3.53 cm, with a thickness of 7.6 mm. It has a human figure at the centre seated on a platform and facing forward. The legs of the figure are bent at the knees with the heels touching and the toes pointing downwards. The arms extend outwards and rest lightly on the knees, with the thumbs facing away from the body. Eight small and three large bangles cover the arms. The chest is covered with what appear to be necklaces, and a double band wraps around the waist. The figure wears a tall and elaborate headdress with a central fan-shaped structure flanked by two large striated horns. The human figure is surrounded by four wild animals: an elephant and a tiger to its one side, and a water buffalo ( bubalus arnee) and an Indian rhinoceros on the other. Under the dais are two deer or ibexes looking backwards, so that their curved horns almost meet in the centre. At the top of the seal are seven Indus script symbols, with the last apparently displaced downwards for lack of horizontal space.Possehl, 141
Later, in 1931, he expanded his reasons to include the fact that Shiva is associated with the phallus in the form of linga, and that in medieval art he is shown with deer or ibexes, as are seen below the throne on the seal. Marshall's analysis of the Indus Valley religion, and the Pashupati seal in particular, was very influential and widely accepted for at least the next two generations. Herbert Sullivan, who had significant disagreements with it, recognised in 1964 that Marshall's analysis "has been accepted almost universally and has greatly influenced scholarly understanding of the historical development of Hinduism".
Writing in 1976, Doris Srinivasan introduced an article otherwise critical of Marshall's interpretation by observing that "no matter what position is taken regarding the seal's iconography, it is always prefaced by Marshall's interpretation. On balance the proto- character of the seal has been accepted." Thomas McEvilley noted, in line with Marshall, that the central figure was in the hatha yoga pose Mulabandhasana, quoting the Kalpa Sutras description "a squatting position with joined heels" used with meditation and fasting to attain infinite knowledge ( kevala).
Alf Hiltebeitel noted in 2011 that, following Marshall's analysis, "nearly all efforts at interpreting the Indus religion have centered discussion around the figure". A lot of discussion has taken place about this seal.Bryant, Edwin, p.163 While Marshall's work has earned some support, many critics and even supporters have raised several objections.See e. g. James G. Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, vol. 2: N–Z. The Rosen Publishing Group, New York 2002, p. 633, who doubts the connection of the seal to Shiva, given the supposedly late age of the god.
Herbert Sullivan interpreted the figure as a female goddess on the grounds that the so-called erect phallus actually represents the dangling end of a waistband or girdle, a feature found on many undoubtedly female terracotta figurines, and ambiguous on some other seals, including DK 12050 (mentioned above). Marshall himself had admitted this was possible. In the terracottas, males are always nude; in addition, the jewellery worn on the Pashupati seal is characteristic of female rather than male terracottas.Sullivan, 119–120; Hiltebeitel, 229–230 partly concurs
According to her, the two extra faces could be reinterpreted as possible ears, and the central face has predominant bovine features. She has drawn similarities between the central figure of seal 420, and other artefacts from the Indus Valley such as the horned mask from Mohenjo-Daro, the terracotta bull from Kalibangan, and the depiction of a horned deity on a water pitcher from the archaeological site of Kot Diji. She has also noted that the yogic posture of the figure is repeated on a number of other seals and sealings, some of which indicate that the figure receives worship. On the basis of these observations, she suggests that the figure of seal 420 could be a divine buffalo-man.
Where Marshall's description had "the head is crowned with the horns of a bull", Hiltebeitel is emphatic that the figure has the very different horns of a buffalo, and that IVC people familiar with both species would not have confused the two species: "One might imagine a "proto-Siva" with bull's horns as a prefiguration of Siva's connection with his vahana or riding vehicle Nandin. But a "proto-Siva" with buffalo's horns would take too much explaining to retain credibility".Hiltebeitel, 405, 430–431
The American archaeologist Walter Fairservis tried to translate what he considered to be a Dravidian inscription, and was of the view that the seal could be identified with Anil, the paramount chief of four clans represented by the animals. The Finnish Indologist, Asko Parpola has suggested that the yogic pose could be an imitation of the Proto-Elamite way of representing seated bulls. He attempted to translate the inscription which he considers to be an early form of Dravidian, and found that the figure represents a servant of an aquatic deity. He finds that the animals depicted on the seal best resemble those associated with the Hindu god Varuna who could be associated with the aquatic themes which are prominent in the Indus religion.
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