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Al-Qamar

ISSN (Online): 2664-4398

ISSN (Print): 2664-438X

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Al-Qamar,Volume9,Issue2(April-June2026)

The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically

Reappraising Religious Continuities

Dr. Sarah Umer

Associate Professor, Department of Graphic Design, University

College of Art and Design – University of the Punjab, Lahore

sarah76khan@gmail.com/sara.cad@pu.edu.pk

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2725-1016

Abstract

This research intends to recognize the influence of Harappan religious

inheritance not only in the early strata of Hinduism but also in the

religious thought prevalent in the greater Arab world, considering the

hypothesis that Harappans might be the parent stock of

Mesopotamians. According to the King James version of the Bible, the

ancestors of the Hebrews came to the city of Ur from the East; the

Bible does not say when Noah and his son Shem with their families

arrived in Sumer (Ur), but it does say that they came from the East

and according to some scholars the region to the east is either Me

Luhha (Indus Valley civilization) or Dilmun (Bahrain). Moreover, Jim

Wills has based a theory on more recent archaeological excavation

reports from northwest India (present day Pakistan) that Hinduism

just might prove to be much older than what scholars initially thought

and might have arisen during the Indus Valley civilization era.

Therefore, this study has explored possibilities of the fact that this

region was not only home to later indigenous religions like Jainism,

Buddhism and Hinduism that helped to shape the religious beliefs of

other regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia but also has a much

older religious presence during the Indus Valley civilization, which

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

seems like to have contributed towards shaping the religious beliefs of

the greater Arab world.

Keywords: Harappa, Religion, South Asia, Arab World, Hinduism

Introduction

The Indus Valley civilization is among the three ancient civilizations of

the world that expanded over a large area, extending from north-eastern

Afghanistan, and including present-day Pakistan and eastern India (see Figure

1). Considering the timeline of the excavated material that we have today from

these civilizations, Mesopotamian civilization is approximately 1000 years

earlier to Indus Valley, while Egyptian civilization is 1000 years later. Yet, the

Indus Valley civilization is among all ancient civilizations the least investigated

due to limitation of language, translations, and documents, as out of the three

it is the only one whose script remains undeciphered.

Figure 1 - General Map of Ancient Civilizations from www.harappa.com

https://kearnsmedia.weebly.com/early-civilizations--the-foundations-of-human-

culture.html

Still, despite these limitations archaeologists and scholars are trying to

understand many aspects of the Indus Valley people with the help of excavated

material along with textual evidence that has been unearthed from this and

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contemporary civilizations. One such aspect, that is the religion of the Indus

Valley people has been discussed in my book entitled, “Religious Beliefs of the

Indus Valley Civilization” in which I concluded that the religion of the Indus

Valley civilization must be based on concepts of equality and justice, and that

they were some of the most important binding forces that allowed its successful

continuity for years.¹As evident from the lifestyle of the individual, I traced

the rights that each Indus person gave to his fellow citizen due to which this

glorious civilization - geographically double the size of its contemporary

civilizations existed for many centuries without the use of visible force and

arms,²at a time when its contemporary Mesopotamia and Egypt were busy

fighting over territorial gains. The Indus Valley civilization on the other hand

shows no evidence of production of weaponry at any of the excavated sites

along with no evidence of fatal human conflict that further endorse the fact

that the people of this civilization were peaceful. As, fundamental unity in the

community was established on the base of equality, liberty, and fraternity. This

message of equality among humans has been advocated by various religions of

the world.

“Humanity is but a single brotherhood: so, make peace with your brethren.” Quran

49:10

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and

female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

“I look upon all creatures equally; none are less dear to me and none more dear.”

Bhagavad Gita 9:29

“Never believe you are above or below anyone. Keep a humble spirit.” Buddha

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

Considering the view of later indigenous religions of South Asia and the

Near East and keeping the religious values of the Indus Valley people under

consideration it can be proposed that the religion of this civilization was at par

with the religious beliefs of other religions, according to which all mankind

should be considered equal. Therefore, taking this aspect into consideration

when we study this civilization, we come across multiple examples that hint

towards equality being observed by the masses, whether it be their similar

pottery, similar jewelry, similar architecture etc., that is found across the length

and breadth of this civilization without any sign of disparity (see Figure 2-3).

Figure 2 - Gateway at Harappa: Indus Valley Civilization

https://www.crystalinks.com/induscivilization.html

Figure 3 - Houses of same size

https://www.crystalinks.com/induscivilization.html

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Unlike what we witness is later Mesopotamian and Egyptian cities,

where a certain class was more privileged when compared with the masses, as is

evident from their architecture and lifestyle (see Figure 4-5-6).

Figure 4 - The well preserved Temple of Horus at Edfu is an example of

Egyptian architecture and architectural sculpture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_architecture#/media/File:S_F-E-

CAMERON_EGYPT_2006_FEB_00289.JPG

Figure 5 - Ur

https://www.lugaresconhistoria.com/ur-irak

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

Figure 6 - Uruk as it may have looked

https://www.businessinsider.com/largest-cities-throughout-history-2013-

1?op=1#uruk-took-the-lead-in-3500-bc-with-4000-citizens-2

Additionally, the excavated material found from the Indus Valley

civilization also negates the existence of a polytheistic Indus society, unlike

what is witnessed in Mesopotamia and Egypt (see Figure 7-8). So, taking into

account these aspects a hypothesis is proposed in this paper, that points

towards a course where the Harappans on the one hand might prove to be the

parent stock of Mesopotamians, while on the other hand it might help to

recognize the influence of Harappan religious inheritance not only in the early

strata of Hinduism but also in the religious thought prevalent in the greater

Arab world, as hints of monotheism been practiced have been revealed during

some periods in both Mesopotamia and Egypt.

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Figure 7 - Ur-Nammu standing before the seated Enlil

https://www.realmofhistory.com/2017/05/09/10-ancient-mesopotamian-gods-

goddesses-facts/

Figure 8 - 20 Major Egyptian Gods, Goddesses, And Their Family Tree

https://www.realmofhistory.com/2019/10/11/15-ancient-egyptian-gods-goddesses-

facts/

Discussion

Many scholars today see the Harappans as the parent stock of the

Mesopotamians. As, ample evidence is present to prove that since pre-historical

times man had been travelling from east to west and from west to east, as has

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

also been proven by the later prehistory and history of both Middle East and

Indus Valley (see Figure 9).

Figure 9 - Ancient Trade Routes

http://indus-valley-civ.weebly.com/economy-and-trade.html

During earth’s Third Glacier Maximum it became difficult for both

man, animals and plants to survive in places that were believed to be occupied

by humans (Europe, the Middle East, Persia, Central Asia and North America),

by that time. So, humans had to relocate for their survival to more hospitable

environments such as the Indus Valley region, the Himalayan steps and

Kashmir valleys.³Extensive studies around the Indus region back this claim

with the help of significant archeological data, which matches with forensic

anthropological investigations on inhabitants of modern Pakistan. The results

show the arrival of few people into the sub-continent from the north-west

during the late Pleistocene Period between 12,000 to 17,000 years ago.⁴

Likewise, DNA data harmonizing with archaeological data around the

early Holocene Period enlightens us about a “Third Migration” of survivors

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of the Last Glacier Maximum, which occurred at this time travelling from east

to west, instead of from west to east. This is known as the “Out of Asia”

hypothesis.⁵This would make Indus Valley region and the Persian passage not

only a genetic junction but also a cultural junction that saw the beginning of

domestication of both animals and plants (see Figure 10).

Figure 10 - Map which shows group occupying and migrating from Indus-Persian region

to west between 15,000 and 10,000 BP. Map based on Pr Adam's.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631068311001199

This movement only strengthens the verse, mentioned in King James

version of the Bible, The First Book of Moses, called Genesis, chapter 11,

which says that the ancestors of the Hebrews came to the city of Ur from the

East; the Bible does not say when Noah and his son Shem with their families

arrived in Sumer (Ur), but it does say that they came from the East and they

found and built up landscapes of cities and towers.

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

It was during Holocene Period, when the foundations of the first human

civilizations, were laid in both directions (east and west). Man, for the first

time in the total time span of his existence on earth, finally started settled life

in different parts of the world between 8000 to 12,000 years ago. Though,

archaeology tells us that the first area to be cultivated was in the Middle East,

in the area known as the Fertile Crescent around 12,000 years ago (see Figure

11), from where it spread to the rest of the Middle East, parts of Sub-Saharan

Africa, Pakistan, China and Europe (see Figure 12).⁶But if we keep the “Out

of Asia” hypothesis in mind, in future years we can find settlements in South

Asia that might predate the settlements of Middle East.

Figure 11 - Area of the fertile crescent, c. 7500 BCE, with main archaeological sites of

the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. The area of Mesopotamia proper was not yet settled by

humans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Revolution#/media/File:Fertile_crescent_Neo

lithic_B_circa_7500_BC.jpg

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Figure 12 - Diffusive pathway of flat breads. Flat breads substantially followed the same

path of cereals (wheat and barley), starting from the Fertile Crescent.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235261811830009X

Kinnier Wilson in one of her published articles entitled, “Fish Rations

and the Indus Script: Some New Arguments in the Case for Accountancy”, also

says,

“We may yet discover sites lying further west than Balakot which could

suggest that the two peoples, Harappans and Sumerians, were less remotely

separated than appears at the present time.”⁷

In short, she hints towards the probability that initially Harappans and

Sumerians were one people, or at least closely related. Therefore, this kinship

among both should be sought in the Indus Delta. As, Harappans might be the

parent stock and Sumerians being a small branch of the parent stock might

have left to explore and develop independently. The unearthing of Mehrgarh

(Baluchistan, Pakistan) in 1976 is one such example, which is responsible for

revising the historical chronology of South Asia from 3000 to 7000 BCE (see

Figure 13).

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

Figure 13 - Ruins of Houses at Mehrgarh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehrgarh

Like this, the possibility of many such sites cannot be ignored, when

huge landscapes remain unexplored in the vicinity of Baluchistan, which is an

extension of the Iranian plateau closely connected and open to receive and

transmit cultural influences from and to the other centers of ancient

civilizations, especially between northeastern Iran, Seistan and Central Asia on

the one hand and the Greater Indus on the other (see Figure 14).

Figure 14 - Indus Valley sites

https://www.reddit.com/r/pakistan/comments/8kpcr3/indus_valley_civilization_oc_3

496x1978/

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Additionally, archaeological evidence found from Eridu, a southern

Mesopotamian city identified in later Mesopotamian myths as the first city,

which is also known by archaeologists as Uruk further supports this argument

(see Figure 15). Extraordinarily the excavations and excavated material found

from this city shows no signs of social inequality or difference in wealth or

status like the Indus Valley cities. Likewise, it seems that the role of

maintaining social and economic stability was the responsibility of religious

institutions, which backs the notion of the author that religion was the main

binding force that ensured successful continuity and sustainability of Indus

Valley civilization.

Figure 15 - Map of Eridu, Ur or Uruk

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f9/b7/1a/f9b71a0fac3d19d19ebf95ac181034bc.jpg

Still, excavations in the city of Eridu has uncovered a succession of

sixteen temples, built one on top of the other (see Figure 16). However, the

earliest temple was a simple square building with an altar fitted into a niche in

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

the back wall, unlike the type of temple structures that were built with the

passage of time with additional rooms around the altar room.

Figure 16 - Reconstruction of succession of Temples

https://www.oom2.com/t51260-eridu-the-first-city-on-earth-where-the-sumerian-kings-

from-heaven-ruled

It seems that as Mesopotamian cities grew, temples also not only grew

in physical size, but they became stronger and more powerful institutions.

There is some evidence that farmers and other workers delivered a portion of

their produce, grain, wool, fish, or other goods - to the temple precincts,

partially to feed the temples personnel and partially to create a central storage

bank from which the temple could distribute commodities to certain people in

the community.⁸

There is evidence for this activity of collecting and then distributing

these commodities, however, on what bases this distribution was made is still

unclear. Either it was accomplished as barter trade or it was done purely for

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religious and moral objectives, where the sick, travelers, the elderly or any needy

person benefitted from this service. It appears that the communities apparently

undertook this responsibility with honesty and dedication. However, a point

to ponder upon is that what could be the driving force behind this community

service, when still there is no evidence of any other motive beside that these

people also believed in equality among people, like those living in the Indus

Delta, who there is a strong possibility of been their kin.

Elisabeth Christina Louisa During Caspers, in one of her published

articles entitled, “The Indus Valley ‘Unicorn’: A Near Eastern Connection,”

mentions five different categories which show cultural dependence among these

two civilizations. Briefly, these categories include ornamental and decorative

patterns (such as trefoil and kidney design), square stamp seals (a dominating

human figure with two tigers), sealing amulets from Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa

and Kalibangan (shows a male head with indisputably Sumerian features),

cylinder seals found from both Sumer and Harappa and finally large types of

oval or roundish shape seals (incense-burner and one-horned bovine

processional scene is reminiscent of Protoliterate Mesopotamia).⁹

Hence, it seems that these areas were not only geographically linked but

were strategically linked too, and in no time in history were they ever

disconnected from one another as parallels in painted pottery types have been

reported from Turkmenistan, northern Iran and Sialk I-III dating back from

the end of the sixth millennium BCE to the fourth millennium BCE.

Additionally, on Sumerian and Akkadian tablets, especially those

written during the forty-five years narrate trading contacts between the two

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

civilizations, there are twelve Mesopotamian texts originating from the city of

Ur III Period (2047 – 1750 BCE) that refer to a village named Me Luhha

(written with a determinative ki), suggesting that the village inhabitants were

trading merchants, the Me Luhha living in an Indus region, who had become

acculturated.¹⁰These texts suggest that by the end of this period the inhabitants

had

become

permanent

residents.

Some scholars like Geoffrey Bibby, Samuel N. Kramer, Jack Finegan

and Nick Wyatt say that when we corelate the Bible, Ebla, and Ugarit texts

with archaeology of the region it suggests that the region to the east must either

be Me luhha (Indus) or Dilmun (Bahrain) (see Figure 17).¹¹

Figure 17 - Ancient Civilizations

https://www.interfaith.org/community/threads/18187/

So, the writer strongly believes that a further probe is required to

investigate the region Me luhha and Dilmun not only by the study of more

Sumerian and Akkadian tablets but by the study of tablets found from multiply

cities of the ancient Arab world (see Figure 18), such as at Ebla, Ugarit, Mari,

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and Egypt. While simultaneously one needs to study the earliest written

material found from South Asia, in the absence of a deciphered Indus script.

Figure 18 - The Ancient Near East

https://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum213/Maps/Maps2HistoryAncient.htm

Stephen Hillyer Levitt, in a journal article entitled, “The Dating of the

Indian Tradition,” has concluded,

“The Rigveda would date back to the beginning of the 3^rdmillennium B.C.,

With some of the earliest hymns perhaps even dating to the end of the 4^th

millennium B. C. The composition of the Rigveda would end at about

1500 B.C., with the end of Indus Valley Civilization and with the first

period of doubt and severe crisis of faith in Mesopotamian civilization.”¹²

According to written record and Biblical references that coincide with

Mesopotamian archaeological texts, there are indications of abandonments by

its city gods in sixteen cities, including Ur, Sumer and Nippur that led to the

destruction of these cities, resulting in a general severe religious crisis.¹³

However, preliminary research into the translations of tablets found from the

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

greater Arab world also indicate a rise of interest in a personal God during the

second millennium BCE,¹⁴while simultaneously the people also believed in

several secondary nature gods (Henotheism).¹⁵

When Abraham (2000 – 1800 BCE) migrated from Ur with his

companions, he left behind all secondary Gods because they had failed the

inhabitants. Yet, during their migration, Abraham’s group kept the One God

they had worshipped since their birth. This God of their fathers, which

according to some scholars only existed in their stories, nonetheless, was one

that should be seen as the true essence of being a Sumerian of the time and was

taken with them, when they migrated.¹⁶Moreover, there are other texts, that

indicate that the Sumerians believed in a chief personal God beside secondary

nature gods at least five hundred years before Abraham,¹⁷thus, pushing back

the belief in one personal God into the third millennium BCE. A timeline that

easily coincides not only with the Indus Valley civilization, but which also

supports the “Out of Asia” hypothesis, verses of the Bible and claim of various

scholars including Wilson that Harappans might be the parent stock of

Sumerians (inhabitants of the city of Ur).

Rigveda, the earliest Vedic scripture of this region, also talks about a

personal God,¹⁸while the Muslim geographer Abu Rehn Alberuni in the 11^th

AC notes strands of monotheism in the Bhagavad-Gita.¹⁹Unfortunately, the

written history of the Indus region that begins with these Vedic scriptures’

dates back only to 1500 - 1200 BCE and coincides with the Ugarit dates and

Mari tablets, while the Sumerian, Ebla and Egyptian tablets predate these

scriptures.²⁰Nevertheless, Kosambi²¹argues that the Vedic scriptures are not

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written in pure Aryan and sees earlier non-Aryan grammatical structures and

forms in both syntax and vocabulary in them, which strength the argument of

Stephen that the religious history of Indus region might be much older.

Jim Wills has based a theory on more recent archaeological excavation

reports from northwest India (present day Pakistan) that Hinduism just might

prove to be much older than scholars initially thought and might have actually

arisen completely independent of an Aryan cultural influence.²²According to

Warren Matthews that would be before anyone kept contemporary written

records and thus must have been transmitted only orally from one generation

to the next.²³Moreover, many scholars today negate the “Arrival of the Aryan

Theory”, according to them such a movement never occurred. Upinder Singh

in her book talks about the Kenneth Kennedy’s analysis of the skeletal record,

which reveals that the first phase of discontinuities in physical types in the

north-west occurs between 6000 and 4500 BCE, and the second one after 800

BCE. There is no evidence of any demographic disruption in the north-west

during and immediately after the decline of the Harappan civilization. It is

obvious that no invasions took place during the period when the Indo-Aryans

were supposed to have entered India, nor were there any large-scale migrations,

but a series of small-scale inflows is a more likely possibility. Many

archaeologists have tried to identify the Indo-Aryan migration with the help of

archaeology but have been unsuccessful so far. Mughal further emphasizes the

point by stating cultural continuity rather than discontinuity.²⁴A similar view

is also expressed by V. Gordon Childe,

“India confronts Egypt and Babylonia by the 3^rdmillennium with a

thoroughly individual and independent civilization of her own, technically

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

the peer of the rest. And plainly it is deeply rooted in Indian soil. The Indus

civilization represents a very perfect adjustment of human life to a specific

environment. And it has endured; it is already specifically Indian and forms

the basis of modern Indian culture.”²⁵

In short, Hinduism would predate the Aryans conquests by centuries

(i.e., if there ever was a conquest) and could have a historical identity with the

Indus Valley civilization: the Aryans did not invent early Hinduism, they

simply conquered the lands where it was practiced, as can be concluded on the

bases of the “mediating yogi”, the “so-called Shivalinga’s”, the “pipal tree”, the

“great bath”, many Indus images and cults that seems to have culturally

travelled through generations. Yet, it seems that the context in which they were

produced or used definitely must have changed between the demise of Indus

Valley civilization (1500 BCE) and birth of Buddhism and Jainism (600 BCE)

because had this not been the case than these two reformative religions would

not have sprung from the same land to make some of the beliefs of Hinduism

counterproductive. For example, the rigid caste system which is against the

concept of equality among humans and one that was challenged by individuals

like Buddha (founder of Buddhism) and Mahavira (24^thTirthankara of

Jainism). As a result, Hindus came up with a book of reforms known as

“Upanishads” to re-establish their lost character. These developments suggest

that the people of this land believed in equality among humans and that religion

was an important element in their lives.

Some scholars also believe that as late as Ashok’s reign (250 BCE) there

was no established form for a follower of Hinduism:²⁶they were referred as

either Sramanas or Brahmans.²⁷While, the creation of Hinduism as a single

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religion took place even after the beginning of Buddhism and Jainism, in the

6^thcentury BCE. While iconography of the “One Supreme God” of the Hindus

into various personifications also came much later to this land.

Furthermore, in the absence of a deciphered Indus script and with total

dependence on archaeology²⁸it can be suspected that the current excavated

evidence negates²⁹the existence of a polytheistic Indus society that was using

small figurines (see Figure 19) as opposed to the very large deities (see Figure

20-21) that adorn the temples of its contemporary civilizations.³⁰According

to Irfan Habib this point differentiates the Indus civilization and its art from

the artworks of its contemporary civilizations, where massive sculptures and

buildings were made to support the state religion unlike Indus Valley

civilization where no religious structures or sculptress have been found.³¹

Figure 19 - Goddess from Indus Valley civilization

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/739857045003968452/

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

Figure 20 - Ancient Mesopotamian God

https://www.grunge.com/162587/messed-up-things-that-happened-in-ancient-

mesopotamia/

Figure 21 - Ancient Egyptian God

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2017/12/04/fragmented-statues-of-lion-goddess-

discovered-in-southern-egypt/

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Wheeler suggests that to link these terracotta figurines (See Figure 22)

with the “Mother goddess” notion of western Asia and Europe would be an

exaggeration, as it seems that no special effort was put into the making of these

sculpture pieces; there features, and general modeling is crude;

“… a lump of clay is added to represent an infant at the breast or on the

hip; and the general notion of fertility, whether in thanksgiving or in

anticipation, is further indicated by representations of pregnancy, although

there is no emphasis of the generative organs such as is normal to Mother

Goddess cults.”³²

Figure 22 - Terra Cotta figurines from Indus Valley

http://heritage.gov.pk/html_pages/Indus_terracotta_figurines.htm

Irfan Habib also backs this notion as he also suggests that these

numerous in number female figurines found from private houses outnumbered

the procreative male godlings (see Figure 23), therefore they might have been

used for domestic superstitions and belief purposes to obtain children.³³

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

Figure - 23 Male Godlings from Indus Valley

http://heritage.gov.pk/html_pages/Indus_terracotta_figurines.htm

Catherine Jarrige also backs this notion as according to her these

figurines were frequently found in household trash deposits giving the

impression that they were haphazardly discarded.³⁴However, they might have

been used for some kind of domestic cult or for, “magical practices, as is

frequently the case in agrarian societies”³⁵because Jarrige came across some

holes running through the figurines with small twigs cutting straight through

them several times, while the clay was still soft suggesting a magical attempt to

relieve oneself from pain or to harm someone through an image.³⁶Rita P.

Wright on the other hand has suggested that maybe they were like the Barbie

and G. I. Joe dolls of the twentieth century, made only for playing purposes

that could include puppetry (mask found), thus upon breaking were easily

disposed in household trashes.³⁷So, considering the archeological evidence

along with the views of the above-mentioned scholars it seems clear that these

female figurines cannot be associated with the “Mother Goddess” cult and

negates the existence of a polytheistic Indus Society.

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The lack of religious icons in the Indus Valley region since the birth of

civilization till as late as 1^stcentury AD advocate the fact that the people of this

region were not idol worshippers and may have believed in “One God”, as has

been proposed by the author in her book.

Additionally, multiple scholars considering textual and archaeological

evidence from Mesopotamia and Egypt not only advocate belief in “One God”,

during certain periods but also talk about prohibition of idol worship. Thus,

some references are offered to support their argument.

In a journal entitled, “The Life and Thought of the Surrounding

Peoples,” L. L. Grabbe talks about a lecture series that was published in the

year 2000, which provokes one to rethink about the facile antithesis of

polytheism and monotheism and to find how monotheistic tendencies arose

from polytheistic societies living in the greater Arab world, especially in regions

that include both Mesopotamia and Egypt. In this article he narrates,

“The essays (all in German) are on polytheism and monotheism (B.

Gladigow); thought about the One in ancient Egypt (E. Hornung);

plurality and unity in the ancient Mesopotamian pantheon (Krebernik);

‘equation theology’, ‘syncretism’, and ‘deity fissuring’ in polytheistic ancient

Anatolia (G. Wilhelm); the unity of a god in the polytheism of Ugarit-on

the Levant as the place of origin of biblical monotheism (O. Loretz);

monotheism, polytheism, and duality in ancient Iran (M. Stausberg); the

one and only god of Israel in dispute 9Van Oorschot); the monotheistic

requirement in rabbinic Jewish tradition (J. Maier) religion and cult in

ancient South Arabia (W. W. Muller); Gnostic polytheism or Gnostic

monotheism? (B. Aland); Heis Theos? –monotheism and Christianity

(C. Markschies); Islam-from high god belief to monotheism? (T.

Seidensticker).³⁸

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

In short, all these lectures hint towards signs of monotheism in the

presence of polytheism. Furthermore, Ephraim Meir in one of his published

articles entitled, “Sigmund Freud’s Moses and His Reappearance: the

Forgotten and the Unforgettable,” talks about Freud’s findings mentioned in

his book entitled Moses and Monotheism in which he claims, “that

monotheism originated in Egypt during the reign of Amenhotep IV, who called

himself Ikhnaton after the sun-god Aton (see Figure 24), whom he considered

to be the sole god.”³⁹It is believed that Ikhnaton reigned from 1350 to 1334

BCE and during this period he distanced himself from any anthropomorphic

representation of god, however after his death Pharaohs and Egyptians returned

to their older gods till a man called Moses not only saved monotheism from

extinction but gave it to the Jews. Although, Freud was not a practicing Jew

and believed that religion was an illusion, yet he could not deny Judaism’s

commendable contribution towards the genesis of civilization and cultural

norms that contributed and played a vital role.

Figure 24 - Sun God Aton with Ikhnaton and his wife

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/257479303669173637/

Deena E. Grant, in one of her published articles entitled, “Fire and the

Body of Yahweh,” says that,

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“The Hebrew Bible preserves a strong tradition of aniconism. Worshipping

icons is prohibited throughout its books (Exod. 20.4-5; Deut. 5.8-9; Isa.

44; Jer. 10).”⁴⁰

Conclusion

So, considering the above-mentioned arguments, this study has explored

possibilities of the fact that the Indus Valley region was not only home to later

indigenous religions like Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism that helped to

shape the religious beliefs of other regions of South Asia and South East Asia

but also has a much older religious presence during the Indus Valley civilization

that seems to have contributed towards shaping the religious beliefs of the

greater Arab world considering the “Out of Asia” hypothesis given by

Dennella, Torresb and Castro and analysis given by Wilson.

So, this paper strengthens the argument that a further probe is required

to discover religious affiliations among texts belonging to a larger geographical

area, keeping in mind the chronology of not only the texts under consideration

but the hypotheses that Harappans were probably the parent stock of all

Mesopotamians. As suggested by Simo Parpola, scholars of ancient

Mesopotamia need to study the religions of the Indian Sub-Continent to gain

better focus on the religion prevalent in ancient Mesopotamia.⁴¹

At this point I want to quote a paragraph from the book Our Oriental

Heritage, which explains the unique relationship that the people of this land

still have and have always had with religion.

“In no other country is religion so powerful, or so important, as in India.

If the Hindus have permitted alien governments to be set over them again

and again it is partly because they did not care much who ruled or exploited

them-natives or foreigners; the crucial matter was religion, not politics; the

soul, not the body; endless later lives rather than this passing one. When

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

Ashoka became a saint, and Akbar almost adopted Hinduism, the power of

religion was revealed over even the strongest men. In our century it is a saint,

rather than a statesman, who for the first time in history has unified all

India.”⁴²

Accordingly, in the absence of a deciphered Indus script one must

consider all textual probabilities to find and recognize the influence of

Harappan religious and literary inheritance not only in the early strata of

Hinduism⁴³but also in the religious thought prevalent in the oral traditions of

greater Arab world. One must also look at data from the Islamic historians and

their literature. As Bruce Trigger has suggested early civilizations have more in

common regarding their ideology and religion.⁴⁴

References

1

Sarah Umer, Religious Beliefs of the Indus Valley Civilization (Dubai: Jamalon Omni

Scriptum Publishing Group, 2018), 240–51.

²Thomas J. Thompson, “An Ancient Stateless Civilization: Bronze Age India and the State

in History,” The Independent Review 10, no. 3 (2006): 368.

³Narendra Katkar, “The Last Glacier Maximum: The Third Migration,” Comptes Rendus

Palevol 10 (2011): 665–78

⁴Kenneth A. R. Kennedy, “Have Aryans Been Identified in the Prehistoric Skeletal Record

from South Asia?,” in The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia, ed. G. Erdosy (Berlin and

New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1995), 54–60.

5

W. R. Dennell, M. Martinon-Torres, and J. M. Bermudez de Castro, “Out of Asia: The

Initial Colonization of Europe in the Early and Middle Pleistocene,” Quaternary

International 10 (2009): 1016.

6

Michael Cook, A Brief History of the Human Race (New York: W. W. Norton and

Company, 2003), 20–23.

⁷Kinnier V. J. Wilson, “Fish Rations and the Indus Script: Some New Arguments in the

Case for Accountancy,” South Asian Studies 3 (1987): 44.

⁸G. Paul Bahn, ed., The Atlas of World Archaeology (Oxfordshire: Androneda, 2002), 60.

⁹Louisa Christina Elisabeth Caspers-During, “The Indus Valley ‘Unicorn’: A Near Eastern

Connection,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 34, no. 4 (1991):

312–50.

10

Asko Parpola, Simo Parpola, and R. H. Brunswig, “The Meluhha Village: Evidence of

Acculturation of Harappan Traders in Late Third Millennium Mesopotamia?,” Journal of

the Economic and Social History of the Orient 20, no. 2 (May 1977): 129–62.

64

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11

Jack Finegan, Archaeological History of the Ancient Middle East (Boulder, CO:

Westview Press, 1979), 17; Geoffrey Bibby, Looking for Dilmun (Michigan: Knopf, 1970);

Noah Samuel Kramer, The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1963), 281; Nick Wyatt, “What Has Ugarit to Do with

Jerusalem,” Studies in World Christianity 8, no. 1 (January 2008): 155–56; and John

Sassoon, From Sumer to Jerusalem – The Forbidden Hypothesis (London: Intellect Books,

1993), 80–83.

12

Stephen Hillyer Levitt, “The Dating of the Indian Tradition,” Anthropos Institu Bd. 98,

H. 2 (2003): 353.

13

Sassoon, From Sumer to Jerusalem, 71–96.

Levitt, “The Dating of the Indian Tradition,” 351–52.

14

¹⁵Barbara Nevling Porter, “Introduction,” in One God or Many? Concepts of Divinity in

the Ancient World, ed. Barbara Nevling Porter (UK: CDL, January 2018), 5.

16

Sassoon, From Sumer to Jerusalem, 67–75.

17

Ibid., 95.

18

Levitt, “The Dating of the Indian Tradition,” 342.

19

Irfan Habib, “Medieval Popular Monotheism and Its Humanism: The Historical

Setting,” Social Scientist 21, no. 3/4 (March–April 1993): 79.

²⁰Richard J. Clifford, “Phoenician Religion,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental

Research 279 (August 1990): 55–56.

21

Kunal Chakrabarti, “The Lily and the Mud: D. D. Kosambi on Religion,” Economic and

Political Weekly 43, no. 30 (July 2008): 62–63.

22

Jim Wills, A to Z of World Religions – Places, Prophets, Saints and Seers (Mumbai:

Jaico Publishing House, 2007), 268–69.

23

Warren Matthews, World Religions, 3rd ed. (Toronto: Wadsworth Publishing

Company, 1999), 83–85.

24

Upinder Singh, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to

the 12th Century (New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2008), 254–55; and M. R. Mughal,

“New Archaeological Evidence from Bahawalpur,” in Indus Civilization: A New

Perspective, ed. A. H. Dani (Islamabad: Centre for the Study of the Civilizations of Central

Asia, Quaid-e-Azam University, 1981).

25

The New Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 21, s.v. “The Indus Civilization.”

²⁶Habib, “Medieval Popular Monotheism and Its Humanism,” 79.

27

Wills, A to Z of World Religions, 268–69.

28

Richard Schiemann, “The Relevance of Archaeology to the Study of Ancient West

Semitic Religion,” World Archaeology 10, no. 2 (October 1978): 133–36.

29

Thompson, “An Ancient Stateless Civilization,” 366–67.

³⁰Walter A. Fairservis Jr., “G. L. Possehl’s and H. M. Raval’s Harappan Civilization and

Rojdi,” Journal of American Oriental Society 111, no. 1 (January–March 1991): 108–13.

³¹Irfan Habib, A People’s History of India 2 – The Indus Civilization – Including Other

Copper Age Cultures and History of Language Change till c. 1500 BC (New Delhi: Tulika

Books, 2002), 53.

32

Mortimer Wheeler, The Indus Civilization, 3rd ed., supplement to the Cambridge

History of India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), 91.

³³Habib, A People’s History of India 2, 56.

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The Religious Legacy of the Harappan Civilization: Critically Reappraising...

³⁴Catherine Jarrige, “The Terracotta Figurines from Mehrgrah,” in Forgotten Cities of the

Indus (Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1991), 87–93.

³⁵Ibid., 92.

³⁶Catherine Jarrige, “Human Figurines from the Neolithic Levels at Mehrgrah (Baluchistan,

Pakistan),” in South Asian Archaeology 2003, ed. U. Franke-Vogt and H.-J. Weisshaar

(Aachen: Forschungen zur Archarologie, 2005), 34.

37

Rita P. Wright, The Ancient Indus: Urbanization, Economy, and Society (New Delhi:

Cambridge University Press, 2010), 62.

³⁸L. L. Grabbe, “Life and Thought of Surrounding Peoples,” Journal for the Study of the

Old Testament 31, no. 5 (2007): 209–22.

³⁹Ephraim Meir, “Sigmund Freud’s Moses and His Reappearance: The Forgotten and the

Unforgettable,” Daat: A Journal of Jewish Philosophy & Kabbalah 73 (2012): 5–28.

40

E. Deena Grant, “Fire and the Body of Yahweh,” Journal for the Study of the Old

Testament 40, no. 2 (2015): 139–61.

⁴¹Simo Parpola and Julian Reade, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars (Helsinki:

Helsinki University Press, 1979), 17; and Stephen Hillyer Levitt, “Vedic – Ancient

Mesopotamian Interconnections and the Dating of the Indian Tradition,” Annals of the

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 93 (2012): 137, 192.

42

Will Durant, The Story of Civilization – Part I – Our Oriental Heritage (New York:

Simon and Schuster, 1954), 503.

43

Parpola, Parpola, and Brunswig, “The Meluhha Village,” 164.

John Baines, “Egyptian Deities in Context: Multiplicity, Unity, and the Problem of

44

Change,” in One God or Many? Concepts of Divinity in the Ancient World, ed. Barbara N.

Porter (UK: CDL, January 2018), 9.

66