Module: | Society, Religion & Burial Practices
Q38: Consider the following statements regarding the Proto-Shiva seal and its textual contradictions:
1. A famous Harappan seal depicts a figure seated cross-legged in a yogic posture, surrounded by animals including an elephant, tiger, rhinoceros, and buffalo.
2. Early scholars, including Director-General John Marshall, identified this central figure as Proto-Shiva, an early, foundational manifestation of the major Hindu deity.
3. This identification is definitively confirmed by the ancient Rigveda, which explicitly describes the early deity Rudra as a meditating yogi holding the title of Pashupati or Lord of Animals.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
2. Early scholars, including Director-General John Marshall, identified this central figure as Proto-Shiva, an early, foundational manifestation of the major Hindu deity.
3. This identification is definitively confirmed by the ancient Rigveda, which explicitly describes the early deity Rudra as a meditating yogi holding the title of Pashupati or Lord of Animals.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
✅ Correct Answer: A
🎯 Quick Answer:
Option A is the correct answer because statement 3 contains a massive historical contradiction regarding the descriptions found in the Rigveda.Structural Breakdown: The seal clearly shows a horned figure in a meditative, yogic stance, flanked by wild beasts.
John Marshall combined these visual cues (the horns, the yoga posture, the animals) to declare the figure as an early version of Shiva, specifically in his aspect as Pashupati.
Historical/Related Context: To verify this, historians cross-referenced the earliest known religious text of India, the Rigveda (compiled c. 1500-1000 BCE). The Rigveda mentions a prominent god named Rudra, which is a name later used for Shiva in Puranic Hinduism.
Causal Reasoning: Statement 3 is entirely false and represents the primary flaw in Marshall's theory.
While the Rigveda does mention Rudra, it does not depict Rudra as Pashupati (Lord of Animals), nor does it describe him as a meditating yogi.
Because the earliest textual description of Rudra completely contradicts the visual imagery on the seal, many modern historians argue that the figure cannot be a "Proto-Shiva," and might instead represent an ancient, pre-Vedic shamanic deity.