tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post3015968607388740077..comments2024-03-12T09:39:48.847-07:00Comments on New Indology: Which animal was the Unicorn of the Indus seals?Giacomo Benedettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18418729274995219594noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-47264599043501342182024-03-12T09:39:48.847-07:002024-03-12T09:39:48.847-07:00Ekaśṛṅga in Mahabharata is the name of Vishnu as V...Ekaśṛṅga in Mahabharata is the name of Vishnu as Varaha and also of a class of Pitṛs. Please give reference of carbon dating of Dwarka at 3100 BC.Giacomo Benedettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18418729274995219594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-65091077355538646512024-02-21T18:49:27.172-08:002024-02-21T18:49:27.172-08:00Rao dating is of Bet-Dwarka. Original submerged Dw...Rao dating is of Bet-Dwarka. Original submerged Dwarka is 15 km East of Dwarka where huge site of Original Dwarka is submerged. This site is carbon dated at 3100 BC. The "ekashring", is a popular symbolism, NOT ANY ANIMAL of Bhagwan Krishna.This symbolism is widely mentioned in the Mahabharat. Again the symbolism mix of horse, elephant, tiger, is again symbolism of Virat Roop popularly appearing in the Jagannath Temple of Puri and in the Oriya Mahabharat., what you misquoted this symbolism as Chimera. Birendra K Jhahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05983154644434845197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-86660991864116989832024-02-15T09:51:42.644-08:002024-02-15T09:51:42.644-08:00I have read that book many years ago in a library,...I have read that book many years ago in a library, but I have not quoted it, because it was not available to me when I wrote the post or the article. If I remember well, that book made allusion to the form of Vishnu called Ekaśṛṅga, that I mention at the beginning. About submerged Dwarka, Rao dated it in the 15th century BCE, and thermoluminescence with fading correction has given 3380 ± 490 years BP, which means 1430 BCE, see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27667061_Cultural_Sequence_of_Bet_Dwarka_island_based_on_Thermolumincence_dating To which carbon dating do you refer?Giacomo Benedettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18418729274995219594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-60292130488231195452024-01-13T03:14:42.106-08:002024-01-13T03:14:42.106-08:00Your information is wrong. You quote excerpt from ...Your information is wrong. You quote excerpt from Dr Jha & Dr Rajaram's book "The Deciphered Indus Script" published in 2000. The content on the Ekaśṛṅga with the Haraapan Symbolism is from this book linking this verse with the symbolism - ekaśṛṅgaḥ purā bhūtvā varāho divyadarśanaḥ / imām uddhṛtavān bhūmim ekaśṛṅgas tato hy aham. " If you read further the description on the Ekaśṛṅga , there is also description of three heads comprising Ekaśṛṅga. Whatever be now science has explored the depth of the Indian Archaeology. This is Dwarka which submerged at 3100 BCE as per carbon dating. Puranas have reported that people migrated from Dwarka to the Saraswati Province at Harappa in Punjab. This migration allowed to carry the ancient symbolism of Vishnu. This is the reason not only Ekaśṛṅga, but several hundred symbolisms of Bhagwan Krishna are seen in the Harappan Archaeology. Birendra K Jhahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05983154644434845197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-79109584642897792782022-08-17T00:15:37.725-07:002022-08-17T00:15:37.725-07:00My email is arshadawan@msn.com and WhatsApp +92-30...My email is arshadawan@msn.com and WhatsApp +92-300-8410966.Arshad Awanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12582340318154490652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-3100699912217859642022-08-17T00:14:37.944-07:002022-08-17T00:14:37.944-07:00Wonderful. While searching for my regular column, ...Wonderful. While searching for my regular column, I came across this article. I like to copy some of your text from "The Unicorn in Indian Tradition" with your permission. Kindly do consider—my name is Arshad Awan from Lahore, Pakistan. I am an author, educationist, historian and somehow brand strategist. Arshad Awanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12582340318154490652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-81999810716843622882021-06-14T11:08:15.262-07:002021-06-14T11:08:15.262-07:00You should once see the female common eland, that ...You should once see the female common eland, that resembles so much with the indus unicorn, and also from the side view you can see both the horns merging into one. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00245098257108313988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-36010733903045406712020-04-21T20:04:05.192-07:002020-04-21T20:04:05.192-07:00Nice information. Thanks for sharing content and s...Nice information. Thanks for sharing content and such nice information for me. I hope you will share some more content about. Please keep sharing!<br /><a href="https://indusdesignworks.com/" rel="nofollow">Indus Design Works</a>Indus Design Workshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15159086851627146285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-60338554939423030492019-12-09T04:51:30.959-08:002019-12-09T04:51:30.959-08:00Please see: Two-inch square seal is wealth-account...Please see: Two-inch square seal is wealth-accounting ledger of Harappa warehouse. A tribute to JM Kenoyer and SA Farmer <br />https://tinyurl.com/wrxdpab Mirror: https://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2019/12/two-inch-square-seal-is-wealth.html I offer a semantic explanation for the 'one-horned young bull with spiny horn' based on decipherment of over 8000 inscriptions. singhin 'spiny horn, projecting forward horns' rebus singi 'ornament gold'. Best regards for your scintillating insights into the dominant pictorial motif of the entire corpora.<br />kalyan97https://www.blogger.com/profile/10697859363967489909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-978081145873406372019-07-12T10:01:54.758-07:002019-07-12T10:01:54.758-07:00Your conclusion is innovative and closer to truth....Your conclusion is innovative and closer to truth. A single horn is also a metaphor for surgical precision, as in the case of Varaha, the planet was held back on its axis so as to stabilise it. The rest of the body no doubt is Nilgai.januhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09612123722083107312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-35451556194778379562017-11-29T02:46:31.509-08:002017-11-29T02:46:31.509-08:00I don't think they started with the nilgai and...I don't think they started with the nilgai and ended with a unicorn, it is possible that the concept of unicorn was already in the people who reached India and created the Indus civilization, or they received it from elsewhere during their development, but it seems they gave to the unicorn the shape of a nilgai. In Indian tradition, we have the varāha ekaśṛṅga (boar unicorn) and Ṛśyaśṛṅga/Ekaśṛṅga. It is not a purely imaginary mythical creature, the concept of unicorn is associated with the boar and the ṛśya, that is, the nilgai, and the shape of the Indus unicorn is comparable with the nilgai, as I (and Parpola) have shown. Giacomo Benedettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18418729274995219594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-76092273734450048182017-11-28T09:27:19.892-08:002017-11-28T09:27:19.892-08:00I find it incredulous the suggestion harappans sta...I find it incredulous the suggestion harappans started with the nilgai and ended with a unicorn. It probably the other way around. Like all other cultures,life in pre-Indus had also gone through a long phase of semi pastoral existences and they knew their animals well enough to eat them. Like the nilgai. Its evident they chose to depict something different, suggesting symbolism evolved at a very different plane from the ordinary, an elite creating a motif that would convey a meaning of power and authority. They were not trying to convey it through the motif of a common animal, but with something different, not seen at all.The unicorn. Once the idea was established, it persisted and seeped into later cultures almost in the same form and meaning and that is why we have ekasringa, rsyasringa a in later culture.sarathkannurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08431629556786684151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-89235527468098976872017-01-22T06:47:58.334-08:002017-01-22T06:47:58.334-08:00I know that case (I live near Florence, btw), it s...I know that case (I live near Florence, btw), it shows that sometimes a mutation can give a unicorn deer. Maybe something like that has influenced the legend of the unicorn, in any case there must be a symbolic meaning of the one horn to explain the mythology of the unicorn. In Europe and the Arab world, also the exotic rhino generated the legend, but in India this is not possible, because the rhino was directly known and depicted in some Harappan seals, while the Indus unicorn has nothing similar with it.Giacomo Benedettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18418729274995219594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-73061623796796050012017-01-21T23:51:44.385-08:002017-01-21T23:51:44.385-08:00 The roe deer born in captivity in the Tuscan tow... The roe deer born in captivity in the Tuscan town of Prato, near Florence<br /> Can give solve the mistory ofEkaśṛngaYeshwanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13921047310210916825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-24824060457967941152016-12-14T14:55:53.725-08:002016-12-14T14:55:53.725-08:00About the Chiru or Tibetan antelope, dear Pt. Lala...About the Chiru or Tibetan antelope, dear Pt. Lalan Kasyap, I admit that the horn has some similarity, but I have not found the inverted heart on that animal. Such wrinkles appear on the skin like that of the nilgai, not on the fur of the chiru. <br />Curiously, there were legends in the West and in Asia of Tibetan unicorns and chiru having one horn, see http://chinese-unicorn.com/ch06/<br /><br />https://books.google.it/books?id=OAfaCpzMA1QC&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=tibetan+antelope+unicorn&source=bl&ots=ipkLtQSYqv&sig=So7TZyyXij2BwMgoJbTsO-a0Jfk&hl=it&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj36pPn4fTQAhXDSBQKHeycCCUQ6AEIPDAH#v=onepage&q=tibetan%20antelope%20unicorn&f=false. <br /><br />Maybe the horn of the chiru was known through trade among Harappans and identified with the mythical unicorn, otherwise imagined (and called) as the well-known rishya=nilgai. Giacomo Benedettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18418729274995219594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-31997651497327637382016-12-14T14:28:20.515-08:002016-12-14T14:28:20.515-08:00Sorry but the face and head is not of a bull, is t...Sorry but the face and head is not of a bull, is too thin, like that of the Nilgai, which also has a fairly long tail, although in most images not clearly visible. Of course we cannot expect a perfect depiction, and apparently there was the tendency to imitate the more familiar bull. As to the inverted heart, I don't think there is a harness with that shape, moreover there is no cart or yoke, it appears to depict wrinkles, maybe with some symbolic meaning since it is regularly repeated.Giacomo Benedettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18418729274995219594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-57150857492357781882016-12-14T14:15:32.453-08:002016-12-14T14:15:32.453-08:00Thank you for this remark, I did not know this fas...Thank you for this remark, I did not know this fascinating theory of Kenoyer. However, I think there are no proofs for this interpretation, instead we have the survival of this popular cult in the figure of Ekaśṛṅga/Rishyashringa. I have just uploaded an article about this topic: https://www.academia.edu/30448353/The_story_of_Ekaśṛṅga_in_the_Mahāvastu_with_its_parallels Giacomo Benedettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18418729274995219594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-10672998166689864322016-12-09T07:26:49.256-08:002016-12-09T07:26:49.256-08:00Kenoyer , in his lectures, constantly remarks that...Kenoyer , in his lectures, constantly remarks that this "unicorn" was a symbol of an elite (possibly opressive) that dissapeared before Late Harappan times in Indus valley. He speculates that this depiction was not so much dear to latter generations and that`s why they did not represent it in next cultural levels. He compares this situation with swastika rejection in Europe after Nazis.Carlos Aramayohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15078753727610139222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-87235297644633969732016-12-08T17:25:07.665-08:002016-12-08T17:25:07.665-08:00You are right. The face,tail and body of this anim...You are right. The face,tail and body of this animal looks very much like a bull. What appears to be wrinkles on the neck could be it's hair. The face is smaller than rest of the body which appears to be big and muscular with a long tail. I think a nilgai doesn't have this long tail. The inverted heart shaped harness on it's shoulders shows that this animal could have been tied to a cart or used for riding.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08381534787725324308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-15451450873566821652016-12-08T17:06:10.821-08:002016-12-08T17:06:10.821-08:00This animal seems to have a tail and a face of a b...This animal seems to have a tail and a face of a black bull.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08381534787725324308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-71615237264201818982016-11-15T04:37:38.644-08:002016-11-15T04:37:38.644-08:00The animal depicted on the Indus Valley Unicorn Se...The animal depicted on the Indus Valley Unicorn Seal might simply be a species of the Aurochs, the wild ancestor of the modern (Zebu) Indian cattle & (Taurus) European cattle. The animal on the seal definitely has a bull - like shape, but the peculiar shape of the horn is close enough to that of an Aurochs. The Indian subspecies of the Aurochs had much of its home range around the area of the Indus Civilization (also, Indian domestication of the wild Aurochs started in the area of present - day Pakistani Balouchestan - read Mehrgarh civilization). The animal depicted might have been the wilder version, that may have been caught for some ceremonial purposes.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03108432626349718488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-71876347571592315052016-11-15T04:37:31.257-08:002016-11-15T04:37:31.257-08:00The animal on the Indus seal might be an Aurochs (...The animal on the Indus seal might be an Aurochs (the ancient ancestor of the modern cattle). The Aurochs separated into two modern species, Indian (Zebu) and European (Taurus). It is quite possible that the two distinct cattle types existed side by side in the Indus Civilization times, there ranges might have overlapped. Also, cattle domestication in the Indian subcontinent began near the same area, precisely during the Mehrgadh Civilization (now in Pakistani Balouchistan), with the Zebu variety being primarily domesticated, the European variants might have existed as isolated, wild herds here and there. This rareness might have made them prized. Notice that, the animal depicted on the seal resembles a bull, but without a dewlap (unlike the Indian Zebu), and the horns are long and shaped much like an Aurochs.Both the Nilgai or the Black buck would have been common animals, the rarity of the wild Aurochs might have made it special.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03108432626349718488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-42583843046004114112016-11-14T23:43:48.811-08:002016-11-14T23:43:48.811-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03108432626349718488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-23215514792391770312016-11-14T18:46:24.255-08:002016-11-14T18:46:24.255-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03108432626349718488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-222229208055459153.post-58577176395709322802016-10-31T18:40:39.319-07:002016-10-31T18:40:39.319-07:00The animal is a CHIRU (Pantholops hodgsonii)- a &q...The animal is a CHIRU (Pantholops hodgsonii)- a " Tibetan Antelope" - which roams into Ladakh even now. The combination of the Inverted Heart Pattern on the Shoulder and Neck, the Blackened Muzzle, the Separate Eye Patch and the Lengthy Curved Twisted Horns are all unique to the Chiru. <br />The rear part of this Chimaera comprises the Belly, Pizzle and Tail of a Domestic Bull. The originating artist got quite creative and probably decided that one horn would Do The Job.<br />Search the Internet for color photos of Chiru Bucks - compare them to the Seals and then stop this Speculation about a Unicorn. <br />Satyameva Jayate OK!Pt. Lalan Kasyaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14945325116425824608noreply@blogger.com