Is this ancient Indus Valley seal the earliest known depiction of the god Shiva?

Wars & Conflicts · Published 15 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Unearthed in 1928, the Pashupati seal remains one of archaeology's most debated artifacts. Featuring a central, horned figure surrounded by wild animals, it was long hailed as a proto-Shiva deity. Yet, modern scholars argue this interpretation projects later religious history onto an enigmatic civilization we still struggle to understand.

The Pashupati seal, a small steatite carving measuring roughly 3.5 cm square, was discovered at Mohenjo-daro in present-day Pakistan. Excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India in 1928 or 1929, it depicts a seated figure with a horned headdress, surrounded by an elephant, a tiger, a rhinoceros, and a water buffalo. Beneath the dais sit two deer or ibexes. John Marshall, the director of the excavations, famously identified the figure as a prototype of the Hindu god Shiva, citing its yogic posture, animal associations, and three-faced appearance as evidence of an ancient precursor to the 'Lord of Animals.'

Marshall’s analysis dominated academic discourse for decades, but it has faced significant scrutiny. Critics like Herbert Sullivan and Doris Srinivasan challenged the identification, suggesting the figure might be female or a divine buffalo-man. They argued that features interpreted as multiple faces could be ears, and that the supposed phallus might simply be a dangling waistband, a common motif in female terracotta figurines from the same period. Others, such as Alf Hiltebeitel, have linked the iconography to different mythological figures, including the buffalo demon Mahishasura or the god Varuna, noting that the horns appear to belong to a buffalo rather than a bull.

The debate highlights the difficulty of interpreting Indus Valley religion, which lacks a deciphered script. Scholars like Wendy Doniger and Geoffrey Samuel have urged caution, noting that reading later Hindu practices into these ancient images is speculative. Because we cannot know the original meaning, the seal serves as a cautionary tale in archaeology: the desire to find familiar historical roots can sometimes obscure the unique, alien reality of a lost civilization. Whether the figure represents a deity, a chief, or a symbolic concept remains an open question, as the evidence is insufficient to confirm any single theory.

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