Jinamanjari 1996 04 No 13

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

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that they were part of a "Little Tradition," folk figurines important only to women.
Most of the attention has focused on the steatite seals found at Harappan sites, the artistry of the seals has led many to assume that there was a second stratum of religion, one that focused on a male deity and was more sophisticated, or part of the "Great Tradition."9 At the centre of the controversy are the so-called "proto-Shiva" seals which at first were believed to represent a male figure (wearing bullhorns and seated in a yogic posture) and the so-called "Deity in a Tree" seals. In 1964, Herbert Sullivan was the first to put forth a new hypothesis in which he identified the figures in yogic postures as well as the tree deities as being female; he called her "The Mistress of the Animals."10 Soon after, Alf Hiltebeitel identified the horns on the various seal figures as belonging to a buffalo, not a bull." While conceding that the deity in the tree sporting the buffalo horns was female, he identified the yogic figure, nonetheless, as a "Buffalo-man" and postulated that the Buffalo-man and Tree Goddess were the ancestors of the Goddess Durga and the buffalo demon Mahisha of later Hinduism. A few years later, Asko Parpola also identifies the horns as belonging to a buffalo and drew conclusions similar to those of Hiltebeitel. 12
In 1987, Shubhangana Atre published a study on Harappan religion that was based on, not just the artefacts, but their location in the digs. On the religion of the Harappan culture, Atre reconstructed a pantheon whose main deity was the Great Goddess of animals and vegetation and, in doing so, rejected any notion of a male divinity.14 Of the various images in yogic posture on the seals, Atre states, "we are now convinced that basically they feature one and the same deity...a female deity." 15 The seated female deity sporting horns was the same deity who was represented on the seals displaying the "Tree Deity." Both types of seals exhibited a Goddess who had dominion over all plants and animals. The terra-cotta images of
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