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ORIGIN OF BRAHMIN GOTRAS
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headed scated deity of the famous Mohenjo-Daro seal, our fig.1; may be taken for: Tvastra, if the nuinber of heads be actually three; there may be a fourth head away from the observer, which would make the deity proto-Brahmu.' But the three-headed Tvästra cannot be entirely independent of other threeheaded creatures on Indus valley scals. In E.J.H. Mackay's "Further exca vations at Mohenjo-Daro" II, Pl. LXXXIII.24, XCVI.494, XCIX.B and Marshall's carlier work (Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus civilization, London' 1931) III. Pl. CXII. 382, we find a scal depicting a three-headed bull. Now iii.56.3 refers specifically to such a bull in the Rgveda; while the entire hymn is to several otherwise mysterious multiple deities. So far, it has not been possible to demonstrate dakṣihatas-kapardinas on any scal but a god 'with braided hair is to be seen in our fig.2 (Mackay Pl. LXXXVII. 235); the god, along with a priest and a row of seven human figures who are attendants at the sacrifice all show long hair-braids (in Mackay II; Pl.XCIV. 430, PI.XCIX-A Marshall I, Pl. XII.18). Kapardin should rather mean with twisted than braided hair, but the matter is not settled. Punch-marked coins,also, yield occasional homo-signs with hair-twists or braids (Durga Prasad, JRASB.XXX.1934, Pl.21, nos. 132-3) but the coins belong to the Mauryan period, and are tribal, not Brahmanical, as I interpret the evidence. : The row of human figures at the bottom of the last seal referred: to show a horrilike decoration on the head besides the braid; this might qualify them for the title Vişinin (vii.18.7), while the god of fig. 1 has a headdress which certainly has two (buffalo?) horns for its components. The animals surrounding the deity are to be interpreted as totems, on the great seal of fig. 1.
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Marshall (p:15) misses the significance of the cup-like depressions on the shoulders of the Harappa red stone statuette. They are not meant for fixing ornamental discs, for in that case the little boss in the center would be unnecessary; the intention is clearly to fix an extra pair of arms which could be swivelled around, just as the head is meant to be turned in the neck-socket. Marshall takes the other fragmentary Harappa dancing statuette* as with three heads or faces; though only the stump of a thick neck remains; it had not more than two arms. But the four-armed figure had become so classical as to be given the status of an pictogram in the Indus script. It is rather amusing to' sce Langdon (Marshall,p.446, signs 183,184) leave the particular homo-sign ... ss. coal 53
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!!*It might be as well to point out here that the Harappa grey stone image fragment which Marshall takes as an ithyphallic dancing Siva actually represents a young girl dancing. Bronze dancing-girl statuettes have been found in Indus excavations. A comparison of plates LXXX and LXXXI in Vats or the corresponding plates in Marshall will show that the Harappa sculptors could delincate the difference between male and female in every line, not merely in the sexual organs. Also, the seven holes in the neck do not suggest a three-headed image but rather come claborate head-dress or coiffure pegged into place, the head itself being turned to the figure's right. The two holes, below, the waistline correspond precisely to the two bosses of the girdle in such terra-cotta figurines as Vats LXXVII. 51,53; the belted skirt or apron must have been of some different material held in place by pins into the holes.
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