The Dancing Girl
Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa are two of the sites where once the great Indus Valley Civilization resided, Several artifacts, tools and other founding’s are collected which made archaeologists and historians to predict the language, culture, tradition, social , economic and political scenario of this ancient civilization. I am going to focus on remain that is a bronze statuette of a dancing girl which is present at the National Museum of Delhi, its almost 4500 years old, 10.5 centimeters high, found at HR area of Mohenjo-Daro in 1926.
The delicate and skillful carving of bronze into statue reflects that they were artistic individuals who had the expertise in shaping the complex designing of this and other models. Moreover, they knew complicated methods of thrashing, melting, casting and other aspects of metallurgy. They possibly possessed the knowledge of metals and making of alloys, furthermore they might have grasped the knowledge of the characteristics of malleability, deformation, rusting etc. This must involve miners so we can interpret that people knew that there were underground metals and understood the importance of minerals and the right use of materials.  It’s very fascinating to know the existence of expert model making techniques in such remote past.
The girl is wearing bangles from her wrist to arm, that makes me wonder that there was a concept of beauty present in the ancient minds which made them appreciate the nature, and they were not just living for survival but they were making conscious efforts to enjoy, entertain and celebrate life. This shows that as compared to its counterparts of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, this civilization was more modernized in terms of entertainment and arts.
 We can understand the culture by this women dressing; it depicts that women in the civilization cared enough to look good and presentable; wore jewelry, but I don’t know whether these privileges were available to handful of a people or every Indus Valian had the luxury to afford these beauty items and showcase their bodies with liberty.
We can also safely predict that their religion was not conservative or against women exposing their bodies in public. It might be giving freedom of words, clothing and expression to both genders. The very proud, elegant, bold and sophisticated pose of the picture shows that women had authority, equality and some level of status in the society. They were not caged in homes, their activities were not confined.
The dancing lady is nude, so that may imply that there might be prostitution practice and gender discrimination or they were liberal enough to expose their bodies openly in public without having any problem just like stone age people.
The forward leg movement and the gesture of the hands mean that classical dance roots can be traced from Indus Valley civilization people.
 Same sort of models was found in both Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro that infers division of labor, same culture and same government.
This is one of the classic remains, which unravel a skillful and diversified society.

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