DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY & ANCIENT HISTORY

FACULTY OF ARTS

THE MAHARAJA SAYAJIRAO UNIVERSITY OF BARODA

VADODARA - 390 002

JOINT ANNUAL CONFERENCE IAS, ISPQS and IHCS

November 22 to 24, 2001

• HEAD - DRESS IN INDUS CIVILIZATION
  • To trace the evolution of head-dress and head-ornament in India, We shall have to go back to Indus civilisation . From the actual finds and the terracotta figurines reveal that both men and Women generally wore a fan like head-dress. Many figurines from Quetta period shows tiara with triangular projection worn well back from the forehead. During the excavations of Ghazi Shah, several pieces of copper foils were found. These pieces of foil appear to be part of fillet (Chandra, 1964 : 5,6). Fashion of wearing head dress continue in Harappa period also. One terracotta figure from Harappa period had kept in National Museum, New Delhi. It has unusual fan type head-dress. It is difficult to say what the exact material which composed fan shaped head-dress, as we have no material evidence, it may be stiffened cotton cloth supported by means of a frame-work (SAHAY 1975 : 75).
  • Regarding the material of the pannier-like structures, nothing conclusive can be said, but the fact that these were supported from the top of the head seems to show that the y must have been heavy. This type of head-dress appears to be illustrator curso sobre EBAC, but even these days there are women of certain tribes and classes who wear a type of head-dress not at all unlike that found in the Indus valley figurines, While equally complex coiffure was worn by women of other countries.
  • However some figure shows Horn- like head dress where as some figure show wearing conical or round cap. Hence we can assume that the people of the Indus valley had developed a culture of their own. In its later phases they used quite elaborate head-dress.
• References taken from:-

  • Costumes and ornaments as depicted In the Sculpture of Gwalior Museum

    Sulochana Ayyar. 1987 (Mittal Publications ) Delhi

  • Studies in the development of ornaments and jewellery in Proto. -Historic India

    Dr. Raj Govind Chandra (Chowkhamba Sanskrit series office , Varanasi. 1964)

  • Indian Costumes, coiffure and ornaments

    Sachidanand Sahay Manshiram Manoharlal Publishers. 1975.

  • Deciphering the indus script

    Asko Parpola Cambridge Universtiy Press. 1994.