Seven Women, a Shaman, and a Wild Goat: Reading the M-1186A "Divine Adoration" Seal from Mohenjo-daro
Naeem Ahmed Rasheed
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) July 26, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21612292 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the seal's imagery should be distinguished from the century of scholarly interpretations proposed for it, since the Indus script remains undeciphered. Surveys competing readings, including Marshall's "deity in a tree," Parpola's Pleiades hypothesis, and Naga Ganesan's shamanic interpretation, while setting out what is securely known about the seal's provenance. |
Abstract
Among the thousands of stamp seals recovered from the Indus (Harappan) Civilization, a small handful depart from the standard single-animal format to present dense, multi-figure narrative scenes. M-1186A from Mohenjo-daro is the most elaborate of these. In two registers it shows a horned figure standing within a pipal (sacred fig) tree, a kneeling worshipper, a large markhor goat, a human head resting on a low stool, and a row of seven identical figures below—all accompanied by an undeciphered inscription. This paper offers a plain-language iconographic reading of the seal, sets out what is securely known about its provenance, and surveys the competing scholarly interpretations, from Marshall's early "deity in a tree" reading to Parpola's Pleiades hypothesis and Naga Ganesan's shamanic interpretation. It accompanies a photorealistic visual reconstruction of the scene. Throughout, the aim is to separate what the seal actually shows from what a century of scholarship has proposed it means—two very different things, given that the Indus script remains unread.