Religion of the Indus Valley Civilization

"It is strange but true that the type and style of bangles that women wear in Rajasthan today, or the vermilion that they apply on the parting of the hair on the head, the practice of Yoga, the binary system of weights and measures, the basic architecture of the houses etc can all be traced back to the Indus Civilisation. The cultural and religious traditions of the Harappans provide the substratum for the latter-day Indian Civilisation.”"

"This leads us to the question of the Indus religion. Many scholars ,both foreign and Indian, are very reluctant to find any trace of modern Hindu rituals and beliefs in the finds which have been interpreted as evidence of Indus religion. Two facts, however, cannot be wished away – regrettably from the point of view of this group of people. One is the indubitable presence of Siva in the form of linga-like stones found both at Mohenjodaro and Harappa, a distinctively phallic stone column at Dholavira, a seated ithyphallic stone figure from the same site, the famous ‘Siva-Pasupati’ figure on a seal, and the terracotta representation of a Siva-linga set in ‘Yoni-patta’ at Kalibangan. The second such evidence is the widespread presence of sacrificial pits at Lothal, Kalibangan , Banawali , Rakhigarhi and possibly a few other sites. These pits possibly have variations of their own. Their shapes and contents may also vary from site to site. However, their generic similarity with the ‘havan kundas’ which many devout people still dig up every day, light fire in, and pour offerings on, them is undeniable."

"We do not suggest that Hinduism, as we find it today, was there in the Indus civilization. All that we would say is that some later features of Hinduism have been echoed by ‘Indus’ finds, and thus this civilization is likely to have contributed to the stream of ‘sanatana dharma’ or traditional religion of the modern Hindus."

"[I]n religious matters, the present-day Hindus are the descendants of the Indus valley people."

"The ethos of the ancient Indian Civilization is shaped during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods."

"[More recently, Kenoyer found between those two civilizations] “… no significant break or hiatus.”"

"We have found at Mohenjodaro evidence of practically every one that is capable of formative expression, viz of the cults of Shiva and the Mother goddess, of the Nagas and tree deities , of animal tree and stone worship, of phallism and of the practice of Yoga. We have seen, moreover, that although there are no visible traces Of Saktism at Mohenjodaro, there are strong reasons for believing that it existed on the Indian soil from a very early period.."

"Taken as a whole, their [the Indus Valley people’s] religion is so characteristically Indian as hardly to be distinguished from still living Hinduism."

"It is difficult to see what is particularly non-Aryan about the Indus Valley Civilization."