Pashupati seal
The seated figure has been thought to be ithyphallic (having an erect penis), an interpretation that has been questioned by many,[4] but was still held by the IVC specialist Jonathan Mark Kenoyer in a publication of 2003.
One, also from Mohenjo-daro (find number DK 12050) and now in Islamabad, has a nude three-faced horned deity seated on a throne in a yogic position, wearing bangles on its arms.
The human figure is surrounded by four wild animals: an elephant and a tiger to its one side, and a water buffalo (bubalus arnee) and an Indian rhinoceros on the other.
Eventually an agreement was reached, whereby the finds, totalling some 12,000 objects (most sherds of pottery), were split equally between the countries; in some cases this was taken very literally, with some necklaces and girdles having their beads separated into two piles.
The first description and analysis of the seal's iconography was that of the archaeologist John Marshall who had served as the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India and led the excavations of the Indus Valley sites.
In addition to the general features of the seal described above, he also saw the central figure as a male deity as three-faced, with a possible fourth face towards the back and, as ithyphallic, while conceding that what appeared to be the exposed phallus could instead be a tassel hanging from the waistband.
Most significantly he identified the seal as an early prototype of the Hindu god Shiva (or, his Vedic predecessor, Rudra), who also was known by the title Pashupati ('lord or father of all the animals') in historic times.
[15]Later, in 1931, he expanded his reasons to include the fact that Shiva is associated with the phallus in the form of linga, and that in medieval art he is shown with deer or ibexes, as are seen below the throne on the seal.
Herbert Sullivan, who had significant disagreements with it, recognised in 1964 that Marshall's analysis "has been accepted almost universally and has greatly influenced scholarly understanding of the historical development of Hinduism".
"[23] Thomas McEvilley noted, in line with Marshall, that the central figure was in the yoga pose Mulabandhasana, quoting the Kalpa Sutra's description "a squatting position with joined heels" used with meditation and fasting to attain infinite knowledge (kevala).
[24] Alf Hiltebeitel noted in 2011 that, following Marshall's analysis, "nearly all efforts at interpreting the [Indus Valley] religion have centered discussion around [the Pashupati seal] figure".
[27] Doris Srinivasan, a professor of Indian studies, raised objections to Marshall's identification, and provided a interpretation for the figure, where she postulated the lateral projections were cow-like ears rather than faces, which had already been suggested by Sullivan and others.
[23] In 1997, she reiterated her views in a book titled Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art.
[30] Expanding on a mention by D. D. Kosambi in 1962,[31] Alf Hiltebeitel thought the horned figure could be a prototype of Mahishasura, the buffalo demon enemy of the Hindu goddess Durga.
[34] The American archaeologist Walter Fairservis tried to translate what he considered to be a Dravidian inscription, and was of the view that the seal could be identified with Anil, the paramount chief of four clans represented by the animals.
