Round stone ring reclaimed from possession of Harappa Police Thana

Published in Vats 1940, Vol. II, Plate CXVII, 3.

Title of Plate “Miscellaneous Cult and Household Objects”

Vats mentioned the find of this ring stone in relation to excavations at Mound AB, in section B, Vth stratum. He described it as ‘dull grey stone of yellowish band, diameter 1ft. 8 in, and a diameter of hole 10 in, and stated that Daya Ram Sahni was able to recover the object from the local police station, Harappa.

Vats: “The Rai Bahadur recovered one undulating ring of yellow stone from the [Harappa] village (PI. CXVII, 6) and a round one of dull grey stone with a yellowish band (diam. 1 ft. 8 in., and diam. of hole 10 in.) at the centre from the Harappa Police Station (PI. CXVII, 3). Unlike the former, the latter has no undulations at the top or bottom. It is similar to a large collection of stone rings found by Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni in Room 49, House V, Block 2 of Section B of the Hr. Area at Mohenjo-daro.[footnote 2: Cf. M. I. C., p. 191, and also PI. XXXVIII, f, which shows a row of limestone rings found in chamber 74, Block 3, L. A. area]. These large stone rings and many of the miniature ones, fashioned out of stone, shell, faience, and imitation carnelian, are undoubtedly cult-objects, as shown by Sir John Marshall, probably symbolizing the Yoni or female principle” [p. 140].

- Vats, M.S. 1940, Vol. I and II.

NOTE: Vats does not mention the year Sahni recovered the object from the police station. Was it 1923-24? Or else why the date in the object note in the album?

Of his excavations of level of the “solidly built niche” of bricks in Section B, Mound AB, Sahni reported finds of a large number of “fragments of undulating stone rings of varying sizes which according to Sir John Marshall must have been used for worship” [p. 79]

Daya Ram Sahni ARASI 1924-25, pp. 78-9.