‘Dancing Girl’ of Moenjo-daro

By
Yasmeen Aftab Ali
-
35
278

When does she come home?

A tree without its root will die. A nation without the knowledge and binding to its roots will change into something not represented by its roots. “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.” (King James Bible “Authorized Version”, Cambridge Edition) Heritage is the legacy that was passed on to us. It is the legacy we must pass on to our children. The world as we know today has disvalued heritage. It is been destroyed by neglect or destroyed by wars.

The National Trust of Australia (WA) defines heritage as, ‘… something inherited from the past and valued enough today to leave for future generations.” Yes, heritage may be natural like our rivers, forests, so on and so forth. It may also have a cultural face like structures, places of worship, places of architectural magnificence and artifacts. If these artifacts are removed and taken away by other nations; as a result of war as often happens, or taken on ‘loan’ and not returned — they rightfully belong to the owner irrespective of the time lapsed. The stance of archaeologists under the UNESCO Convention of 1972 is that the original owner of a relic or artifacts will be deemed to be the country where the relic was discovered.

There seem to be no examples by Pakistan to make an effort to unearth where its relics are today if taken away – to retrieve them and bring them back. It was only the former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who, under the Simla Agreement in 1972, succeeded in recovering the King Priest statue back from India. According to the research paper by Elisabeth C. L quoting S. J Marshall ‘Moenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization (London 1931, vol 1 page 356-357) states, ‘the statue was found in Room 1, Block 2 Section B of the Dk Area in the Moenjo-daro.’ Besides the physical description, it adds that the statue had one eye inlaid with shell, when found. The “Priest King” is now on display at the National Museum, Karachi. The other statue is of the “Dancing Girl.” Excavated from Moenjo-daro, now on display at Victoria and Albert Museum’s Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata, India; the statue is said to be originally found from the ruins of a house in 1925, from the ninth row of houses of Moenjo-daro. It is 10.8 cm tall, a fine piece of art. The nude figurine, resplendent with bangles up till the elbows, smartly coiled hair, the hand placed on one leg pushed forward, the other on a hip; a saucily provocative bold stance.

Both the “Priest King” statue and the bronze one of the “Dancing Girl” of Moenjo-daro were transported by British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler to Delhi in 1946 for an exhibition. After its creation, Pakistan sought the return of both relics. (Published Times of India Feb 3, 2014)

The “Dancing Girl” figurine never came home after that. It is only at the Sindh Festival held recently that brought the attention towards the return of this artifact. According to a local newspaper, “….the provincial government is sending a request to Islamabad for asking India to return the famous statue of the Dancing Girl, which is in possession of the Indian authorities since 1946.” (2014-02-02)

It was this very principle of owning heritage on behalf of the Brahmans that propelled Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough to prompt high caste Brahman and Rajputs of the Bengal Army to undertake the first Afghan War which was in fact a forward policy of the then British Indian Empire. As per code of the Hindus it was a taboo to cross the river Indus. Sultan Mahmood of Ghazni had taken away the Gates of Somnath Temple to Ghazni – his capital. It was suggested to the Bengal Army to go and uproot the Temple gates from Ghazni and bring them back and restore them at the Somnath Temple. Subsequently they were brought back under the supervision of the invading Bengal Army. Romila Thappar writes in her book, “The History of India, (Vol. 1 pg 232-233) “The effects of destruction of Somnath are etched in the generations of all Hindu Brahman mindset. They shudder for the day revival of Islam takes place.”

Yet another example is the Indian demands to the UK government to return its Kohinoor Diamond that it was forced to hand over in to them in the colonial era. As recent as February 7, 2014, the Deccan Herald reported rejection by UK of the Indian demand citing a law “that prevents it from giving back the items”. However, in a very interesting move later, in a repatriation ceremony at the New York Consulate of India, some artifacts were returned to India, reports Al-Jazeera, (16 Jan 2014). These artifacts include two sandstone sculptures. They are of the Hindu deities Vishnu and Lakshmi. The third one is reputed to be “a black stone sculpture of Buddhist icon Bodhisattava”. The statues hail from 11th and 12th centuries. The newspaper goes on to state, “Reports say the idols were stolen from temples across the states of Rajasthan, Bihar and West Bengal.”

The principle applied here then is that the original owner of a relic or artifacts will be deemed to be the country where the relic was discovered. Takers cannot be keepers. Pakistan needs a national organisation dealing with heritage preservation. To the best of my knowledge Pakistan does not boast of one. This is sad considering that out of a total of 704 cultural heritage sites listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, Pakistan has six of them on this prestigious page. But this is not all. There are gardens, old architectural houses, (those in interior Lahore are a case in point) mosques of grandeur, beautiful Hindu and Jain temples, Sikh gurdwaras; yet these beautiful sites are dilapidated and falling apart owing to negligence. Although certain laws do provide for preservation of some sites, not all buildings and places are professionally catalogued.

Coming back to the Dancing Girl Statue of Moenjo-daro; when does she come home?

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35 COMMENTS

  1. Shows scholarly finesse writing about Dancing Girl #Moenjadaro. Well researched, informative. Lovely read.

    • Krishna everything about India is stolen from Pakistan, including the name India which is Anglicized version of the Greek word Indus which again is a hellenized word for the Pakistani province of Sindh. Now you indian thieves have stolen the Harappan dancing girl so you can pass off Pakistani Heritage for your own.

  4. Yasmeen ,
    I suggest we pend our request for return of the Dancing Girl till we have rediscovered our heritage. Culturally we at this point in time are in the middle of nowhere.
    Remember what our brothers in faith did to the Buddhas at Bamiyan.
    A chill runs through the spine at the thought what may happen to the figurine in the land of the pure.
    Let the poor girl lie in peace and safety of exile for the time being.
    In sorrow
    Sincerely
    Zafar

  5. I love Tuesday mornings as I have the best thing to look forward to with my breakfast… @yasmeen_9 s Op-Ed.

  6. Yasmeen ,before making efforts4her return we need to decide whether she remain dressed as 4thousands of years or will wear hijab.National Dilemma?

  7. Yasmeen ,This is a great topic & one largely ignored. You have approached it from a point of research.Well done!

  9. Taliban ke hathe charh gae to sangsar kardenge. India ka jawab! girl of moen ko wahen rahne do

  11. Pakistan has no right to any archival artifacts that predates Muhammad bin Qasim because it conveniently disowned that heritage 2

  15. Dr Dani in 1980 had made a formal request to President Zia ul Haq to retrieve the artifact from India. He had also sent letters to the archeological assocation in London seeking their help. With the present ''Mindset'' which is more inclined to possess Celestial Virgins! I am not sure if this government would care for an ancient relic. Only a very strong public appeal specially from interior Sindh to UNESCO may help recover the Dancing Girl to Mohenjo Daro.

  16. I may be perceived as biased, but I guess the artefact in question predates the creation of Pakistan what was then one nation, hence logic suggests it either is a joint heritage or a status-quo on these issues. As far as the ground reality is concerned I agree with Zafar that they are much safer where they rest now.
    With all good intentions and no hard feelings at all 🙂

      • Well it rests in a foreign country ma'am not in either yours or ours hence it needs to come back. Thank you

  18. In return of Dancing Girl Of Moenjodaro, Indians will ask for Hafiz Saeed. Hope our Foreign Office will take care of this issue.

  19. Yaseen sahiba
    This is a very informative article, I must appreciate your hard work in this profession.
    Javed

  20. Deja vu. An excellent analysis of our foreign policy and delicate situation faced by the country but not comprehended by our leaders who are running after sugar daddies for their petty gains, thus jeopardizing the security and future of Pakistan.
    Dancing Girls of Moenjo Daro. Yet another master piece about the national heritage and how the nations go all out to preserve them and secure them from the "takers". Although young Bilawal appears to be the future hope but it is still too early as we have to decide between Taliban and Dancing Girls of Moenjo-daro,
    Well done YAA for producing twin classics.

  21. Let us hope that if '‘Dancing Girl’ of Moenjo-daro' comes home from the British Museum that she will not be destroyed by the Taliban.

  23. A very enjoyable read.Was not aware that Bengal Army was involved in supervising the gates back.Thank you for quoting the governing law. Very comprehensive!

  24. Very interesting article and informative too. It is sad that we are illiterate sleeping Nation to even know what belongs to us. I was told in Museum of Hyderabad Deccan that the English rule took away a lot of valuables (nawardaat) from the Nawab of Deccan. They did mention this Kohinoor as example.
    Strangely you have mentioned a sore point with me. We as a nation take pride to neglect/damage non Muslim heritage in this area be it Gurdwars or Temples. Very few know that Faqir khana in Bhati gate is family owned but needs to be properly maintained and displayed. All the valuables are of Sikh Raj in Punjab and are magnificent in nature. Faqir khana was also donated to their forefathers by the Sikh rulers.
    Similarly not to forget the neglect of Christian Grave yards in Murree and Karachi. In outer skirts of Karachi Grave yard where graves have red stone slabs have been destroyed/stolen.

    • But Dancing and a happy girl is UnIslamic. While dancing she must be singing in Sanskrit based language. That too is unIslamic.

      What you call Harappa is Saraswati, the river which went underground or fried up. That is why people migrated from their to south and east adopted the local languages. Marathi and Bangali were enriched by Saraswat Bramhin / priests.

  28. This artifact to the 99.9 percent does not matter.. BECAUSE they don't know the HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY starts from Mohenjo
    -Daro and Harappa.. Today students are taught about Mohammad bin Qasim and the Moghul Rule .. straight to Indo Pak hatred and separation!!
    This nation does not know its past, and is living in darkness in the present, and IGNORANT OF ITS FUTURE.
    May God save us all!

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