A hoard of four bronze sculptures found in 1974 near Daimabad in Maharashtra, India, and dated to the second millennium BCE, the Daimabad bronzes depict a chariot yoked to oxen, an elephant, a rhinoceros, and a water buffalo. Noted for the complexity of their construction and attributed to the Late Harappan Culture, they have helped scholars to extend the Indus civilisation’s southward spread into the Deccan Plateau.

Site 

Unoccupied since the first millennium BCE, Daimabad, now part of Ladgaon, Ahmednagar, is a Chalcolithic archaeological site that has been crucial to the study of the prehistoric Indian subcontinent. It was first excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on a small scale in 1959. It has been found to have hosted five successive Chalcolithic cultures: the Savalda culture (the earliest known farming culture of the western Deccan; mid-late third millennium BCE), the Late Harappan culture (late third and early second millennium BCE), a brief but distinct Daimabad Culture (late second millennium BCE), the Malwa Culture (mid-second millennium BCE) and the Jorwe Culture (late second millennium BCE). 

Discovery

The bronzes, also collectively known as the Daimabad hoard, were found in 1974 by a farmer named Chhabu Laxman Bhil while digging. As the site was already protected by ASI, the findings were reported to the police and covered by the press, following which SA Sali of ASI supervised a further controlled excavation of the site. Given the accidental nature of the discovery, scholars were initially sceptical of the bronzes’ age and their relation to the surrounding archaeological layers. However, the excavation showed no evidence that the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age layers were disturbed before the discovery, suggesting the bronzes were not buried after the occupation at the site. Further stratigraphic and ceramic evidence pointed to the Late Harappan Phase as the most likely chronological and cultural context of the bronzes, making Daimabad the southernmost known site of the Harappan civilisation.

Visual features 

It has been noted that metal figures like the Daimabad bronzes have not been found anywhere else in India; comparable objects from Harappan sites are made of different materials or are less elaborate. However, like other Harappan metal artefacts, the bronzes are made with the lost-wax casting method.  

Altogether the four bronzes weigh around 60 kg. The largest and most elaborate sculpture shows a slender two-wheeled chariot with a rider, hitched to two oxen by a long pole. The chariot is 16 cm wide and the whole piece is 45 cm long; the rider is about 16 cm tall. He stands on an oval platform. A small bird figure is soldered to each end of the platform, on the outer side of two upright bars that curve into loops at the top. They are linked by an angular cross-bar at the bottom, and a horizontal cross-bar at the top on which the rider rests his hands. In his right hand he holds a long stick in front of him, in the manner of a goad. He is not clothed; a protrusion at his abdomen, with its lower portion missing from damage, has been interpreted by some scholars as a loincloth and by others as an erect penis covered by a four-hooded cobra. His hips are exaggeratedly wide and rounded, his torso and neck relatively elongated, and his head quite small. A small dog figurine stands on the shaft of the chariot in front of the rider, connected to the cross-bar above by two additional bars, with the three bars forming a triangle. From the shaft, an unusually long, slightly curved pole connects to the yoke — the yoke is simply placed over the necks of the oxen, which are otherwise separate from the chariot-and-rider piece. They are connected to each other via two copper strips on which their front and back hooves are fixed, likely for stability. 

Various features of this sculpture have been noted in discussions about the bronzes’ origins, including their similarity to objects found at Harappan sites. The construction of the wheel and axle system resembles that of Harappan vehicles: the wheels are solid rather than spoked, and fixed to the axle, which rotates loosely within loops extending from the bottom of the base — a mechanism seen in Harappan toy carts as well as modern chariots in Sind. The birds on the chariot platform resemble Harappan bird whistles. The features of the rider are comparable to the Proto-Australoid physiognomy seen in Harappan artefacts such as the Priest King of Mohenjodaro: a rounded and broad nose, thick lower lip, and curly hair — indicated by incisions on the head — pulled into a bun at the nape of the neck. The long, curved stick he holds also appears in Harappan iconography. The oxen are rendered with long, protruding horns and rear haunches that resemble those of horses more than bulls, prompting scholars to compare them to the unicorn-like creatures seen on Harappan seals, which have a similar build. 

The other three bronzes — the elephant, rhinoceros, and water buffalo — are similar to each other in size. The elephant is the largest, measuring 25 centimetres in length and 25 cm tall with the base, which features ring loops, though the axle and wheels are missing. The trunk is long and curved inward at the tip. The tusks appear to be either broken or incompletely made, and the tail is very short, almost hidden. The water buffalo is also 25 centimetres long, and mounted on a platform complete with an axle and wheels, making it 31 centimetres tall. Its horns are rendered in a naturalistic ribbed pattern. The rhinoceros is 25 centimetres long and 19 centimetres tall; unlike the other two, its front and back hooves are soldered on separate strips, each of which have an attached axle and wheels. The folds of its skin are rendered in a stylised way, forming a saddle-like rectangular shape on its back and even ridges along its legs.

All the animals stylistically resemble those seen in Harappan iconography: the horns of the oxen protrude forward, the muzzles of the animals are short and the ears shaped as small triangles. The presence of the rhinoceros, which appears on Harappan seals and other artefacts, often with its skin-folds similarly rendered, is particularly significant; it is rarely depicted in ancient Indian art outside of Harappan cultures.

Function

The Daimabad bronzes are too large and heavy to be toys, though they share many features with terracotta Harappan toys. Based on these animals’ frequent appearance in Harappan iconography, the elephant, rhinoceros, bull and buffalo all likely had a significance in the religious life of the Indus civilisation, and scholars speculate that the Daimabad bronzes may be sacred objects. Given the attachment of wheels, they were probably meant to be set up as a procession. The cost of making them would have also been significant; one theory proposes that the local community at Daimabad may have collectively financed the commission. Alternatively, the objects may have been brought by people dispersing from the fragmenting Indus civilisation — a theory that is part of a debate about their geographic origins. 

Origins

In the years following their discovery there was significant debate on how to date the bronzes,  but scholars now agree that they belong to the Late Harappan period. The question that has persisted, however, is whether the bronzes were made locally, or brought to the Deccan from Harappan centres further north. Supporting the possibility that they were made locally is the sharply curved, stylised rendering of the oxen’s haunches, a treatment seen in both the urban Harappan tradition and on contemporary painted pottery from Daimabad. However, the bronze alloy of the sculptures has been found to contain arsenic — common in copper ore deposits and in bronze artefacts recovered from Harappa, but unlikely in the Deccan as no copper mines are known to have been in use in the area in the Chalcolithic Period. This has led some scholars to conclude that they were made further north. 

Implications

The discovery of objects here and in surrounding areas that were identifiably of the Late Harappan type — including the Daimabad bronzes — was especially significant, as it led scholars to broaden the geographical scope of the Indus civilisation in its late period, during which the urban centres of the civilisation had weakened and people began to disperse into nearby regions, establishing smaller rural settlements. The population of the Late Harappan settlement at Daimabad is estimated to be around 7500, making it a large town, possibly the only one in the region at the time. 

The Daimabad bronzes are currently housed in the National Museum in New Delhi as part of the museum’s collection of Harappan artefacts.