EXPLORING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN MOHENJO-DARO FIGURINES AND GHORAY SHAH VOTIVE FIGURINES

Abstract

In the South Asian culture, the children have diverse kinds of traditional toys like dolls, animal figurines, puppets etc. From the ancient to the modern era, the toys have been considered an integral part of children’s learning and fun. In this region, most of the figurine toys were excavated in the city of Mohenjo-Daro. These were mostly like animal figurines, utensils, puzzle games, and carts etc. Stimulatingly, these types of clay toys are still sold near the shrines or Urs of the famous saints. Remarkably, the horse form toy is a very popular in Punjabi culture and called “Ghuggu Ghoray” in local language. The shrine of Hazrat Syed Bahaudin on the Sultanpura Road, Lahore is famous as Ghoray Shah on the basis of the saint’s love for horses. Ghoray Shah (d. 1594) was a child saint of the fourteenth century. He loved horses hence the honorific “Ghoray (Horse) Shah” and devotees offered him toy horses in exchange for the fulfillment of their prayers. Through the centuries the devotees have been leaving horse figures at his tomb. These horse-shaped toys are made with clay; however, the elite class presented the toy in silver and gold as a votive statue to please the saint. Mohenjo-Daro animals’ figurines are quite similar to Ghoray Shah votive figurines. The core objective of this research paper is to investigate the similarity of Mohenjodaro’s artifact toy with Goray Shah Shrine artifact horse. A subsidiary aim of the study is to explore the role of terracotta toy artifacts in the Harappan Civilization. The researcher used ethnographic data and content analysis to identify and analyze the similarities between the two artefacts. The results of the study are expected to objectively document the revival of ancient traditions in modern times using the medium of toys as they unfold the social norms, values, and lifestyle of the region.