Unicorns in Ancient India and Vedic Ritual

Abstract

The art of the Indus Valley civilization is famous for diminutive steatite seals representing bull like unicorns. Did such unicorns really exist in ancient India? This question may not receive scholarly attention because most of the archeologists believe that the creatures are mythical. Our recent investigation, however, indicates that a forest animal with a single horn did exist in ancient India. The name of the animal is ṛśya (ṛṣya in classical Sanskrit), which is mistakenly identified by previous scholars as a male deer or antelope thus blocking the path for further investigation. In order to explain our finding we first carefully observe the artistic representations of the unicorn bull, mainly its single horn, delineated in the seals. Then we will compare the representations with the textual descriptions of the ṛśya and its horn found in the epics and Buddhist literature. This will be followed by evidence derived from two different unexpected sources, material used for making Vedic ritual implements and the symbolic representation of the bifurcated bovine hoof in ancient Indian art.