Seals and sealings of north western India a study earliest times to 650 CE

Abstract

The North western India comprising the present day states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir on the Indian side and entire Pakistan up to its border with Afghanistan has produced thousands of seals and sealings from the proto-historic to the historic period up to circa 650 CE. It is surprising that, unlike those of other area and period, the seals and sealings of these Asian regions have received so little attention, a deficiency even more marked for the North-West of the Indian Subcontinent; here the work has been largely confined to the epigraphic and numismatic sources. The present work examines the seals and sealings of the North Western part of the Indian subcontinent and the primary focus of the research is to conduct a comprehensive study of seals and sealings and its various aspects to discern the fundamentals of polity, administration, economy, society, religion, art and iconographic aspects, in short a comprehensive understanding of the periods to which the seals and sealings pertain to. They are a vital and important source of reconstruction of the past. There are numerous instances in history where seals and sealings have provided data which corroborate, supplement and also alter the known facts of history and even, at times, supply new information not available from any other sources. The reconstruction of History in its truest sense rests upon the literary, epigraphical and numismatic sources but the blanks that newlinestill remain can be usefully filled after corroboration with the seals and sealings. The justification of the thesis is to study and analyze the sigillographic evidence so as to better understanding of the seals and sealings and discussed the devices found on them in detail, inspecting the importance and implication of these devices, and employed the information that is gleaned from the devices and inscriptions found on the seals and sealings to unravel the many facets of history for a better reconstruction of the past from earliest to 650 C.E. newline newline