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Dancing Girl (Mohenjo-daro)

Bronze lost-wax cast figurine (c. 2300–1750 BCE) of a standing female figure from Mohenjo-daro, Indus Valley Civilization. Excavated by Ernest Mackay in 1926. Held at the National Museum of India, New Delhi.

Scholarly Significance

Anchor the Indus Valley Civilization cluster with the most internationally recognized bronze figurine from Mohenjo-daro, expanding graph coverage into South Asian Bronze Age art.

Patronage Context

Produced within the Mohenjo-daro urban craft tradition. The intended function (votive, domestic, performance-related) is unknown; the popular name 'Dancing Girl' is interpretive and contested.

Notes

  • ·Excavated from Room 12 of House 1, Block 6, DK Area, Mohenjo-daro by Ernest Mackay (ASI) in 1926. Inventory number NMI 1939.55.
  • ·The figurine stands 10.5 cm tall and depicts a slender young woman standing in a naturalistic contrapposto-like stance, right hand on hip, left arm extended with bangles covering most of the forearm.
  • ·The figure wears only bangles (shell/ivory/bone) on the left arm and a necklace; her hair is braided in a bun to one side.
  • ·Cast using the lost-wax (cire perdue) technique — among the earliest known uses of this method in South Asia.
  • ·John Marshall first described the figure in 1931 as 'a young woman who seems to be engaged in some kind of dance'; the name 'Dancing Girl' stuck despite scholarly reservations.
  • ·The object's transfer from Lahore to New Delhi post-1947 partition has been a point of cultural heritage dispute; Pakistan has periodically requested its return.