‘Ningishzida’ the Sumerian dragon in Indus Valley civilization

Figure 1: Indus God with projections in his shoulder.

See, the above-given figure, the symbol of a god with projection in shoulders also appears in Indus seal inscriptions. No such god appears in modern day Hinduism. However, such a god existed in Sumerian civilization, he was called as Ningishzida. This evidence shows the link between ancient Sumeria and Indus Valley Civilization.

In Sumerian mythology, Ningishzida appears in Adapa’s myth as one of the two guardians of Anu’s celestial palace, alongside Dumuzi. He was sometimes depicted as a serpent with a human head. (1)

Figure 2: Ningishzida in human form as well as in dragon form.

Picture acknowledgements: (2)

The above-given drawing (1928) from a cylinder seal of King Gudea of Lagash, ca. 2100 B.C. shows Ningishzida in a human form with serpent-dragon heads erupting from his shoulders. The second manifestation of Ningishzida is the four-legged beast with horns and wings shown in the left side corner. (2) (3)

Nin-gish-zida (Gishzida) with “serpent-dragon” heads erupting from his shoulders (indicating he can alternately assume the form of a walking four-legged, winged and horned dragon). He presents a human petitioner, King Gudaea of Lagash in ancient Sumer, to a seated god holding a vase of flowing waters, “the water of life” (seated on a throne of flowing waters). This God may be Enki (Ea), the Sumerian god of Wisdom and Knowledge (Akkadian: Ea), whose main temple was at Eridu. (2)

The serpent of Garden of Eden

The article of Walter Reinhold’s explores in depth the various gods which were fused together and recast as Eden’s Serpent (4). In Sumerian myths Enki of Eridu bears the Sumerian epithet ushumgal, meaning “great-serpent-dragon” and it is he who plants a great fruit tree in his garden at Eridu called the Mes-tree and another wondrous tree called the Kiskanu. He is described in Sumerian hymns “as the great dragon” (ushumgal). He is portrayed as the creator of mankind. He is the god of wisdom, who bestows knowledge on mankind at Eridu. He allows the man (in the form of Adapa) to obtain forbidden knowledge reserved for the gods but denies him and mankind immortality. Enki (Ea) is one of the several prototypes that were later transformed into Eden’s serpent (4).

Figure 3: Indus Valley ‘Ningishzida.’

Now, the relevance of this above-given discussion is that the same ‘dragon’ appears in Indus Valley seals also. See the above-given bull figure in the seal, it has all the characteristics of ‘Ningishzida’ of Sumerian civilization. The only difference is that the appearance of Bull is dominating the Indian Ningishzida, whereas dragan figure is dominating in the Sumerian civilization.

Instead of verifying the parallelism available in nearby cultures, Indian archaeologists are promoting ‘Local Origin theory’ and try to develop entirely new ideas, which could not be verified. This narrow approach is one of the reasons for non-decipherment of Indus script so far. Ningishzida was a kind of mediator God, who introduced the dead person before the God of death for favourable judgement. It looks like that the bull played such a role in Indus civilization. And this idea lingers on as on today in the form of bull worship, that is the ‘Nandi’, the vahana of God Shiva (5).

Ningishzida had ‘double roles’ like some heroes in movies. His first form is the animal form the ‘dragon’, and a second form is a human form with dragons projecting out of his shoulders. Further to explain this point, he had the capacity of transforming himself into a human shape and was able to talk. This function of this transformation was given to him so that he will be able to present the case of a dead man before the god of death with his ability to speak.

Similar was the character of the Indus civilization bull. The bull was sacrificed because then only the bull will be able to reach the heaven and convey the prayers of people to gods in the sky (5). That was unfortunate for the bull because the bull had to be die (to be sacrificed) to convey the message to Gods.

The bull (Ningishzida) is a clear-cut evidence which shows that the Sumerian civilization had influenced Indus valley civilization. Following up such Sumerian religious idea in the Indus valley civilization context, will immensely benefit the decipherment efforts of the Indus valley seal inscriptions. But, unfortunately, Indian historians and archaeologists are not following up the lead in this direction. The only person, who consistently searches for correlation with Sumerian civilization, is Asko Parpola. (6) (7)The other person, who has similar idea of linking IVC to Sumerian culture is Vijayendra His ideas can be seen in his book ‘The Harappan script: A new perspective’ (8).

The other possibility is that the dragon form of Ningishzida seems to be the ‘Vahana’ (Vehicle) of the god. In Hindu mythology, all gods can be easily identified by their respective ’Vahana‘. The Western Scholars are not aware of this concept and may be concluding that the dragon is the ‘double’ of the God, whereas in reality dragon may be the vahana of the god.

Figure 4: Picture showing decorated bull.

Picture courtesy – Isha Foundation, Coimbatore, TN.

The above-given picture shows a decorated bull taken around by the bull keeper. It is not an ordinary bull; it is a well-trained one. The bull keeper uses the bull as a medium to consult the dead ancestor or gods in heaven. The bull is considered as a messenger of God Shiva. When the devotee asks a question, the bull will say either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by shaking its head. If the bull shakes his head up and down, it means ‘yes’, if it shakes head sideways then it means ‘no’. The bull will shake the head just like a human being.

The bull answers the question based on the cue given by the bull-keeper. The bull-keepers have some secret sign language, through which the bull-keeper communicates with the bull, which will not be visible or perceptible to other common on lookers. Hence, the answers given by the bull will look appropriate to the questions asked.

Now, what is the relevance of producing all these details? It looks like that in ancient India starting from IVC period onwards, and the Bull worship was widely prevalent. It was believed that the bull would convey the prayers of a devotee to God. I have seen people whispering their prayers in a hushed voice into the ear of the bull statue (Nandi) in front of God Shiva temple. Bulls would have been maintained in ancient IVC temples, just like Aphis bulls maintained in ancient Egyptian temples. The bulls would have acted as a medium of communication with Gods. In turn, gods would have sent back the messages and remedies to the devotee through the bull.

The relevance of producing the above-given details is that it could be the Ningishzida worship, which has declined. But still survives in the form of decorated bull even now in India.

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia(Ningishzida). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ningishzida. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ningishzida. [Online] july 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ningishzida.

2. Reinhold, Walter. Serpentningishzida.html. http://www.bibleorigins.net. [Online] 2015. http://www.bibleorigins.net/Serpentningishzida.html.

3. Woolley, Charles Leonard. The Sumerians. Oxford : The Clarendon Press, 1929.

4. Reinhold, Walter. ningishzida. http://www.bibleorigins.net. [Online] 2010. http://www.bibleorigins.net/ningishzida.html.

5. Jeyakumar(Bull-Sacrifice). Bull_worship_and_sacrifice_in_Indus_civilisation. academia.edu. [Online] 2016. https://www.academia.edu/31241792/Bull_worship_and_sacrifice_in_Indus_civilisation.

6. Parpola, Asko. Deciphering the Indus script. New York : Cambridge University Press, 2000.

7. Parpola, A. Parpola, A. (2015). The roots of Hinduism the early Aryans and the Indus civilization. . New York : Oxford University Press., 2015.

8. Vijayendra. The Harappan Script -A new perspective. Delhi : B.R.Publishing corporation, 2011. 9788176467742.