Written by Shriya Mohan

Around 2500 BCE, the artisans of Mohenjo-daro made a small palm-sized metal figurine. It was of a nude girl, standing, her unruly hair pulled back in a bun, a hand on her hip, the other one, laden with bangles, placed casually on a bent front leg. Her resting bitch face seems to say, “oh yeah?” as the gaze of her 10.5-cm bronze physique sizes you up.

When this Indus Valley artefact was unearthed by British archaeologist Ernest Mackay in 1926, in present day Sindh, Pakistan, the advanced metallurgy, the detailing and the distinct Harappan artistry won admiration from around the world. The statue only proved what a progressive egalitarian civilisation it was for its time. And because the world largely saw her as a semi-impudent nautch girl, hand on hip, beating time to the music with her feet, the name........

© Indian Express