The Original Bronze Woman

Meet Damu. She is about 5000 year old and hails from Mohenjo Daro. She lives in the august abode of the National Museum of Delhi and her twin resides in the museum at Karachi. Bronze Age dancer is her cover. She has been overlooked. She has been investigated but her identity remains a mystery. There is a story in that stance and incredulity in her eyes and a non nonchalance in her smile. And I have been fascinated by her story. I am her agent if she will let me. I am her publicist if she will have me. In an effort to uncover who she was, I search for her spirit in the bronze women of today.

Assuming she has agreed for me to be her agent i've given her a screen name. Damu or Damayanthi.Allow me to introduce you to Damu . She is known as the dancing girl of Mohenjo Daro and was discovered by Ernest McKay in 1926. John Marshall described her in his book -Mohenjo Daro and the Indus Civilisation, published in 1931. . Historians have attributed the words egalitarian to the Indus Society, that women had prominent public roles and that they worshipped a Goddess whose domain was the forest (2004, Paul Biagi,Sind Watch). It is not mere coincidence that from time immemorial we have referred to Earth as mother earth, our homeland as out motherland.To me Damu is an emancipated woman who didn’t shy away from expressing her views. Don’t be distracted by her clothing or lack of. She had an impenetrable armour of conviction and self belief.

Damu makes an appearance in my book. River, Laughter, Moon & C.