The shape of which tree is found on the seals from the Indus Civilization?

Question

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Correct — B, Pipal (Ficus religiosa). The pipal leaf's distinctive heart shape recurs on Indus seals and tablets — most famously on the 'Pashupati' seal from Mohenjodaro, where a horned figure sits beneath a pipal branch, and on seals showing a figure worshipped within a pipal tree. This is read as early evidence of tree worship in Harappan religion, well before the tree's later Buddhist association (the Bodhi tree).

Why the other options are wrong — (a) A common Indian fruit tree, but not the tree depicted in Indus seal iconography.  (c) The mythical coral-jasmine tree of later Puranic/Krishna legend — not an Indus Valley seal motif.  (d) Significant in later Buddhist tradition (Buddha's birth and death are both linked to Sal trees) — not the tree found on Indus seals.

Concept: Indus seals — small engraved steatite tablets usually showing an animal (bull, 'unicorn') with a script line — occasionally carry religious scenes instead. The pipal (Ficus religiosa) tree recurs in these: as the backdrop to a horned/seated deity, and as a tree within which a worshipped figure stands. This is treated as the earliest attested instance of tree worship in the subcontinent.

State PCS 2021 Q97 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2021 Q97 — History PYQ with Answer