The art of bronze-casting was practised on a wide scale by the Harappans in Indus valley civilisation. Their bronze statues were made using the ‘lost wax’ technique.

Bronze-casting in Brief:

• In this technique the wax figures were first covered with a coating of clay and allowed to dry.
• Then the wax was heated and the molten wax was drained out through a tiny hole made in the clay cover.
• The hollow mould thus created was filled with molten metal which took the original shape of the object. Once the metal cooled, the clay cover was completely removed.
• In bronze we find human as well as animal figures, the best example of the former being the statue of a girl popularly titled ‘Dancing Girl’.
•  Amongst animal figures in bronze the buffalo with its uplifted head, back and sweeping horns and the goat are of artistic merit.
• Bronze casting was popular at all the major centres of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
• The copper dog and bird of Lothal and the bronze figure of a bull from Kalibangan are in no way inferior to the human figures of copper and bronze from Harappa and Mohenjodaro.
• Metal-casting appears to be a continuous tradition.