435 Introduction The ‘unicorn bull’ depicted on thousands of Indus seals is by far the most frequent iconographic motif of Harappan glyptics, and therefore clearly had great ideological importance for the Indus people. The problem of its interpretation has engaged also Mark Kenoyer, who published a longer paper entitled ‘Iconography of the Indus unicorn: Origins and legacy’ (2013). He concluded it as follows: In conclusion, it is clear that the Indus unicorn of South Asia is one of the first depictions of a one horned animal, and that although the motif does not continue in the art and ideology of South Asia, it does appear in other adjacent regions at a later time. At present there is no direct connection between the Indus unicorn and those seen in later periods in West Asia, Europe, East Asia, and possibly Central Asia/Tibet, but this is certainly a topic that deserves considerable future research. It is also important to continue to explore the possibility that the image has its roots in the Early Harappan period, which is the source of many aspects of Indus urbanism. In that paper, written for a meeting of the Society for American Archaeology held in 2009 in honor of Gregory L. Possehl, Kenoyer has not taken into consideration my paper entitled ‘The Harappan unicorn in Eurasian and South Asian perspectives’, which was published in 2011 and reprinted in 2012. I am returning to this topic here, because there is now rather striking new material that clinches earlier hypotheses and develops them further. But before I take up this new evidence, I shall first summarize my principal arguments and conclusions, which differ from those of Kenoyer cited above. Readers interested in a fuller account and references should consult this long and detailed study with many illustrations from 2011, and also my 2015 book, where some points are summarized, others developed further. Mesopotamian origin In my opinion it is most likely that the motif of ‘unicorn bull’ was adopted by the Harappans from Mesopotamia, where it was represented on seals from the Late Uruk times (c. 3400-3100 BC) onwards (Figure 1). Several other West Asian motifs, among them the ‘contest’ of a hero with two felines, and the ‘double-bun’ hair style, and the ‘victory pose’, were also taken over by the Harappans in the Late Early Dynastic and Early Akkadian periods, roughly 2500-2300 BC (Parpola 2015: 220-235; for the ‘victory pose’, see Figure 5 below). Unicorn Bull and Victory Parade Asko Parpola This paper complements an earlier more extensive study of the Harappan glyptic motif of ‘unicorn’ bull by considering a previously unnoticed Mesopotamian parallel and its implications for our understanding of the Harappan and later Indian religion. Conclusions: The ‘unicorn’ bull motif together with its religious symbolism and ritual use in the victory parade to gratify the goddess of war and fertility was adopted by the Indus people from Mesopotamia in Late Early Dynastic / Early Akkadian times. A minor modification was the symbolic and iconographic fusion of the Mesopotamian aurochs (not present in South Asia) with the local nilgay or ‘blue bull’. From the Harappans this cultic package was adopted into the subsequent Vedic and Hindu religions; in Hinduism it has survived until our times. Keywords: Indus, unicorn, parade/procession, victory, goddess. Figure 1. Impressions of two seals of the Proto-Elamite culture (c. 3200-2600 BC). ‘Unicorn’ wild bull, marked as Sky god with the attached ‘star’ symbol. Depicted testicles emphasize the bull’s seminating power. For the fight between lion (symbolizing Goddess Earth) and bull, see Figures 3 and 4. (After Amiet 1980: nos. 514 and 515.)