The iconic bronze figurine popularly known as the “Dancing Girl” of Mohenjo-daro has been depicted differently in the latest NCERT Class 9 arts textbook, 'History of Arts', with its bare torso visually covered. In this version, shading across the upper body obscures anatomical details visible in the original sculpture.

By contrast, the image of the same artefact in NCERT’s Class 6 Social Science textbook closely resembles the original bronze figurine and does not feature the altered presentation.

Michel Danino, who headed the textbook development committee for NCERT's new class 6 Social Science books, said he had been told that the 'Dancing Girl' figurine was considered "not age-appropriate." "This refers to our Grade 6 Social Science textbook. The reason I was given was that the image of the Dancing Girl was not age-appropriate," Danino told PTI. "Our team disagreed; we even checked with teachers of class 6, and they told us there was never a problem with the Dancing Girl," he said.

Danino said, "The notion that nudity is inappropriate is, in my opinion, an obsolete Victorian view. Yet we speak of decolonising Indian education." Reacting to the image used in the new class 9 arts textbook, Danino said his first response was disbelief.

"If the Dancing Girl cannot figure as she is, and with proper dimensions, in a chapter on Indian art, then we have a serious problem," he said.

Danino said the modification "misrepresents the original artefact." "The modification misrepresents the original artefact just as the Church's addition of a fig leaf to Michelangelo's statue of David in the Middle Ages misrepresented that beautiful work of art," he said.

On the significance of the figurine, Danino said archaeologists have offered differing interpretations and that little is known about its context.

He, however, noted that the same akimbo posture had been found on at least two potsherds from the Harappan site of Bhirrana in Rajasthan, suggesting that it held "a precise cultural value, probably an artistic one." He also criticised the alteration of images of historical artefacts.

"Unless this is clearly done to indicate the possible reconstruction of a partial artefact, altering such an image amounts to creating a fake artefact. It points to a serious lack of understanding of how historical artefacts are to be pictured," Danino said.

The chapter identifies the 'Dancing Girl' as a bronze figurine from Mohenjo-daro dating to around 2600 BCE.

The textbook states that the bronze figurine from Mohenjo-Daro was made using the "lost-wax technique prevalent in West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh." "This sculpture depicts a posture with one knee bent, one hand on the waist and a slightly lifted chin," it added.