2. Is there any connection between the peacock of immortality of the Harappan burial urns and the peacocks later found on Roman urns?

Painted dish from Harappa with two peacocks and a sacred tree in the design.

Richard Meadow
The peacock is found on both Harappan and Late Harappan (Cemetery H) pottery, the latter presumably being the burial urns being referred to. Interpretation as a representation of immortality cannot be confirmed. Is there any connection between the Harappan and the Medieval European unicorn? Different societies adopt images independently of one another, although contacts between them can lead to the spread of beliefs between cultures. The Romans apparently were in trade contact with South Asia during around the beginning of the Christian Era. However, can we trace the image of and belief in a particular meaning of the peacock within India from the Harappan period to that period some two thousand years later? I am not convinced that it can be done based on the very spotty evidence at hand.