Studies in Indian Art c7.s2.15

c7.s2.15

The two goddesses Śrī and Lakshmī, Beauty and Prosperity, are spoken of as the twin mistresses of the soul (Śrīscha Lakshmīścha Patnyau), the two benign influences that nurture an individual in his domestic and social setting. This conception was later on developed as the goddess Padma-Śrī in the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, or the figurine of Gaja-Lakshmī (Fig. 8) and Śrī-Lakshmī (Fig. 2 a & 2 b) which begin to appear in the art of Bharhut, Sanchi, the Orissa Caves and elsewhere, and survive throughout as beautiful and significant motifs of Indian art. As a motif it received universal homage from the Buddhists, the Hindus and Jains. Like many other Tree and Water motifs the Śrī-Lakshmī conception was rooted in the soil, and is a product of the earthbound sense of life permeating the early Indian art (Fig. ib.).