Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c10.s1.30

c10.s1.30

These are fortunately in perfect preservation and richly documented with the idea underlying this class of antiquities. They illustrate the figures of the Mother-Goddess, standing with splayed feet, stiff erect posture, nudity and a close resemblance with the figure on the gold plaque from Lauriā Nandangarh and with the clay-figurines from Taxila and other places, which are associated with the traditional form of the Great Goddess. The other features on these discs are figures of the palm tree, alternating with the Goddess, figures of animals of wide variety, e.g. lion, elephant, bull, horse (the four great animals of the Sārnāth Capital, depicted together on disc No. 7), dog, boar, stag, deer, ram. Amongst birds we find the goose, peacock, crane, heron, etc. The palm tree is oft-repeated with the Goddess and emphasises its intimate relation with the cult. We also find certain patterns of the central lotus or rayed solar orb, honey-suckle, triangles, taurines, crescents, etc. The figures or symbols on the Patna discs are essentially the same, found on the ring-stones or discs from Taxila, Mathura Kosam, Saṅkisā, Basārh, etc. The cult character based on an underlying unity of the deity is undoubted.