Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c10.s2.1

Language: English

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What is the name of the Goddess and of the cult in the Indian tradition, are relevant questions to grasp the significance of these ring-stones or discs. The name for them is *‘Śrī-Chakra’* (also called *Śrī-Yantra* in the later tradition), being aniconic representations of the Mother Goddess worshipped both in human and symbolical form, which are in force upto this day. A commentary on the nature of the cult is available in the *Śrī-Sūkta*, an apocryphal hymn (*Khila-Sūkta*) at the end of the fifth Maṇḍala of the Ṛgveda. All the different characters found on the discs are included in the description, which certainly formed part of folk-lore poetry. The Goddess is there identified with earth (*Devī Kṣmā* or *Bhūmi*) and is named Mother-Goddess *Śrī* (*Devīṁ Mātram Śriyam*) and conceived of as the Mother of all creatures (*Prajā Bhūtā*) including animals (*Paśūnāṁ rūpam*), spouse of Viṣṇu (*Viṣṇu-patnīm*), and the supreme deity of the universe (*Sarva-bhūtānām Īśvarī*). She is associated with both Sun and Moon being called, Sūryā and Candrā. Lotus is her symbol as her seat (*Padme sthitā*), as the centre of her disc (*Padma-nemi*), as its encircling garland (*Padma-mālinīm, Puṣkariṇī*). She is born from the waters from which her lotus takes root (*adbhyah padmasambhavā*) surrounded by lotus-buds and leaves, as depicted on some of the discs.

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Her devotees in the cult were known as *Śrī-kāma* for whom she was both the Goddess of prosperity (*dhanadāyī* and *mahā-dhanā*) and fertility (*prajānām bhavasi mātā, putra-pautra-dhanam dhānyam karotu me*). Characteristic animals on the disc are included amongst her gifts, e.g. elephants (*hastī*), cows and horses (*Aśva-dāyī, Go-dāyī*). The later iconographic feature of the two elephants be-sprinkling her is here mentioned (*ārdrām kariṇīm*). She is the giver of food (*Annasya-rūpam*) whose Tree is the Bilva, but on the discs we find the palm tree depicted as the ancient symbol of all food, being the Tree of Life, the fruit of the fan-palm (*Flabella-formis*) being similar to that of the Bilva (*Aegle mermalos*). The Goddess is said to have the attribute of the golden rod enriched with golden necklaces (*Hema-mālinī suvarṇa-yaṣṭi*) which exactly corresponds to the Tree of Golden Necklaces depicted at Sāñchī. She loves the sound of trumpheting elephants (*Hasti-vāda-pramodinī*) as actually shown by the elephant-band on one of the discs. Her water cosmology is indicated by the encircling zone of *Makaras* depicted on two discs, and by her being spoken of as the daughter of the ocean in later legends. She is the Fleet Lady, but the worshipper wishes her stable stay in his home (*Anapagāminī-Lakṣmī*, same as *Achañchalā*), a pose shown by her feet turned outwards in the majority of figures, as also on the Lauriā gold-foil.

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The disc is conceived as her *Chakra* or *Maṇḍala*, as still known to the cult-worshippers (*Śrī-Chakra-Pūjaka*), which is a kind of citadel of the Goddess *Śrī*, *Śrī-Yantra*, being encircled by a rampart of gold (*Hiraṇya-prākāram*). That which is under the influence of the Goddess within the orbit of her *Chakra* is full of abundance (*Riddhi*), prosperity (*Dāna*), longevity (*Āyuḥ*), and progeny (*Prajā*). This by implication signifies that the range outside her *Chakra* is under the influence of Asuras and beyond the power of her golden splendour, and therefore under the sway of *Alakṣmī* (mentioned in the Atharva as *Pāpi-Lakṣmī*, 7. 115. 4), also named *Jyeṣṭhā-Alakṣmī* here, who is the symbol of *Abhūti* and *Asamṛiddhi*; both sisters occupy the inner and the outer regions of the *Chakra* respectively (*Yā antarā yāścha bāhyā*). In the *Sūkta*, *Śrī-Devī*, Goddess *Śrī* is definitely called *Devatā* (*Śrī-devī-devatā*), a conception popular in the epics where she is referred to as *Padmā-Śrī* (Ayodhyā kāṇḍa, 79.15; *Padminī-Lakṣmī-devī*, Sundara Kāṇḍa, 7. 14; *śarīriṇī padma-rupā Śrī*, Āraṇyaka Parva, 218. 3). The conception of *Śrī* and *Lakṣmī* was so old as the Yajurveda where they are adored as the two consorts of *Nārāyaṇa-Purusha Vishnu* (Yajus. 31. 22). Later on they are mentioned both separately as in *Śrī-Sūkta*, or in the Sabhā Parva (11. 40). *Śrī* and *Lakṣmī* are present in *Brāhmī-Sabhā* jointly or as a single Goddess.

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It is to be noted that this Goddess worshipped as the Great Mother from the oldest times was venerated throughout the country from Taxila to Orissa and by the followers of Buddhism, Jainism and Brāhmanism. Her popular origin is hinted at in several ways, i. e. by her identity with the Earth, and by her birth from the waters on the one hand and from heaps of cow-dung on the other (*Karishiṇī*).