Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c10.s2.1.2

c10.s2.1.2

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.