Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s2.43

c12.s2.43

2. DEVATĀS: The Devatā figures sculptured on the pillars are all female divinities, viz. Sirimā Devatā, Chulakokā Devatā and Mahākokā Devatā. Sirimā (Sans: Śrī-Mā) was the same as Śrī-Lakshmī, the ancient goddess of fertility and wealth for whom we have the famous Śrī-Sūkta (an apocryphal of the Ṛigveda). An important feature of her representation is the stiff pose of the splayed feet as found on the gold leaf figures of mother goddesses and on a number of other small figurines on the ring stones which belong to the worship of the Śrī-Chakra. It has also been suggested that Sirimā was the same goddess as Māyā or Maiā (Sans: Mātṛikā). She was once known as Māyā Devatā (Sundarakāṇḍa, 2.49) or simply as Devatā (Sundarakāṇḍa, 20.2; Sabha Parva also). At least three representations of the Goddess Śrī-Lakshmī standing and seated on a full blown lotus springing from a Pūrṇaghaṭa and bathed by elephants are dipicted at Bharhut. [Fig. 65].