Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s3.t3.13

c12.s3.t3.13

A possession of these divine necklaces was considered apotropaic and seems to have formed part of a cult of goddess Śrī-Lakshmī, later on linked to the Uttarakuru conception. In the third stage it became associated with the physical statue of the Buddha showing him in a visible form like other symbols and therefore labelled as Bhagavato Pamāṇa-Laṭṭhi ‘Height-measuring Staff of the Blessed One’. (Marshall, II, pl. XXVII). Even one of these amulets was considered sacred and efficacious enough to ward off evil. Individual specimens have been found in early Indian art, as amongst relics of the Stūpa. In the next stage the number of auspicious signs became fixed at eight as on the Āyāga paṭṭas in Mathura (J 249 of Lucknow Museum) and this gave rise to a new name ‘Aṣṭha-maṅgalaka-mālā’ which included the following list :