Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c16.14

c16.14

The earliest figurines, all hand-modelled, belong to the Indus Valley (c. 2500 B. C.) represented mainly by (1) female figurines and (2) animals and birds. The former represent the Mother Goddess, whose worship was once popular amongst many peoples of antiquity from the Mediterranean to the Gangetic valley. The Vedic epithets '*Mahī Mātā*' and '*Mahānagni*' seem to refer to her. These archaic figurines show a steatopygous type with prominent breasts, and deep navel and loaded with profuse symbolic ornamentation, such as the elaborate head-dress, several necklaces over breasts, and a prominent girdle round the loins. This tradition continued and is traceable in the clay figurines exposed in north India at several historical sites of the Maurya and Śuṅga periods. The Indus Valley female figurines are rudimentary as specimens of art, but marked by bold expression. The animal figurines, on the other hand, both of faience and clay are much more finished and realistic. In the figurines of a bull and a tiger the vigour and charm of animal life are seen at their best,