Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c16.29

c16.29

In a beautiful fragmentary piece from Kosam (2½" X 3½") we see a smiling female head with elaborate head-dress showing five flowery streaks stuck on the right side and an equal number of sacred symbols on the left. The goad (*aṅkuśa*) and battle-axe (*paraśu*) are distinct, the others may be a mirror (*darpaṇa*), a jewel-bowl (*ratna-pātra*) and a celestial mansion (*deva-vimāna-gṛiha*). Some of these sacred symbols are repeated in the head-dress of another Śuṅga specimen of similar style of hair and head-dress from Bangarh in Bengal (ht. 2¾") assignable to about the first century B. C. The figurines with the sacred symbols seem to have been intended to represent a goddess, probably the Mother Goddess of antiquity.