The Development of Hindu Iconography c13.52

c13.52

¹ K. P. Jayaswal, 'Pataliputra Śiva-Pārvatī Gold Plaque' in *J.I.S.O.A.*, Vol. II, 1934, p. 1. Jayaswal writes: 'Below the *jaṭā* knot of the male figure, there is a crescent-like band. Its left hand touches the bosom of the female figure. It is undoubtedly a figure of Śiva-Pārvatī. The figures are not nimbate; the style of the female figure is that of the Didarganj Yakṣī and that of the male figure of the Patna statues. The absence of nimbus and general treatment assign it to the Maurya or Pre-Maurya times.' If this dating is accepted, then it becomes the earliest joint representation of these two deities in the historic period, the second in point of date being that on the coins of Huvishka, noted in a previous chapter; but it is doubtful whether it can be dated so early. The Didarganj Yakṣī has been assigned by Marshall to as late a date as the 1st century B.C. or later, in his latest work, viz., *Monuments of Sanchi*. It is also to be noted that there are grave doubts about the genuineness of the gold plaque.