The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c12.19

c12.19

all into the world in the same year (¹). In the midst of all this swarm, which often climbs over her person, one would sometimes say that she is posing in advance as an Italian allegory of Charity. At one time she is seated : her « Benjamin » rests in her lap and childishly plays with her necklace (pl. XLVII, 1), or at times simultaneously suckles her breast. Then again she is standing; but her favourite still clings to her bosom. Usually he is placed astride her hip, in the manner in which Indian women carry their children; and two at least of his brothers have succeeded in climbing as far as the maternal shoulders (pl. XLVII, 2). With these two types — at times partly combined, as in pl. XLVIII, 1, which in addition shows the husband of the goddess — may be connected the relatively numerous images furnished no less by the ruins of the districts of Peshawar and Mathurâ than by the famous grottoes of Ajaṇṭâ. The ogress, once the terror of fruitful mothers, has clearly there become a kind of matron, hope of barren women. It is this auspicious group that, as we are about to see, has conquered the whole of the Far East.