An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c17.s6: 12.6 Mother Goddess
An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c17.s6
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12.6 Mother Goddess
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The term mother goddess, equivalent to Indian *mātā* (*mātṛ*, *mātṛka*) or *mātṛ-devī*, is widely applicable to a variety of female figures symbolizing creativity, birth and fertility. The emphasis in the depiction is on maternal aspects with variable features such as prominent breasts and navel, steatophygia, display of *yoni*, a well-marked girdle and an infant on the left side. Unlike Europe Indian Palaeolithic sites have not yielded any mother goddess figurine. The suggestion that the upper Palaeolithic [4.4] bone harpoon from the BELAN valley
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Fig. 47. Terracotta head-rest
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represents a female figure seems to be far-fetched. It is in the period of settled agriculture of the Chalcolithic [4.14] cultures of the pre-Harappa Zhob, Quetta, Kulli and the Harappa [4.9] Indus valley that the earliest female figurines of the subcontinent are found. It is not clear why the Harappa sites of KALIBANGAN, LOTHAL, SURKOTADA, etc., have not yielded the Indus type of female figurines.
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Very few figurines akin to the mother goddess have been found in the post-Harappa village settlements of various parts of India between *c.* 1750 and 600 B.C. Clay female figurines have been reported from CHIRAND, Pd I A, Neolithic [4.6], and several Chalcolithic [4.14] sites of c. and e. India and the Deccan. These figurines are totally different from the Indus types, lacking in ornamentation and having a plump physiognomy and stumpy limbs. Most of them are headless, as at INAMGAON, NEVASA, BILAWA LI and ORIUP. The BILAWALI figurines are fiddle-shaped. The NEVASA and NAVDATOLI ones are applied to storage jars suggesting their protective or fertility function. The headless goddess found within a clay box in a house at INAMGAON perhaps has links with w. Asia. The arch formed by the legs of this figurine is an important stylistic feature which is also noticed in the Maurya terracotta figurines of MATHURA and the kaolin female figurines of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the centuries around the Christian era. The s. regions of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have not yielded mother goddess figurines belonging to the period earlier than the 1st century B.C.
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There is a paucity of female figurines in the cultures associated with the OCW [4.12] and PGW [4.15] in n. India. LAL QILA has just two specimens. JAKHERA has one and ATRANJIKHERA two from the late PGW levels which are contemporary with the early levels of the NBPW [4.18.1]. Archaic mother goddess figurines appear, though in a limited number, in pre-NBPW levels of BUXAR and early NBPW levels of PĀṬALIPUTRA, MATHURA, MASAON, KAUŚĀMBĪ, etc. Schematized ivory figurines with punched circlets known as ‘eye goddesses’ found at ALAMGIRPUR (PGW) and NAGDA, UJJAJN, PRABHAS PATAN (NBPW) could have been used as amulets or votive offerings during a smallpox epidemic. [cf. 12.3.6.]
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Fig. 48. Mother goddess: 1, headless goddess, Inamgaon; 2, plaque showing goddess and her partner, Rajgir; 3, headless nude goddess, Bhita
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A definite evidence of the mother goddess cult is seen in a large number of miniature stone discs [12.3.9] of about the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C found from Bihar to the n.-w. at PĀṬALIPUTRA (Murtaziganj), VAISALI, SANKISA, RAJGHAT⁴, BHITA, JHUSI, KAUŚĀMBĪ, Kara, PURANA QILA, MATHURA, ROPAR and Taxila. These discs represent the steatopygous goddess with schematic curls, torque and girdle who stands in a frontal hieratic pose as on the gold plaques from LAURIYA-NANDANGARH and PIPRAHWA. The seasonal fertility drama is enacted on some discs and a RAJGIR steatite plaque showing the male partner of the goddess propitiating her, offering her a cup and playing a musical instrument. The goddess is shown here as a supreme figure with a subordinate male partner. She is associated with animals, birds, lotus, palm tree and the crescent moon which suggest her relationship with the Nana-Artemis-Diana group of fertility goddess.
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Most of the excavated sites of the 2nd-1st centuries B C. from Bengal to Punjab and Rajasthan have yielded a large number of terracotta figurines representing a variety of goddesses. The prominent among them is the goddess with five or more *āyudha* (weapon) symbols in the head-dress, often worn along with corn stalks and palm fronds. Nudity is exposed through her diaphanous apparel. She has a male partner in the plaques of CHANDRAKETUGARH and AHICCHATRĀ. This goddess often stands on a lotus and is identified with the goddess Śrī. The fertility aspect of the Śrī cult has been pointed out by Moti Chandra, 1973, in the terracotta plaque from AWRA of about the 1st century B.C. depicting auspicious jars and erotic couples flanking the goddess. Another fertility goddess is Vasudhārā or the Indianized version of Anahita holding two fish in her hand. An interesting terracotta plaque from RAIRH shows the goddess blessing her short male partner who holds two fish in his hand.
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The nude goddess, called ‘personified *yoni* type’ or Baubo and locally known as Lāja-Gaurī, who sits in the frog or Baubo style with legs wide apart and raised (*uttānapāda*) exposing her *yoni* and who is often headless and has a lotus in place of the head is seen in terracotta and stone plaques of the Deccan at TER, NEVASA, PAITHAN, BHOKARDAN, KONDAPUR, YELLESWARAM and NAGARJUNAKONDA, of Gujarat at Kanad, Kavi and AMRELI and of the Yamuna valley at KAUŚĀMBĪ, BHITA, JHUSI, etc., from the 1st century A.D. The NAGARJUNAKONDA stone plaque depicting the nude goddess is interesting as the torso is in the shape of *ghaṭa* (pot), symbolic of the womb; it bears an inscription of the 3rd century A.D. which records that the plaque was offered by a queen who had her husband and sons alive. Such plaques were offered in fulfilment of a desire, particularly connected with child-bearing. Sankalia, 1960, believes that the nude goddess was introduced in India from Egypt by the Romans. The cult of this goddess continued till at least the 8th century as indicated by her images in the temples at Alampur, Aihole, Badami and Mahakutesvara in the Deccan.
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Parthian influence is seen in the votive tanks [12.11] enshrining the mother goddess along with drummers, birds and lamps found at many n. Indian sites in the Kushan period. A definite iconographic manifestation of the mother goddess is seen at the beginning of the Christian era in the terracotta plaques of Mahiṣāsuramardini from NAGAR and MATHURA, metal images of the lion-faced goddess with an infant (and consort) at SONKH and KAUŚĀMBĪ and in terracotta and stone *mātṛkā* images at Chaudasi, MATHURA, etc. From the 5th century, with the ascendancy of Tantrism, the cult of the mother goddess got organized and was established in the religious life of the country, the vestiges of which are preserved in numerous images on medieval temples.
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Kramrisch, S., 1937, *Jour. Indian Soc. Oriental Art*, 7 (for Indian terracottas); 1956, in *Artibus Asiae* (for Aditiuttānapāda). Mahalingam, T.V., 1967, in Sircar, D.C., ed., *Śakti Cult & Tārā*, Calcutta (for Śakti cult in Tamil Nadu). Margabandhu, C., 1976, in *Dr N. Subramanian Felicitation Vol.*, Madura (for plaques in w. India). Moti Chandra, 1973, in *Bull. Prince of Wales Museum of W. India*, Bombay, 12 (for mother goddess cult). Pramod Chandra, 1971, in *Chhavi* (for carved discs). Sankalia, H.D., 1960, in *Artibus Asiae*, 12 (for nude goddess in w. Asia, India and S.-E. Asia); 1974, *Prehistory & Protohistory of India & Pakistan*, Poona. For sites see respective entries in vol. II.—D. DESAI