An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c17.s6.10

v1.c17.s6.10

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.