An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c17.s6.4

v1.c17.s6.4

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.