Essay name: Goddesses from the Samhitas to the Sutras
Author:
Rajeshri Goswami
Affiliation: Jadavpur University / Department of Sanskrit
This essay studies the Goddesses from the Samhitas to the Sutras. In short, this thesis examines Vedic goddesses by analyzing their images, functions, and social positions. It further details how natural and abstract elements were personified as goddesses, whose characteristics evolved with societal changes.
Chapter 1
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135
The earliest known numismatic issue to bear the device of
Abi峁ka of Laksmi' appears to be an uninscribed copper
coin of Kausambi datable to about the third century B.C.
Laksmi, on the coin, is depicted as standing, although
the details are not so clear. The device is seen on the
coins of some early Ayodhya kings who seem to have flou-
rished in the second and first centuries B.C.
The most distinct and artistic representation of
the standing Gajalaksmi device, is, however, found on
the silver coins of the Indo-Scythian king Azilisges.
That the Gajalaksmi device was very popular in the
second and first centuries B.C. is amply demonstrated
29 by the Bharhut and other sculptures
唳�
Sanchi 2nd c B.C.-- Lotus, a pair of elephants
pouring water ont the seated Mayadevi (Gajalaksmi in
Brahmanical art, originally the Mother goddess, a fer-
tility divinity), Elephants symbolize rain-bearing
clouds.
66 1/30
Triratna Janma = May膩devi seated or standing on
a lotus with or without elephants pouring water (also
Jain) but after 3rd c A.D. disappears from Buddhist and
31 Jain art and represents Gajalaksmi..
a
Orissa (130 - 50 B.C.) -- Udayagiri, Khandagiri,
Hathiqumpha. On the Ran墨gumpha cave, stands Mayadevi
with elephants --- Gajalakami in Hindu art.
29 Bela Lahiri, op. cit., pp. 126-127.
2732 30 K.B. Iyer, "Indian Art", Asia Publishing House, 1958, p. 17.
31 A.K. Coomaraswamy, "History of Indian and Indonesian art".p.64.
32 A.K. Coomaraswamy, op. cit., p. 36,
