I am drawn by the benevolent expression on her face.  Her proportions are rounder and fuller, more voluptuous than most I have seen.  Immediately I know she must be a mother.  Her hair is gathered in a knot at the top of her head, curls flowing around her face.  Her eyes are downcast and soft, her lips in a slight smile.  Her left earlobe is elongated, perhaps a sign of her divinity; from her right dangles a large round hoop earring.  Behind her head is what must be a halo, a large round disc encircling her face, the only other sign of her god(dess)liness.  She does not remind me of any of the goddesses I have seen before. 

She has some sort of garment, perhaps a scarf, draped over her shoulders and across her arms, reaching in folds all the way down to the ground; her full breasts are bare.  She has wide, full hips, slightly pushed forward; her belly is soft.  She has a garment around her waist, falling below the belly button.  It is beaded around and there is a tassel hanging down in front; folds of cloth can be seen between her legs.  Her left knee is slightly bent.  Around her left wrist is a bracelet; her right hand is missing.  She is sculpted out of black stone.

She appears strong and powerful, yet soft and graceful.  She seems confident and assured in her own being.  She emanates wisdom and compassion.  I feel happy to be in her presence, feel her love and warmth shining down upon me, feel I am receiving her divine grace.  There is no doubt that I am in the presence of a Divine Mother.

And indeed according to her plaque at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she is one of the Sapta Matrikas (Seven Mothers).  She is from Rajasthan, in the first half of the sixth century, during the Gupta period.  I recall that the Gupta period was a time of high development in the arts, sciences and literature.  I wonder whether she was an object of worship, in temples or in homes, whether she was worshipped for particular reasons, perhaps for fertility.

The closest figure I could find is one of a mother and child, also from Rajasthan, from the village of Tanesar-Mahadeva, about 30 miles from Udaipur, circa 450-500 AD, sculpted of foliated dark green schist.  It is from a collection of sculptures, consisting mainly of images of divine mothers, usually playing with a male child.  According to Pratapaditya Pal, these sculptures are considered to be the most “expressive portrayals of the tender relationship between an infant and his mother” (vol. 1 264).  In most of these images the only representation of the mother’s divinity is the halo above her head, something I observed myself in my first visitation to my Matrika at the MET.  It is unknown whether all of these sculptures depict the same divine mother and child, namely Parvati and Skanda, or whether they are part of the Sapta Matrikas, or Seven Mother Goddesses.  These doubts arise because the Mother Goddesses are usually depicted in a fixed, stylized, traditional manner, whereas the mothers in this group of sculptures are depicted in a variety of poses (Pal 264).

The Sapta Matrikas did not become a popular feature of Shaiva temples until after the eighth century (Pal, vol.2 103).  Thus the 5th and 6th century Gupta versions were early representations of this concept.  According to Coomaraswamy, the Gupta period was indeed “the classical phase of Indian art, at once serene and energetic, spiritual and voluptuous” (qtd. in Pal 211).  There was an emphasis on the human form during this period, with the Mother Goddesses being “a localized version of the Gupta aesthetic” (Pal 213).  According to Pal, the “naturalism and psychological perceptiveness expressed in this sculpture is clearly derived from Gandhara, but the modeling is much more suave and the expression softer” (264).  These Divine Mothers are radiant and graceful, expressive and yet convey a refined simplicity.

These seven mother goddesses, usually celebrated as a group, are an embodiment of the female principle of prakrti (nature).  According to Spiros Antonopoulos, the goddess, Devi, is “venerated through her emanations – and enumerated into a collection of forms, aspects and personalities – the polymorphic phenomenon of goddess worship has been linked with ideas of fertility, generation and the earth since ancient times” (26).  The counterpart of the female prakrti is the male purusha.  And thus each of the Seven Mother Goddesses is said to be a female representation of a particular god and to represent his energy or power.  They are enumerated in the Devi Mahatmyam as Brahmani, the leader, Maheshvari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Narasimhi, Aindri, and Candika (qtd. in Antonopoulos 28).  Each of these goddesses is supposed to be recognized by her characteristic emblem, for example, Brahmani, Brahma’s shakti, carries a rosary and a kamandalu, borrowed from the god whom she reflects (28).

It is disappointing to me to discover that these Mother Goddesses are reflections of male gods, rather than being divinities in their own right.  The Matrika I was originally drawn to seems to me to be so powerful and independent.  She is not depicted with any of the symbols characteristic of the Sapta Matrikas, nor is the Divine Mother in Pal’s catalogue, (although a similar image from the same collection depicts a Goddess possibly recognizable as Kaumari). Perhaps this is because the Mother Goddesses of the Gupta Period are among the early representations of these incarnations.  Or perhaps she is not one of the Sapta Matrikas after all, but really some distant (or not so distant) ancestor.

In returning to my Matrika I am still compelled by her beneficence.  Now I recognize the Gandharan influence in the folds of her garment, in her hair.  The halo behind her head, which I had recognized as a sign of divinity, is also seen behind the heads of the Buddha during this period.  There is no question that she is a Divine Mother, whether she is one of the Sapta Matrikas or not.  However, according to Pal, it was during the Gupta period that a consistent systematization of the iconographic forms of various deities in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism took place.  Therefore I would expect that if indeed this sculpture were one of the Sapta Matrikas, she would be illustrated with one of the characteristic emblems.

It also seems unclear to me in what respect these Matrikas were worshipped during the Gupta Period.  They later came to be worshipped in temples as emanations of Devi, but what was their original purpose?  Where were they worshipped, in what ways, and by whom?  The worship of the female principle, of Nature, is I think, of particular importance right now.  In the last year, the world has been overwhelmed by natural disasters, by an unhappy Mother Goddess.  Perhaps if we can bow to her, if we can learn from the ancient practice of Goddess Worship, she will offer us protection.

Works Cited

Antonopoulos, Spiros.  “Sri Saptamatrka Caudesvari Temple.”  Namarupa.  Fall 2005:  4.
Pal, Pratapaditya.  Indian Sculpture:  a catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of ArtCollection.  Berkeley:  University of California Press,  1986-8.