Ornamental Grammar as Cultural Memory
Mother Goddess Sculptures and Visual Knowledge Systems in Mauryan–śuṅga India (321–72 Bce)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19489980 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rudrajit Bose (0000-0001-9243-070X), Shilpi Bora (0000-0003-3632-3293, Central University of Gujarat) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 15s |
| Publication date | 2026-06-06 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2582-7472 • E-ISSN: 2582-7472 |
| Publisher | Granthaalayah Publications and Printers (PUBLISHER • IN) |
| DOI | 10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i15s.2026.8419 |
| OpenAlex | W7165902065 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
Jewellery configurations on South Asian sacred images are seldom read as primary historical evidence. This paper examines thirty-four verified mother goddess sculptures drawn from published museum catalogues and institutional databases, spanning Mauryan–Śuṅga India (c. 321–72 BCE) and the early Kuśāṇa period, and asks what kept their ornamental patterns structurally stable. Adornment conventions held across more than 1,800 kilometres and c. 250 years of Maurya–Śuṅga production. They survived the fall of centralised Mauryan authority in 185 BCE and two subsequent dynastic transitions. Specimens were selected to maximise geographic and material heterogeneity; feature coding drew on six categories from Marshall and Foucher (1940) and Coomaraswamy (1928), with on-site examination at four Indian and two international institutions. The frequencies returned are high. 74 % of specimens carry multi-strand necklaces, 97 % wear waist girdles, and every complete figure shows ankle ornaments. These are not artefacts of specimen selection. Four mechanisms explain the durability. Redundancy through serial mould production; graduated material access from expensive stone to cheap terracotta; body-zone mapping; and craft-guild apprenticeship. The Sanskrit epistemological lexicon — rūpadhāraṇā, svarūpa, lakṣaṇa, and prayoga — offers analytical precision that the English cognitive science vocabulary cannot supply on its own. The paper argues that non-centralised material preservation was not a fallback strategy but a structurally distinct mode of cultural transmission
Adornment · Grammar · Lexicon · Painting · Sanskrit · Sculpture · Vocabulary · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
| Highly cited | No |
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