the mah ¯abh ¯arata, kus.¯an.a-period statuary, and the early cult of mother goddesses Sources for study of the pre-Gupta period Mother goddesses are multiple and rich. Among texts, the most important is undoubtedly the Mah¯abh¯arata, which is supple- mented by a substantial body of statuary preserved from the Kus.¯an.a-period Mathur¯a region (circa 1–3rd centuries c.e.). Typologies of Mother goddesses in the Mah¯abh¯arata match well to the sculptural evidence surviving from Mathur¯a. In both instances, as well as in early medical literature, there are strong associations between the Mother
15Brahmay¯amala lxxiii.67–71. For the text, and problems concerning its constitution and interpreta-
goddesses and the deity Skanda, in the context of whose myths the Mothers appear in the Mah¯abh¯arata.
Mah¯abh¯arata accounts of the mythology of Skanda and his retinue of grahas (“seiz-
ers”)16 and Mother goddesses are many and highly layered, no doubt the products of a long development.17 This is illustrated by the complex claims made concerning Skanda’s parentage, as related in the ¯Aran.yakaparvan, chapters 215–21. Most directly, he is the child of Agni and Sv¯ah¯a. Agni, who lusted after the wives of the Seven Sages, was seduced by Sv¯ah¯a, who approached him taking on in turn the guises of six of the r.s.is’ wives, sparing from scandal only the devoted and powerful Arundhat¯ı. Yet Skanda is also the child of ´Siva and P¯arvat¯ı, who entered into Agni and Sv¯ah¯a, re- spectively, and used them as proxies for producing a son. Skanda is, in addition, the child of the Kr.ttik¯as, the six stars of the Pleiades, which are in this version of the story identified with the six wives of the sages. Skanda’s birth as narrated in ´Salyaparvan 43–45 adds the river-goddess Ga ˙ng¯a to the mix: into Agni fell ´Siva’s seed, and find- ing it difficult to bear, he sought succour by entering the holy river. She too found the luminous embryo difficult to suffer, and placed it on a mountain peak. There it was spotted and nurtured by the Kr.ttik¯as. In these basic details, the latter account agrees with that of Anu´s¯anaparvan 84 and 86. Alongside much that is undoubtedly ancient, such as Skanda’s association with the Kr.ttik¯as, these layered myths appear to preserve conflicting sectarian claims: a legend asserting Skanda’s origins from Agni 16A variety of terms are used in fact to speak of the entourage of Skanda, with gan.a (“member of
the group”) and graha (“seizer”) the most encompassing. ¯Aran.yakaparvan 219.42 categorizes both the Mothers and male retinue of Skanda under the category skandagraha, “Skanda’s seizers”:
ye ca m¯atr.gan.¯ah. prokt¯ah. purus.¯a´s caiva ye grah¯ah. | sarve skandagrah¯a n¯ama jñey¯a nityam. ´sar¯ıribhih. ! 42 !
These are a diverse lot, including male and female deities and spirits of every conceivable shape and hue. Theriomorphism is common, much as the six-headed Skanda himself is said to sport the head of a goat.
17The most comprehensive discussion of Mah¯abh¯arata passages describing Skanda and the Mother
goddesses is that of Mann, “Early Cult of Skanda.” Mann devotes a chapter each to the three Mah¯a-
bh¯arata sections on the mythology of Skanda. See also his article, “Parthian and Hellenistic Influences on
the Development of Skanda’s Cult in North India: Evidence from Kus.¯an.a-Era Art and Coins,” Bulletin
of the Asia Institute 15 (2001): 111–28. Mann argues that Skanda has origins as the leader of inauspicious grahas, including the Mothers, only later becoming transformed into the son of ´Siva and warrior god of
and the wives of the sages, which brings him within the orbit of Vaidika orthodoxy; and a ´Saiva layer asserting Skanda’s parentage from ´Siva and Um¯a. By the time of K¯alid¯asa’s Kum¯arasambhava, an epic poem on Skanda’s birth probably of the fifth century, the ´Saiva identity of Skanda as son of ´Siva and P¯arvat¯ı would dominate; and in the somewhat later Skandapur¯an.a, the cult of the warrior-child and the Mother goddesses is fully assimilated into ´Saivism.
In the Mah¯abh¯arata, there is no evidence of a Mother goddess cult tantric in char- acter, and there is indeed no reason to believe that ´Saivism of the type attested in the earliest surviving Tantras had developed. In one description, worship of Skanda, the Mothers, and other deities of his retinue has attainment of longevity and vitality for its impetus, and involves bathing [the deity images], offering incense, ointments, food (bali, perhaps non-vegetarian), and other offerings (upah¯ara—possibly in the sense of “sacrifice”), and performing Skanda’s “worship” (ijy¯a). Taken together, these suggest a shrine or temple image-worship context.18 The ‘high’ deities mentioned in associ- ation with the cult—Rudra, Agni, Um¯a, and Sv¯ah¯a—are said to be worshipped by those desiring progeny, an important theme in later accounts of the Mother cult.19 There is in general a strong apotropaic dimension, which comes through most clearly in the early medical literature,20 as well as ¯Aran.yakaparvan 218. Skanda and his sub- sidiary deities afflict children with disease if not propitiated, and the Mothers are
18 ¯Aran.yakaparvan 219.43–44:
tes.¯am. pra´samanam. k¯aryam. sn¯anam. dh¯upam ath¯añjanam | balikarmopah¯ara´s ca skandasyejy¯a vi´ses.atah. ! 43 ! evam ete ’rcit¯ah. sarve prayacchanti ´subham. nr.n.¯am | ¯ayur v¯ıryam. ca r¯ajendra samyakp¯uj¯anamaskr.t¯ah. ! 44 !
“For them [the Mothers and Skanda’s other grahas] must be performed ritual pacification: bathing, incense, ointment, the rite of offering bali and gifts [or sacrifice], and particularly the worship (ijy¯a) of Skanda. All of them [the grahas], thus worshipped, bestow good luck, longevity, and vitality to people, when paid respects with due reverence, O lord of kings.”
This description of the constituents of worship bears comparison with the temple cult of Mothers described in the B¯agh copper plate inscriptions of the late fourth century c.e., discussed in the next section. Although little is known of the eras of composition of individual sections of the epic, it is possible that relatively little time separates this portion of the text from the B¯agh copper plates.
19Note, for example, in BraY¯a i the brief narrative of Deik¯a (verses 81–84), who worships the Mothers
desiring to have a child.
hence intimately associated with fertility and disease, with life and death.
Figure 2.1: Mother goddess bearing lotus and infant, making the abhayamudr¯a. Kus.¯an.a-era Mathur¯a. AIIS Photo Archive.
Sculptural evidence from the environs of Kus.¯an.a-era Mathur¯a largely supports the picture of the Mother-goddess cult that emerges from the Mah¯abh¯arata. A signifi- cant body of statuary survives from a vari- ety of architectural contexts, not all Brah- manical.21 The Mathur¯a Mother goddesses are diverse, comprising small-scale images both anthropomorphic and theriomorphic whose common iconographic features in- clude carrying infants, displaying the ges- ture of deliverance from danger (abhaya-
mudr¯a), and occurrence in groups of vari-
able size alongside a male guardian fig- ure, such as the spear-bearing Skanda (see figs. 2.1–2.5).22 There is however a discrep- ancy in one significant respect: while the
Mah¯abh¯arata links the Mothers almost ex-
clusively with Skanda, the extant statuary preserves an association with Kubera as well, god of wealth and lord of the yaks.as (cf. figure 2.3).23 This parallel and pos- sibly more archaic convention illustrates the Mothers’ close links to the yaks.a and 21N. P. Joshi notes evidence for Mother sculptures recovered from both Buddhist and Jaina sites in
th Mathur¯a area. M¯atr.k¯as: Mothers in Kus.¯an.a Art, 110–15.22
Joshi surveys the iconography of the extant statuary, classifying the images into thirteen categories. The most common type depicts a row of seated Mother goddesses holding infants. Ibid., 103–28.
23According to Joshi’s iconographic survey, images of the Mothers with Kubera are in fact more than
twice as common as those with Skanda. See ibid. Interestingly, Meister describes a saptam¯atr.k¯a panel at Kekind (N¯ılakan.t.he´svara temple, mid-tenth century) in which Kubera’s association with the Mothers surprisingly resurfaces: flanking the Seven Mothers are Gan.e´sa and Kubera. Meister however interprets this as the overlapping of two conventions: “Gan.e´sa as head of a M¯atr.k¯a set and Gan.e´sa paired with Kubera as good-luck charms. One set of images containing Gan.e´sa has suggested the other; there is no other reason for Kubera, lord of wealth, to join the M¯atr.k¯as.” “Regional Variations,” 245, and fig. 5.
yaks.¯ı, popular non-Brahmanical deities connected to the natural world, who, like the
Mothers, are well represented in pre-Gupta era myth and sculpture.
Figure 2.2: Skanda (left) and five m¯atr.s. Kus.¯an.a-era Mathur¯a. State museum, Mathur¯a. AIIS Photo
Archive.
Two significant continuities have been insufficiently emphasized between early Mother goddesses and the Brahmanical Seven Mothers of the Gupta-period. These bear directly upon the question of the emergence of the Yogin¯ı cult. First, as sev- eral scholars have noted, the number seven has strong precedent:24 Mah¯abh¯arata,
¯Aran.yakaparvan 217, lists by name a heptad of goddesses known as the ´si´sum¯atr.s,
“Mothers of the Infant[s].” These comprise K¯ak¯ı, Halim¯a, Rudr¯a, Br.hal¯ı, ¯Ary¯a, Pal¯al¯a, and Mitr¯a.25 It seems possible that the Brahmanical Mothers directly supplant the
´si´sum¯atr.s, who might well have been popular deities of the pre-Gupta period. Note
also the ´Salyaparvan’s reference to saptam¯atr.gan.¯ah., an ambiguous compound perhaps 24Cf., e.g., Mann, “Early Cult of Skanda,” 37–38; Harper, Iconography of the Saptamatrkas, 56; and
Meister, “Regional Variations,” 240.
25 ¯Aran.yakaparvan 217.9:
k¯ak¯ı ca halim¯a caiva rudr¯atha br.hal¯ı tath¯a | ¯ary¯a pal¯al¯a vai mitr¯a saptait¯ah. ´si´sum¯atarah. ! 9 !
Figure 2.3: Kubera and two m¯atr.s. Kus.¯an.a-era Mathur¯a. AIIS Photo Archive.
Figure 2.4: Seven m¯atr.s, with Skanda (left). Kus.¯an.a-era Mathur¯a. State museum, Mathur¯a. AIIS Photo
meaning “the groups of Seven Mothers,” the plural suggesting multiple groups of seven.26 Furthermore, from the Kus.¯an.a-era (circa 1–3rd centuries c.e.) Mathur¯a envi- rons survives what appears to be a set of seven Mothers with Skanda (figure 2.4); but this unique panel is broken on the right and might hence have contained additional images.27
Second, although there is no clear evidence in the Mah¯abh¯arata for the Gupta-era, “classical” set of Seven Mothers, the classification of Mother goddesses into groups corresponding to Brahmanical deities is attested in the ´Salyaparvan. This is of con- siderable consequence, illuminating the roots of the Brahmanical Seven Mothers and suggesting an ancient precedent for the Yogin¯ı cult’s organization of female deities into clans having each of the Seven or Eight Mothers as matriarch. ´Salyaparvan 45 presents a rich account of the diverse Mother goddesses, in the course of which it de- scribes them variously as y¯amyah., raudryah., saumy¯ah., kauberyah., v¯arun.yah., m¯ahendryah.,
¯agneyyah., v¯ayavyah., kaum¯aryah., and br¯ahmyah..28 These are abstract nouns formed from the names of the male deities Yama, Rudra, Soma, Kubera, Varun.a, Mahen- dra/Indra, Agni, V¯ayu, Kum¯ara/Skanda, and Brahm¯a, the passage hence providing strong evidence for organization of the Mothers according to deities of the Brahman- ical pantheon.
It must be emphasized just how much yogin¯ıs as a deity typology inherit from the Mothers, as described in this ´Salyaparvan passage. Among the Mothers, some have long claws, fangs, or beaks; some are youthful maidens, while others are flesh- less or pot-bellied. Having various hues, changing shape at will, and speaking many languages, the Mothers rival the apsaras in beauty, Indra in power, Agni in radi-
26´Salyaparvan 43.29ab: saptam¯atr.gan.¯a´s caiva sam¯ajagmur vi´s¯am. pate. M¯atr.gan.¯ah. might however be a
karmadh¯araya compound, meaning “the gan.as who are the [Seven] Mothers,” or even a dvanda, “the [Seven] Mothers and the gan.as.” The context is a list of divinities who come to see Skanda.
27J. Bautze claims in fact that all Kus.¯an.a-era seated m¯atr.-goddess panels so far published are frag-
ments, broken at one end or both. “A Note on Two M¯atr.k¯a Panels,” 25.
28Not accepted in the critical edition are, in addition, the epithets vais.n.avyah., sauryah., and v¯ar¯ahyah.,
in a verse that would follow 45.36ab. This might have been interpolated to harmonize the passage with later conceptions of the Mothers; the absence of Vais.n.av¯ı and V¯ar¯ah¯ı, in particular, might have been inexplicable to a Gupta-era or later audience. Yokochi quotes and discusses this Mah¯abh¯arata passage in “Rise of the Warrior Goddess,” 101.
ance, and so forth.29 They dwell in liminal places such as crossroads and cremation grounds—the same environs enjoined for performing the radical rituals of the Yogin¯ı cult, one of the primary aims of which was to effect direct encounters with goddesses. The yogin¯ıs’ theriomorphism, shapeshifting, multiplicity, extraordinarily variegated appearances, bellicosity, independence, and simultaneous beauty and danger all find precedent in these early Mother goddesses. This continuity is readily visible in sculp- ture. While taking on the powerful iconography of tantric deities, the yogin¯ıs reflect in visual terms clear continuity with the Kus.¯an.a-era Mother goddess typology (cf. figures 2.5 and 2.6).30
Much as there is continuity between yogin¯ıs and the early m¯atr.s, dangerous and powerful female deities whom, as Michael Meister suggests, the Brahmanical cult of
29´Salyaparvan 45.29–40:
et¯a´s c¯any¯a´s ca bahavo m¯ataro bharatars.abha | k¯arttikey¯anuy¯ayinyo n¯an¯ar¯up¯ah. sahasra´sah. ! 29 ! d¯ırghanakhyo d¯ırghadantyo d¯ırghatun.d.ya´s ca bh¯arata | saral¯a madhur¯a´s caiva yauvanasth¯ah. svalam.kr.t¯ah. ! 30 ! m¯ah¯atmyena ca sam.yukt¯ah. k¯amar¯upadhar¯as tath¯a | nirm¯am.sag¯atryah. ´svet¯a´s ca tath¯a k¯añcanasam.nibh¯ah. ! 31 ! kr.s.n.ameghanibh¯a´s c¯any¯a dh¯umr¯a´s ca bharatars.abha | arun.¯abh¯a mah¯abh¯ag¯a d¯ırghake´syah. sit¯ambar¯ah. ! 32 ! ¯urdhvaven.¯ıdhar¯a´s caiva pi˙ng¯aks.yo lambamekhal¯ah. | lambodaryo lambakarn.¯as tath¯a lambapayodhar¯ah. ! 33 ! t¯amr¯aks.yas t¯amravarn.¯a´s ca haryaks.ya´s ca tath¯apar¯ah. | varad¯ah. k¯amac¯arin.yo nityapramudit¯as tath¯a ! 34 ! y¯amyo raudryas tath¯a saumy¯ah. kauberyo ’tha mah¯abal¯ah. | v¯arun.yo ’tha ca m¯ahendryas tath¯agneyyah. param.tapa ! 35 ! v¯ayavya´s c¯atha kaum¯aryo br¯ahmya´s ca bharatars.abha | r¯upen.¯apsaras¯am. tuly¯a jave v¯ayusam¯as tath¯a ! 36 ! parapus.t.opam¯a v¯akye tatharddhy¯a dhanadopam¯ah. | ´sakrav¯ıryopam¯a´s caiva d¯ıpty¯a vahnisam¯as tath¯a ! 37 ! vr.ks.acatvarav¯asinya´s catus.pathaniketan¯ah. |
guh¯a´sma´s¯anav¯asinyah. ´sailaprasravan.¯alay¯ah. ! 38 ! n¯an¯abharan.adh¯arin.yo n¯an¯am¯aly¯ambar¯as tath¯a | n¯an¯avicitraves.¯a´s ca n¯an¯abh¯as.¯as tathaiva ca ! 39 ! ete c¯anye ca bahavo gan.¯ah. ´satrubhayam.kar¯ah. |
anujagmur mah¯atm¯anam. trida´sendrasya sam.mate ! 40 !
30Yogin¯ıs shed the Mothers’ maternal associations to a large degree. However, there are numerous
examples of their representation with infants; note for instance two of the yogin¯ıs from Lokhari, U.P., published in Dehejia, Yogin¯ı Cult and Temples, 159 (which I reproduce as figure 2.6), 161. Dehejia publishes another image of a theriomorphic yogin¯ı from Naresar that carries an infant, labelled “Um¯a Dev¯ı.” Ibid., 146–47. An image (10th century?) from Bundelkhand, M.P., of a four-armed goddess holding a child also appears to be a yogin¯ı, presently in the Bharat Kala Bhavan of Varanasi (aiis Photo Archive, accession no. 7175, negative no. 4).
Figure 2.5: Bird-headed Mother goddess car- rying an infant in her likeness. Kus.¯an.a-era Mathur¯a. State museum, Mathur¯a. AIIS Photo
Archive.
Figure 2.6: Horse-headed yogin¯ı from Lokhari, U.P., with like infant. Photograph by Vidya Dehejia, published in Dehejia, Yogin¯ı
Cult and Temples, 159.
Seven Mothers sought to contain,31the early Skanda, though succesfully transformed into a benevolent warrior god, resurfaces in the figure of Bhairava, lord of yogin¯ıs, who takes on much of the ancient imagery of Rudra as well. For although a playful, handsome young warrior dominates the later image of Skanda, in the Mah¯abh¯arata mythology lie clear traces of an ambiguous and potentially dangerous deity, in this respect resembling the m¯atr.s he heads. Richard Mann argues that this Skanda has in fact historical primacy.32
31Meister, “Regional Variations,” 244–45.
32Mann, “Early Cult of Skanda,” passim. It is possible however that Mann goes too far in reading
historical layers into the Skanda myth. Specifically, I see little reason why the Mothers and Skanda could not have been, even in their earliest conceptions, simultaneously auspicious and inauspicious, connected with both fertility and disease, life and death. In other respects, his argument for historical transformation seems entirely plausible.
gupta-era sculpture and inscriptions
Several fourth- and fifth-century, Gupta-era inscriptions make reference to Mother goddesses, while the earliest remains of Mother shrines appear to date to the begin- ning of the fifth century. In this period, we find evidence for the emergence of the Brahmanical saptam¯atr.s, “Seven Mothers,” female counterparts to a series of major Brahmanical deities headed by an independent goddess, C¯amun.d.¯a. There is appar- ent, moreover, a transformation by which ´Siva usurps Skanda’s position as leader of the Mothers, to the extent that Skanda rarely finds place in the iconographic pro- grams of post fifth-century Mother shrines. The goddess C¯amun.d.¯a is normatively depicted as an emaciated and powerful hag whose iconography includes mortuary (k¯ap¯alika) cult objects such as the skull and skull-staff (khat.v¯a˙nga). This variety of iconography is characteristic of tantric deities of the bhairavatantras and early Yogin¯ı cult, and it is possible that C¯amun.d.¯a was, from her obscure beginning, a tantric deity. That is to say, the emergence of C¯amun.d.¯a could in itself be an indicator of the exis- tence of a tantric goddess cult, perhaps even some form of the Yogin¯ı cult, although this is not at all certain.33
In the elite traditions represented in sculpture and inscriptions of the Gupta and early post-Gupta period, the Seven Mothers appear to eclipse the more diverse Moth- ers popular in the Kus.¯an.a era. Inscriptions associate the Udayagiri ´Saiva cave com- plex of the early fifth century with the emperor Candragupta ii, a site having mul- tiple sets of the Seven Mothers.34 Another royal Gupta inscription, that of the mid fifth-century Bihar Stone Pillar erected by Skandagupta, also appears to include a 33It is conceivable that the m¯atr.tantras (“Tantras of the Mother Goddesses”) mentioned in some ´Saiva
sources were connected with a tantric cult of C¯amun.d.¯a and the Mothers. However, perhaps the earliest source to mention these—the old Skandapur¯an.a—identifies them with the y¯amalatantras of the ´Saiva Yogin¯ı cult. On the Skandapur¯an.a, see the subsequent section. One possible preservation from an early tantric cult of C¯amun.d.¯a is the love magic of Indian erotic literature (k¯ama´s¯astra); see Gyula Wojtilla, “Va´s¯ıkaran.a Texts in Sanskrit K¯ama´s¯astra Literature,” in Teun Goudriaan, ed., The Sanskrit Tradition and
Tantrism, 109–16.
34The two inscriptions associated with the Udayagiri cave temples are published as nos. 7 and 11
in Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. iii, as well as in D. C. Sircar’s Select Inscriptions. The dated inscription ends with a profession of devotion to ´Siva (bhakty¯a bhagavata´s ´sambhor gguh¯am et¯am ak¯arayat,