Ornamental Grammar as Cultural Memory: Mother Goddess Sculptures and Visual Knowledge Systems in Mauryan–śuṅga India (321–72 Bce)
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: 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.
Authors: Rudrajit Bose, Shilpi Bora
Institution: Karnavati University
Language: English
Topic: Indian and Buddhist Studies
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7165902065