Indus Valley - 600 BC - Mother Goddess

North West India, Mathura
600 - 200 BC
Goddess of the Indus Valley, Mathura
Terracotta with reddish slip and inclusions of golden mica.
Dimensions: H 14 cm x 6.8 cm x 3.7 cm

This statuette has the distinction of indicating very conspicuously that this type of statuette included a long transparent linen dress with festoons, sometimes at the waist - as is the case for this copy - sometimes at the end of the legs in the form of three lines in other statuettes which may have retained these lines.

Like the other representations of Mother Goddesses, above two large gold rings, she wears a high crown streaked with bands from which the floral decorations have no doubt disappeared in the form of discs on the sides present on other copies.

A triple gold necklace surrounds her neck while she spreads her arms wide to offer her nude breasts to her worshipers.

Her buttocks are particularly well marked and, probably representing a Goddess of fertility, could be enough to depict her as "Venus Callipyge" statuettes of the Valley of the Indus.

The statuette includes inclusions of golden mica, proofs of authenticity of the origin of the statuette.

Small restorations on the ends of the arms.