In a much later period, women are once again flanked by tigers, caprids and trees, but these are now palms, not pipals.
The goddesses seem to reflect influences
from Syria. The Hathor flip and their wide-hipped shape
with turned-out feet strongly resemble Hurrian goddesses
at Carchemish and Hasanlu. But they show a distinctly Indian character; the tiger and tree connection, especially, goes back to
Harappan times.
The stone rings are found only in ancient India.
Some have a lotus formation instead of a hollow in the center, which may have been used for pouring libations.
From Patna.
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The north Indian
ringstones date from the early centuries BCE, and are widespread: from Taxila in the Pakistani hill country, Rupar in the Panjaab, Patna and the Ganga
valley.
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The goddesses on this ringstone stand between
plants which may be trees but are hard to make out. They are reminiscent
of the palmate designs of Canaanite, Israelite, and Syrian art.
These are a major theme in the Nimrud ivories and on the Halaf stelas
of the late Hurrian era, several centuries before the ringstones.
The women's feet are elongated so that they touch the treelets,
a connection which is emphasized in the next image.
From Taxila, north Pakistan
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Another stone ring from Patna shows serial images of a goddess standing in a tree, grasping branches
in each hand, with her feet resting on a lotus. She wears bangles and appears to have
wings (again a Hurrian goddess trait) or possibly
a butterfly headdress. A band of dots highlights her vulva and hips. Such numinous fields around the vulva are found
incised or painting on many female figurines from the neolithic period,
in many countries across southwest Asia, northeast Africa, and southern
Europe.
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Left: a Syrian plaque of the Middle Bronze
Age (such dating leaves something to be desired) with the same motif of the goddess in the
tree as in the Indus seal images, but this time with birds and standing on an winged head. From the Ashmolean
collection.
Right: a horned goddess with bangles and long hair stands within a pipal tree and is worshipped by a figure to her right. A bull and seven more female figurines round out the scene. Indus valley seal.
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This Tamil figure wears a headdress similar to the Harappan "fan"
style, and quite distinct from the polos headress of far western Asia. Provenance unspecified,
circa 100 BCE.
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A whole array of north Indian sculptures from the early centuries
BCE show women wearing piles of fabric draped over the head, a style seen at Mohenjo Daro 2000 years earlier and unique to ancient India.
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