Mother goddess figurines found in Tamil Nadu, pre-common era

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Srinivasan Kalyanaraman <kalyan97@g...> wrote:

Mother Goddess figurines found in Tamil Nadu

 

T.S. Subramanian

 

3 potsherds with Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions unearthed in Tiruvannamalai

district

 

A figurine of Mother Goddess, made of terracotta found at Modur in

Dharmapuri district._ PHOTO COURTESY: TAMIL NADU DEPARTMENT OF

ARCHAEOLOGY

CHENNAI: Terracotta figurines of the Mother Goddess have been found at

Andipatti in Tiruvannamalai district and Modur in Dharmapuri district

of Tamil Nadu during excavations conducted by the State Archaeology

Department.

 

Of the two figurines found at Modur, one has been partly unearthed and

is dated to the pre-Christian era.

 

The other, which is in two pieces, belongs to the 8th- 9th century A.D.

 

A bull, made of terracotta, found at Andipatti in Tiruvannamalai

district.

Archaeologists estimate that the two figurines found at Andipatti

belong to 8th to 12th century A.D. They also found three potsherds

with Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions there.

 

One reads "kan narpo" and department epigraphists date it between 4th

and 5th century A.D. The other two Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, written

on pot lids, read: "... aa th tha... " and "...ku ma... " They may

belong to an earlier period.

T.S. Sridhar, Special Commissioner, said the 12 trenches dug at

Andipatti in Chengam taluq of Tiruvannamalai district yielded a

cornucopia of artefacts.

They included a figurine of Goddess Durga, a bull, coarse red ware,

black and red ware, a few pieces of Roman pottery, terracotta beads,

spindle whorls, iron knife and nails, copper objects, an incomplete

well, bangles made of conch shell with beautiful designs, human torso

made of terracotta and so on.

 

"On the basis of the unearthed antiquities, it can be deduced that

Andipatti was inhabited by humans from the 1st century B.C. to 12th

century A.D. Andipatti was a megalithic site. The discovery of spindle

whorls and iron objects shows the industrial activity in the area," he

said.

 

The Mother Goddess cult is one of the earliest cults in India. It was

prevalent during the Harappan period (circa 3,500 B.C.). It was a

fertility cult. Mother Goddess figurines have been found in several

places in Tamil Nadu such as Adichanallur near Tirunelveli,

Melaperumballam near Poompuhar and Poluvaampatti near Coimbatore. All

of them are made of terracotta. If the figurine is depicted in the

nude, it "definitely signifies a fertility cult," said an

archaeologist.

Fifteen trenches were dug at Modur in Palacode taluq of Dharmapuri

district. They yielded spectacular objects such as celts, polishing

and grinding stones, hammers made of stones and cylindrical pestles

belonging to the Neolithic period. The megalithic objects found were

black and red ware, grey ware and red slipped ware. Artefacts such as

terracotta figurines, decorative potsherds, spindle whorls, shell

bangles, well-crafted smoking pipes and graffiti potsherds belonged to

the historical period after 1st century A.D.

 

Human settlements

 

The objects found at Modur established that human settlements existed

in the site since the neolithic period and the megalithic period to

the 14th century A.D., Mr. Sridhar said. For a stone inscription

(vattezhuthu) in Tamil of the 7th/8th century A.D., a Chola stone

inscription of the 10th century A.D. and an inscription in Tamil of

the 14th century A.D. had earlier been found at Modur.

 

The excavations at Andipatti were conducted by R. Selvaraj, M.

Kalaivanan and S. Vasanthi and at Modur by S. Selvaraj, T. Subramanian

and V. Ramamurthy. Neolithic culture in Tamil Nadu is datable to 2,800

B.C. to 500 B.C., and megalithic culture from 500 B.C. to 100 C.E.

-common era.

 

http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/22/stories/2005052200121100.htm

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