If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website.

If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked.

Main content

Course: Asian Art Museum > Unit 2

Lesson 2: Lesson 2: Ancient India
Partner content
Asian Art Museum
South Asia
Lesson 2: Ancient India
© 2024 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice

Fertility and Abundance

Google Classroom
Molded plaques such as these have been found in considerable numbers. What they were used for is not known. Also, there is no certain evidence of the identity or significance of the figures they represent, though it has been suggested that figures like the one on the left, with their rich jewelry and elaborately decorated hairdresses, may be goddesses. Fertility and Abundance: From early times, the fertility of nature and of human beings has been an important theme in Indian art. Fertility implied abundance and prosperity. The left and center figures here are nearly nude and have features related to fertility, such as large breasts and wide hips. The female figure at right holds a bunch of fruit in one hand and a bird on the other. In traditional Indian poetry of a few centuries later, young women sometimes confide to their pet birds a longing for a distant lover.
A grey rectangular plaque that shows a woman's head and figure. The woman is wearing an elaborate dress and large headdress, and is wearing multiple heavy bracelets and necklaces.
Female figure approx. 100 BCE-100 CE. India; Chandraketugarh, West Bengal state. Earthenware. Courtesy of the Asian Art Museum, Gift of Gursharan and Elvira Sidhu, 1991.260
Molded plaques such as these have been found in considerable numbers. What they were used for is not known. Also, there is no certain evidence of the identity or significance of the figures they represent, though it has been suggested that figures like the one above, with their rich jewelry and elaborately decorated hairdresses, may be goddesses.
Female figure approx. 100 BCE-100 CE. India; Chandraketugarh, West Bengal state. Earthenware. Courtesy of the Asian Art Museum, Gift of Gursharan and Elvira Sidhu, 1991.256

Fertility and Abundance

From early times, the fertility of nature and of human beings has been an important theme in Indian art. Fertility implied abundance and prosperity. The left and center figures here are nearly nude and have features related to fertility, such as large breasts and wide hips. The female figure at right holds a bunch of fruit in one hand and a bird on the other. In traditional Indian poetry of a few centuries later, young women sometimes confide to their pet birds a longing for a distant lover.
Female figure approx. 100 BCE-100 CE. India; Chandraketugarh, West Bengal state. Earthenware. Courtesy of the Asian Art Museum, B69S30

Want to join the conversation?

Log in
No posts yet.