An Enigmatic Female Ascetic Figure from Mathura

y the first century, Mathura’s sculptural workshops were supplying their clients with large numbers of stone figures and plaques portraying goddesses on their own or together in groups. From mothers to combative or assertive deities and fully anthropomorphic to hybrid figures, the sheer variety of early goddess imagery points to the pluralism of goddess cults in the region and a somewhat fluid iconography1). Distributed throughout the region, the find-spots of these sculptures indicate a broad support base for these cults2). Patrons and sculptors at Mathura rarely specified the sectarian affiliations of these early goddesses3) While scholars can refer to sectarian literature and inscriptions for help in assigning goddesses to Brahmanical or Jain religious groups, few goddesses belonging to this formative iconographic phase (Kuṣāṇa to Gupta) are either named by inscription4) or unequivocally identified with unique attributes. Thus, many of Mathura’s goddesses defy clear-cut explanations and neat categorisation, often leaving modern viewers in a conundrum.