The Mother Goddess from the ruins of Harappa (dating 3rd-2nd millennium BC) challenged Calcutta in its pre-pandal-hopping phase. Just a couple of inches tall, the unsophisticated naked terracotta figurine represented the primeval desire to worship Nature, fertility and creation — a desire which gave birth to various forms and iconography that evolved as cults proliferated and society’s view of women changed. The Harappan goddess was one of the rarely displayed ancient artefacts from the Indian Museum’s collection, showcased at the Saktirupena exposition (September 3-October 1) at the Asutosh Birth Centenary Hall.

Depictions of the Devi varied widely in material, style and according to place of origin. If there were terracotta mother goddesses from Harappa and Mathura, there were also Simhavahini, Lakshmi and Ganga on gold coins of Chandragupta I, Chandragupta II and Kumaragupta I; if there was the beautiful Kangra painting (18th century) of a four-armed Devi on a lion, there was also a Durga mask from Purulia and Nandalal Bose’s Kali; if the deity looks benign as Annapurna in a Kalighat pat, she is a terrible Chamunda in basalt from 10th-century Bihar; if she is maternal and protective Durga on a lion with Kartikeya (19th-century porcelain from Bengal) or Jagaddhatri (18th-century lithograph) and Amman (17th-century wood from Tamil Nadu), she is also a fearsome Chhinamasta in the 19th-century oil from Chinsura.

The Mahisasuramardini Durga image we know is the result of a convergence of earlier iconography, some developed in the late medieval and colonial periods, said Gautam Sengupta, the director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India, in his illustrated lecture on the concluding day of the exhibition. Drawing attention to the terracotta yakshi figure from Chandraketugar (2nd century BC) on display, Sengupta argued that the hairpins shaped like ten weapons made it a proto-Durga. He said that while conceiving the Durga image between the 9th and the 12th centuries, the Bengali mind accommodated various disparate streams from both the ugra (fierce/angry) mood, such as the Mahismardini and Simhavahini traditions, and the soumya (calm/benevolent) moods of the Lalita, Gauri, Chandi and Parvati traditions. Sengupta traced the way the Durga family emerged to take position beside the Devi, who was initially seen solo, with the lion often absent or only symbolically depicted. Kartick and Ganesh were probably adopted from the Lalita tradition, where they were often seen on either sides of the Devi. Saraswati and Lakshmi evolved from early traditions of Jaya and Bijaya, described in the Aryastava. And the linga symbol, sometimes seen in the hands of the Chandi images, manifested itself as the image of Shiva above the Devi icon, said Sengupta.

The illuminating talk and the illustrated brochure increased the excitement of viewing.