Arjun, a history student, visits a museum gallery on religious life in early medieval India. In the first hall he sees a wooden image of a deity from Puri in Orissa, shown with a sister and a brother; a label explains that such images are still made by local tribal specialists. In the next hall is a stone smeared with ochre, worshipped in a village shrine, and beside it a tenth-century sculpture of a Buddhist goddess from Bihar. A last panel compares the gods of the Vedic hymns with the gods of later religious stories. Arjun writes down questions for his teacher.
How were local goddesses, such as the one worshipped as an ochre-smeared stone, often brought into the Puranic framework?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → They were given an identity as wives of principal male deities, such as Lakshmi or Parvati.
Option (1) They were given an identity as sisters of principal male deities, like the goddess at Puri. — Incorrect. Subhadra appears at Puri as Jagannatha's sister. Local goddesses were usually given the identity of wives of the main gods.
Option (2) They were admitted into Vedic sacrifices performed by Brahmana priests with chanted mantras. — Incorrect. Vedic sacrifice was closely regulated and its gods became marginal. Goddesses entered through Puranic identities instead.
Option (3) They were given an identity as wives of principal male deities, such as Lakshmi or Parvati. — Correct. Local goddesses were given an identity as the wife of a principal male deity, such as Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu, or Parvati, wife of Shiva.
Option (4) They were recast as Buddhist goddesses, like the tenth-century image from Bihar. — Incorrect. The Bihar image is a Buddhist goddess, Marichi. Local goddesses were drawn into the Puranic framework.
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