Torso of a Female Divinity

The Torso of a Female Deity was first discovered by the author in the early 1960’s in a small shrine of Vatsalesvari, on the bank of the Bagmati River, near Pashupati temple (PI. 8).

The torso was so abraded that its identification was almost impossible to establish. The head, arms and feet were missing. Because of its smooth texture and abstract form (PI. 9), it looked like a modern sculpture of Henry Moore or Hans Arp. The torso stood with its legs apart. There was neither any sign of dress nor any ornament on her body. However, two small but prominent breasts as well as broad and expansive hips, were conspicuous. Despite the mutilation, the projecting part on the right side of her waist was clearly noticable which could be her right hand shown in varadamudra, the gesture of munificence. Incidentally, in all the early sculptures of Nepal predating the Licchavi period (1st century B.C. to 4th century A.D.), whether male or female, the right hand was shown with a cupped-palm in the varadamudra (Bangdel, 1982, pp. 77-78) The same motif was clearly visible in the female torso. But how this torso war, transformed into such semi-abstract form is not known. However, there is a possiblity that the femalt. deity was damaged or mutilated under unknown circumstances and eventually thrown in the Bagmat] River, where it remained in the river bed for sevcral centuries. This would explain its smooth texture.

The female torso was worshipped as syaldeota, ;I jackal goddess, by local people. Syaldeora was believed to be the manifestation of goddess Bhagavati.

After the discovery of the female torso, the imagc was frccluently visited by art historians. This arousecl the curiosity of the local people and led them to believe that the torso was a valuable sculpture. As a result, the female torso disappeared from the original site in the late 1960’s.

PUBLISHED
Pratapaditya Pal, The Arts of Nepal, Pt. 1, Sculpture.
(LeigenlKoln, 1974) Fig. 86.
Lain S. Bangdel, Prachin Murrikala ko Idhas, (History
of early Nepalese Sculpture), Royal Nepal Academy
(Kathmandu, 1981), PI. 97.
Lain S. Bangdel, The Early Sculptures of Nepal, Vikas
Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. (Nea Delhi, 1 C)82), PI. 153.