SUBJECT AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This book is devoted to selected objects of visual culture from the Indian subcontinent that can be directly related to the topic of abundance and fertility, and especially to childcare. In the whole analysis and the problem under discussion, they constitute the most crucial group of sculptures from the Mathura art centre and are mainly dated to the first centuries CE. In some cases, the main material had to be juxtaposed with other artefacts from earlier or later epochs, including places outside the Mathura region, to create an appropriate context for the analysis. Regionally, however, they do not extend beyond North India. The most important thing for me is to focus on a certain fragment of the visual material legacy of ancient India in order to obtain the most coherent image of that community, its needs, way of perceiving the world, dealing with everyday matters of importance – as may be concluded from the number and form of the preserved representations. Assuming that Mathura workshops produced numerous and various objects for their founders, a special group of characters and images should be distinguished among them at the beginning, with an emphasis on the function assigned to them, related to the protection of offspring. According to the available studies, after analysing the objects, I included the following spirit-deities here: Ekanamsha, Hariti, Matrikas, Naigamesha, Shashthi, and Skanda. Some of them were included in the group of harmful Grahas, detailed information about which can be found mainly in various medical treatises, such as Sushruta Samhita or Kashyapa Samhita. It can be assumed that the beliefs and practices, the main rep-resentatives of which were the above listed deities, could support women during the exceptionally important time of pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium. This period was associated with many threats both to the health and life of women and their offspring, and failures in this regard had an impact on the functioning of the entire family. In addition, from the very beginning, it should be emphasised that the ancient Indian community focused on having children, which was reflected in both the visual and textual artefacts.