The Buddhist Caves at Aurangabad - Wat Florida Dhammaram

206 chapter five
unfinished, and the sculptural panels in it are so poorly preserved that
it is impossible to determine the specific subjects represented and the
affiliation of the cave. The size and layout of this rock-cut unit, however,
are very like those of the largest cave in the third unfinished
cluster at Aurangabad, on another slope of the same massif.
The origin and symbolic meaning of the Saptamātṛkās iconography
have been studied in detail. 54 The cult of these goddesses became
especially popular around the sixth and seventh centuries at a time
when tantric traditions began to take ‘visible’ shape in Hindu religiosity.
In a unique inscription from Gangdhar in Rajasthan, dating to the
fifth century, the mothers are explicitly placed in connection with the
Tantras. Whether the word tantra in this inscription was intended
in its actual meaning or as a synonym for mantra, as suggested by
some scholars, is hard to say (Lorenzen 2006, 71–72). However, in
the Varāhamira’s Bṛhat Saṃ hitā, which in its first form dates roughly
to the sixth century, those who worship the mātṛkās are referred to
unambiguously as ‘they who know the maṇḍala of the mothers’, which
clearly implies that a form of esotericism was attached to the cult of
these deities in specific environments. 55 The same text also mentions
that the Saptamātṛkās are part of a maṇḍala drawn by the priest in the
circumstance of the royal ablution or abhiṣeka, where the goddesses
appear together with planets and stars, with Skanda, Viṣṇu, and other
protective deities (Bhatt 1996, I, 412). The Seven Mothers are also
present in the maṇḍala described in the Buddhist Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa,
where they are positioned in the intermediate sphere of the diagram
right by the south gate, along with Yama, at the level of other figures
associated with protection (Macdonald 1962, 117).
The ascent in popularity of these goddesses in medieval times may
have been a result not only of their generic affiliation with Śaivism,
which was a key force at the time, but also, more specifically, of their
association with the warrior god Skanda. They embodied the bellicose
aspects that suited the character and needs of the feudal princes of the
period. It is possible, therefore, that the mother-goddess images carved
in side chapels of virtually all of the rock-cut monuments linked to the
early Kalacuri in Maharashtra may have functioned simultaneously on
several levels, as deities protective of kingship and as objects of esoteric
54 Most relevant is the volume by Harper (1989).
55 Bṛhat Saṃ hitā 60.19 (Coburn 1984, 32).