Module: | Society, Religion & Burial Practices
Q36: Consider the following statements regarding the reconstruction of Harappan religious beliefs and the Mother Goddess:
1. Early archaeologists attempted to reconstruct Harappan religious beliefs by moving from the known to the unknown, assuming later Hindu traditions provided parallels to earlier practices.
2. Terracotta figurines of women, heavily jeweled and featuring elaborate fan-shaped headdresses, were universally identified by early archaeologists as depictions of a Mother Goddess.
3. This identification of the terracotta figurines as religious deities is an absolute fact that is universally accepted today without any scholarly debate or alternative interpretations.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
2. Terracotta figurines of women, heavily jeweled and featuring elaborate fan-shaped headdresses, were universally identified by early archaeologists as depictions of a Mother Goddess.
3. This identification of the terracotta figurines as religious deities is an absolute fact that is universally accepted today without any scholarly debate or alternative interpretations.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
✅ Correct Answer: A
🎯 Quick Answer:
Option A is the correct answer because statement 3 is factually incorrect regarding the modern scholarly consensus on these figurines.Structural Breakdown: Early scholars categorized unusual or unfamiliar objects as having religious significance.
The heavily jeweled female terracotta figurines with fan-shaped headdresses were immediately labeled as Mother Goddesses, drawing parallels to fertility cults found in other ancient cultures.
Historical/Related Context: This "known to unknown" methodology involves looking at present-day religious practices (like the worship of Shakti or female deities in Hinduism) and projecting them backward thousands of years onto the Harappan artifacts.
Causal Reasoning: Statement 3 is false because modern archaeology is highly critical of this early assumption.
Many contemporary scholars argue that not every terracotta female figurine was a deity; some might have simply been children's toys, decorative art, or representations of ordinary women, making the "Mother Goddess" label a subject of ongoing, intense scholarly debate rather than established fact.