GENDERED REPRESENTATIONS OF SEED, EARTH, AND GRAIN
A WOMAN CENTERED PERSPECTIVE ON THE CONFLATION OF WOMAN AND EARTH
Keywords:
Women, Earth, Atta Ritual, BaimataAbstract
From very ancient times to the present woman's body and the earth have been conflated in the Indian mind. Both have been conceptualized and symbolized as possessing the awesome power of fertility. Women give birth to babies. The earth provides the grain, fruit. vegetables which nourish human beings. A Harappan seal, remnant of the Indus Valley Civilization, explicitly depicts a woman. upside down, in a yogic position — hands on the knees of her open legs - with what seems to be a plant emanating from her yoni. (Jayakar, p, 47). A similar schematic representation of a plant form emerging from triangular yoni is captured in a photograph of a contemporary wall painting on a Rajasthani house.
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