著者

太田 妙子

出版者

大阪外国語大学

雑誌

大阪外国語大学論集 (ISSN:09166637)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.20, pp.189-214, 1999-03-30

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We can think of image of the woman's breast from a variety of viewpoints including artistic, religious, moral, medical and even political and economic. This article reports the results of observations made on the sculptures (from 3rd century BC to 12th century AD ) of Indian Hindu goddesses, particularly on the expression of the breasts. First, one trend found in many ancient Indian statues of goddesses is for the upper body to be bare(naked). Secondly, during the thousand and several hundred - year period examined, a colorful variety in the way breasts are depicted exists, including plump, erotic, deformed, and shriveled. Such a wide variety exists that it can be thought of as a "general breast catalogue". Third, the Indian mother goddesses "Kalii" and "Camunda" which appear as goddesses of death, may have a common origin with the Japanese "Yamanba". It is thought that the Japnese word "yama" and the Sanskrit word "yamma" may have originated from the same word, during a time before the Japanese adopted the kanji writing system. The two words are not only similar in pronunciation, they are also both associated with the location of a dead body.