Abstract
India and Crete A SIMILARITY between pottery found at Maniyar Math in Rajgir, southern India, and finds in Crete is suggested by J. G. Aravamuthan in Man of December 1939. The Indian pottery vessels are attributable to an age roughly anterior to the Christian era, and are said to bear spouts varying in number from four to twenty, or even thirty-four in one instance. On the spouts were designs described as “serpents, sieves, animals, etc.”. Associated with the finds were terra-cotta images of hooded snakes and a large stone slab containing a number of hooded figures. Mani Naga was the protector and rain-giver of Rajagirha. The name of the god implies association with the serpent. Finds in Crete resembling the Indian vessels appear to be adaptations of drain-pipes, on which the representation of snakes moulded in relief in certain instances points to their use as places of refuge for snakes, while cups on the outside might be used to supply them with milk or other refreshment. In another type a snake is coiled around a naturally formed honeycomb. In still another a snake peeps into the mouth of the jug. Several show snakes approaching or peeping into a cup. The earliest known of this class is a vessel in the form of a female with snakes coiling round the neck. The Cretan vessels are thus multifarious in form and have evolved into a number of varieties. The Rajgir spouted and perforated vessels embody features found in one or other of these varieties. The link between India and Crete seems evident, but beyond relation to a snake cult and a necessary connexion with bringing down rain, the purpose is obscure.
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Research Items. Nature 144, 1095–1096 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/1441095a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1441095a0