Badoh Pathari (बड़ोह पठारी), Vidisha district, Madhya Pradesh. Saptamātṛkā Panel

Badoh Pathari (बड़ोह पठारी), Vidisha district, Madhya Pradesh.

The Saptamātṛkā panel is at the right-hand side of a large rock shelter with a small, possibly artificial, cave shrine and the remains of some small, later temples. It depicts seven goddesses in bhadrāsana on separate bench-like seats and, at the far left, a male figure in lalitāsana on another bench, identified as Śiva because he is ithyphallic. This row of eight is in a recessed panel carved into the rock, about 50 centimeters high and 280 centimeters wide and 60 to 120 centimeters above the current ground level, which slopes to the right. An inscription (see EDITIONS) occupies a smoothed and slightly recessed area about 100 centimeters wide and 30 tall, immediately to the right of the group. The upper edges of the sculpted panel and the inscribed one are level. There are no further associated sculptures, but the rock surface is similarly smoothed in a second panel above the inscription, where traces of a painting are discernible.