A wooded 18 th century sculpture possibly of Usha…
Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques
Ushas (उषस्; uṣas), Sanskrit for “dawn”,[1] is a Vedic deity, and consequently a Hindu deity as well. Sanskrit uṣas is an s-stem, i.e. the genitive case is uṣásas. It is from PIE *h₂ausos-, cognate to Greek Eos and Latin Aurora. Ushas is an exalted goddess in the Rig Veda but less prominent in post-Rgvedic texts. She is often spoken of in the plural, “the Dawns.” She is portrayed as warding off evil spirits of the night, and as a beautifully adorned young woman riding in a golden chariot on her path across the sky. Due to her color she is often identified with the reddish cows, and both are released by Indra from the Vala cave at the beginning of time.[2] Twenty of the 1028 hymns of the Rig Veda are dedicated to the Dawn:
