Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Gateway architrave with makara
India, Bharhut Great Stupa, Satna district, Madhya Pradesh
Not on view
Spectacularly large gateways (toranas) marking the entrance to a fortified city or a monastery were a regular feature of early Indian architecture. The oldest to be preserved, in stone, is from the Great Stupa at Bharhut. While Buddhist lay devotees donated the bulk of the funding for the enclosure railing encircling the stupa, an inscription on the monumental eastern gateway names it as the gift of Raja Dhanabhuti, likely a member of the Shunga ruling family.
This section of the eastern gate projected from the end of one of the structure’s three massive crossbars, the architraves. Depicted on both faces is a makara, a legendary aquatic creature composed of hybrid elements: crocodile jaws, an elephant’s trunk, finlike ears, and a scaled fish body terminating in a spiral.
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