Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Fragment from a railing pillar with face of a yakshi
India, Bharhut Great Stupa, Satna district, Madhya Pradesh
Not on view
This relief of a tree spirit, sharply chiseled to maximize the play of light and shadow, is a rich record of Shunga-era imagery. We see the power imbued in the goddess revealing herself in anthropomorphic form. The distinctive facial markings, likely tattooed, include auspicious solar markings and a hocked device, perhaps an elephant goad. This tool of elephant commanders likely references Indra, the Vedic god of storms, who rides a celestial elephant in the monsoon clouds and brings rain to the earth. The goddess’s markings and jewelry were noted by Alexander Cunningham in 1873 as still worn by local women, nearly two millennia later. The patterned cloth headcover is interwoven with strands of fragrant flowers from the sala tree.
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