Fragment from a Railing Pillar with the Face of a Yakshi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2023

Title: Fragment from a railing pillar with face of a yakshi

Period: Shunga

Date: ca. 150–100 BCE

Culture: India, Bharhut Great Stupa, Satna district, Madhya Pradesh

Medium: Sandstone

Dimensions: H. 9 13/16 in. (25 cm); W. 4 3/4 in. (12 cm); D. 4 5/16 in. (11 cm)

Classification: Sculpture

Credit Line: Lent by National Museum, New Delhi

Object Number: TS.383

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.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/819858