Detail of the Naga Attendant Holding a Fly Whisk in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2023

Title: Naga attendant holding a fly whisk

Period: Ikshvaku period

Date: ca. 3rd century CE

Culture: India, probably Goli, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh

Medium: Limestone

Dimensions: H. 36 1/4 in. (92.1 cm); W. 8 7/8 in. (22.5 cm); D. 3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm); Wt. 85 lbs. (38.6 kg)

Classification: Sculpture

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1933

Object Number: 33.25

The semidivine celebrant here is an anthropomorphic depiction of a serpent deity (naga), identifiable by the cobra hoods rising above his head. He is attired in a princely manner, wearing enormous conical earplugs (compare to those displayed nearby). The assimilation of nagas into Buddhism is a recurring theme in early religious literature. Associated with water and its riches, nagas represent one of the most powerful of the nature spirits that controlled the spiritual landscape of pre-Buddhist India. It was thus essential for monks to subjugate the power of the nagas; to this end Buddhist rituals evolved to influence the coming of the rains.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/38241