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Studies in Indian Art c12.s2: Appendix: Four New Yaksha Statues

Studies in Indian Art c12.s2

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Appendix: Four New Yaksha Statues

I. Bombay Yaksha

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In the compound of the Victoria and Albert Museum¹ Bombay stands the lower half portion of the colossal image. It represents a standing male figure now preserved from the girdle below. The image is carved in the round but the main effect is frontal like that in the Parkham Yaksha image. On the proper right of the main image is a female figure standing in three-quarter profile. Similarly, on proper left is a highly grotesque figure of a Yaksha carrying on his shoulders an equally grotesque female figure.

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¹ Since writing the above the image has been presented by the Municipal Corporation, Bombay to the National Museum, New Delhi, to which place it has now been removed.

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*Main Figure*: The right leg is but forward, and the left is slightly bent. The figure is wearing a *dhoti* with a long fold between the legs touching the ground and fastened by a narrow ribbon the two loose ends of which are knotted on the left thigh. A heavy flat scarf is arranged in front of the legs in a conspicuous loop similar to that of the flat pendant necklaces. The long ends of the scarf are indicated on the back. Near the left leg of the male figure is a fluted *āmalaka*-like fragment of some object which might have been a double-headed *vajra* (Fig. 69).

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*The female attendant on proper right*: A female figure is standing on right in a position forming an acute angle with the main figure. She wears a head-dress secured with a band, ear-pendants, a torque with a taurine symbol in the centre, a scarf, a breast-band (*stana-paṭṭa*), armlets and wristlets. A pair of loose locks is shown falling on each shoulder. The drapery consists of a *dhoti* with lines of folds marked in relief, but nudity is indicated. She is also wearing a girdle, heavy anklets and a tight cylindrical ornament round each leg above the anklets. The flexed right arm is held near the stomach, grasping something which is now broken. The left hand raised to shoulder, is also damaged.

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*The male attendant on left*: The male attendant on the proper left side stands facing towards the back. He has a heavy chignon on the head from which a conspicuous projection tapers behind horizontally. There are round ear-rings in the cloven ear-lobes and a small necklet round the neck. He held in the right hand an indistinct object now broken. A remarkable feature is a *nāga* serving as wristlet round the wrist of the right hand. This is the upper figure, being carried on the shoulders of a grotesque lion-faced dwarf protruding eyes and manes shown on the back of the head. The gaping mouth of the lion shows protruding fangs and tongue. The head of the Atlantes Yaksha is abnormally big (15" high) in proportion to its dwarfish body (24"). He is holding in his hands the legs of the figure mounted on his shoulders.

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Size: The measurements of the different parts of the image are as follows:

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Pedestal, 3'3" × 1'6" × 2" thick; front height 3'6" including pedestal; height at the back, 4'; height of the female figure on right, 3'4"; height of the grotesque Yaksha attendant with the figure he is carrying, 3'4"; girth at the heads of the two attendant figures, 7'10"; height of the vajra-like object, 11" (as now preserved) but 7" from the tip to the lower part of its middle band, so that the complete object measured 14".

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Identification: The main figure seems to have represented a Yaksha image of the class of the Parkham Yaksha. Both in its treatment and in subject it is similar to the ancient Yaksha statues.

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Find-place: The records of the Museum show it to have been found at Elephanta, but the entry is not definitely vouchsafed to be correct. It is possible that sometime in the last century the image was collected from one of the old sites in Western India, possibly Sopārā. In the list of ancient Yakshas compiled in the Mahāmāyurī four Yakshas are named in Western India, viz. Vishnu in Dvārkā, Asanga in Bharukachchha, Vira in Karahātaka and Pālaka in Vanavāsī. (The Geographical Contents of Mahāmāyurī, JUPHS., XV, Pt. II, pp. 27-29).

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Before the advent of the images of regular Brahmanical gods and goddesses there was a wide-spread belief in Yaksha worship and almost each region possessed its tutelary Yaksha. Some of these images have already come to light and others may still be explored in course of time. For example, we have found at Mathura the colossal Yaksha image at Parkham, another bigger image at Baroda village in Mathura district, a third similar Yaksha in the Noh village about three miles from Bharatpur, and lastly a female Yakshi image now in worship at a village called Jhinga-kā-Nagrā, a few miles from Mathura.

II. Palwal Yaksha

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The statue consists of the head and bust of a colossal Yaksha image of red sandstone. It was found at Palwal in Gurgaon District in 1914 and is now deposited in the Provincial Museum, Lucknow (0.107). The figure is wearing on the head a conical turban with tiered folds, big round discs in cloven ear-lobes, a double flat crescent-shaped torque, a flat triangular necklace, armlets with triple vertical projections and four heavy wristlets. The right hand is raised towards the shoulder and holds a conch-like tapering object, now mutilated. There are traces of a scarf looped on right elbow. On the back are shown pendant tassels of the necklace. The style of the turban, the torque and the necklace and the armlets with feathered projections seen in the side view, all point to the image being an early Yaksha type that may be assigned to the early Śuṅga period, about second century B.C. The object in the right hand is unfortunately not very distinct and therefore the identification with Kubera is far from certain. It adds one more example to the colossal Yaksha statues found in the Mathura region.

III. Rajghat Yaksha

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This colossal statute was found at the old site of Rajghat near Banaras at the time of the railway dig in 1940. It has now been removed to the Bharat Kala Bhavan. Its dimensions are ht. 5' × width 1'11" × girth round the stomach 6'5" (Fig. 41).

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The statue is somewhat strange, viz. representing a triple image which I propose to identify only tentatively as Trimukha Yaksha. On a three-sided block of stone, which has a square pedestal below, each side is carved with a standing male figure in bold relief. One of the side figures is better preserved than others. The figures are rather dwarfish in stature, plump, and have their hands lifted up as in Atlantes Yaksha figures. The eyes are large and bulging. The facial expression is that of a good-humoured fellow with laughter in the cheeks. The head is covered with a high turban of which the details are not well-preserved. In between the legs in front, there seems to be a prop-like object, of which the purpose is not clear. There is no trace of any drapery on the lower legs, but the bust seems to be covered with a *kurtā*-like costume falling to the knees. This is rather unusual as all other Yaksha images wear *dhotīs* on the lower portion of the body. Stylistically, the image seems to belong to the early Śuṅga period. The whole formula of a triple figure, the dimensions, its free standing nature and facial expression seem to suggest that we have to deal here with one of those early cult images, which represented the local tutelary deities called Yakshas. Other important examples of Yaksha images are well known.

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The *Mahābhārata* (Sabhāparva) gives a list of Yakshas present in the assembly of Kubera, but much more important and full is the list of Yakshas in the Buddhist work called *Mahāmāyurī*. Literary tradition shows that each region had its local Yaksha for whose worship appropriate images were installed. These stone images and the tradition of worship cannot have disappeared altogether and it is very likely that patient search into local history and archaeology will reveal traces of Yaksha worship and statuary in many other places. Fortunately, the gap for Banaras is filled by this image. I have not been able to find up to now a proper identification of this figure in the lists of Yakshas mentioned above, and the subject requires still further investigation.

IV. A New Yaksha Image in the Mathura Museum

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This image appears as No. E9 in Dr. Vogel's catalogue of the Mathura Museum (*Catalogue of the Mathura Museum*, p. 108). Pandit Radha Krishna found this sculpture let into the wall of a house inside the Bharatpur Gate and secured it for the Museum. The bust (ht. 2'4") shows a male figure wearing a conspicuous turban and heavy ear-rings. The carving on the face and bust is much defaced (Fig. 67). During my last visit to the Mathura Museum, the image attracted my attention on stylistic grounds and I now feel convinced that it is one of the early colossal images assignable to the Śuṅga period. The high turban with a rolled-upend as well as the ear-rings and the facial expression put it in that group of early images, which have been found at Mathura and classified as Yakshas.

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