Studies in Indian Art c12.s2.t4: IV. A New Yaksha Image in the Mathura Museum

c12.s2.t4.1

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.