A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c11.s2.16

c11.s2.16

squatted, and holding in his right hand a cup, which a female attendant is about to fill from a jar. His left hand grasps a long object, presumed to be a money-bag. This last attribute and the physique of the obese drinker permit of little doubt that the personage represented is Kuvera, the god of riches, whose podgy form has become familiar from the many images collected of late years in connexion with Buddhist monasteries from the Panjāb to Ceylon. Kuvera (also called Vaisravana and Jambhala) was king of the Yaksha demi-gods or sprites, and forms of his effigy are closely related to certain images from Gandhāra, such as Fig. 1 in Pl. XI of *The Gandhāra Sculptures*. Dr. Vogel probably is right in associating all the Bacchanalian sculptures of Mathurā with Yaksha worship.¹ But the exact meaning of the Stacy and Pālī Khera reliefs is far from clear. Whatever it may be, those sculptures have considerable merits as works of art.