I'm become very interested in yakshas, yakshis and nagas- classes of sacred beings which seem to be relatively peripheral to modern Indian religion and spirituality, but which dominated much of the art of early India, whether Hindu, Buddhist or Jain.
Monumental stone sculptures of Yakshas —freestanding and carved in the round- begin to appear from the third century BCE, as witnessed spectacular yaksha from Parkham near Mathura made “in the guild of Manibhadra by Gomitaka, a pupil of Kunika."
The Parkham Yakshi (left) is said by the ASI to be the oldest free-standing statue in Indian art, c275 BCE, but the Mathura Museum contains several others that are only slightly younger, 200-100 BCE
From around the same time are the Besnagar Yaksha & Yakshi, icons of extraordinary robustness and power and the ancestor of much subsequent Indian statuary. Like those in Mathura they tall, royally attired, well-fed figures, carrying bags of coins, flasks of medicine & swords.
The Bharhut stupa, c120 BCE, is guarded by a series of nearly-life-sized named Yaksha Rajas: “tamed spirit-deities incorporated into the faith as guardians & devotees of the stupas. They stand asmarkers of the Buddhists’ success in taming & converting troublesome spirit-deities"
For each Yaksha Raja at Bharhut, there are Yakshis, standing in perfect poise, voluptuous figures with sloping shoulders, substantial breasts, narrow waists, a rounded stomach with lightly incised folds, wide hips and strong tapering thighs.
The Yakshis of Mathura are the most gorgeous, auspicious fertility figures resembling palace women in their attire and jewellery, with particular emphasis placed on hips and breasts.
The Yakshis association of fertility is often expressed through a special connection between yakshis and vegetation. It is quite common to see the female figure placed alongside trees, resting an arm across a branch or holding a piece of fruit or a flower.
Some of the most beautiful of the Mathura yakshis, the Salabhanjikas, show Ashoka trees bursting into fruit and blossom at their touch “thus symbolizing the transfer of the woman’s fertile energy to the tree.”
The beautiful, fertile body of these early Yakshis continue to permeate Indian art and thought, cutting across religious boundaries so that images of woman-and-tree are found in Buddhist, Hindu, Jain contexts, and finally, perhaps most gorgeously, in Mughal & Pahari miniatures.
Meanwhile the Yakshas (left and centre) provided the prototype and inspiration for the first monumental standing Buddha image (rignt) of the Kushan period, which significantly developed in Mathura, one of the main centres of Yaksha worship.
The best of my photographs from my travels in search of ancient India will be on show at @ArtVadehra Delhi next month and @grosvenorart London in July
The Yakshi under her tree reborn in Mughal and Pahari court dress
The Mudgarpani ("Mace-holder") Yaksha (100 BCE), Mathura. This colossal statues stand around two metres tall and holds a mudgar mace in the right hand, and the left hand used to support a small standing devotee or child joining hands in prayer.
And yet more late Mughal and Pahari reincarnations of Kushan yakshis under their trees
So many now wish to see the story of Indian civilization as one of thousands of years of conquest, subjugation& destruction. Yet to me it is the continuities which are most striking, & the way that Indian civilization always succeeded in seducing and transforming its conquerors.
This post has shown how the Kushan motif of the Yakshi clutching a tree, first formed in Mathura c150 CE, continued to be painted in late Mughal and Pahari ateliers well into the 19th century.
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Don't miss this week's @EmpirePodUK Partition double bill:
The Creation of Pakistan... and
Why India was Split in Two
Part One: Jinnah, Ruttie & the Idea of Pakistan
How come Jinnah was originally know as the Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity? Why did he initially accept that Pakistan could be part of an Indian Federation? When did Jinnah start to push for Pakistan to be independent from India? What was Direct Action Day in 1946, and how did it start the violence of Partition? share.google/rpyzvoT4QBpSIP…
Dividing India:
Why was the Partition of India and Pakistan so rushed in 1947? How did Partition divide everything from stationery to army boots in a matter of weeks? And how do South Asians today grapple with the memory of the largest forced migration in history? share.google/EnKs7GPSdhElv6…
When the Macedonian soldiers of Alexander the Great first broke into Gaza after the siege of 332BCE, they recorded what they saw and left the first eyewitness account of Gaza that survives....
They recorded the vast stores of incense and spices which the merchants of Gaza had brought overland by camel caravan from southern Arabia.
When he was a boy, Alexander had been ticked off by his tutor Leonidas for scooping up handfuls of precious frankincense to burn on the altar as offerings to the Gods. Leonidas had clucked reprovingly, “Alexander when you have conquered the lands which produce these aromatics, then you can scatter incense in this extravagant manner. Until then, don't waste it.” Now Alexander sent to the elderly Leonidas a gift of 500 talents (13.7 tonnes) of frankincense and 100 talents of myrrh, with the message, “I have sent you frankincense and myrrh in abundance , to stop you being stingy to the Gods.”
Not Gaza 2025, but Jaffa 1948, after the Nakba
#ThisDidntBeginonOct7 #HistoryRepeating
The Manshiya quarter of Jaffa was destroyed in a series of bombardments led by the Irgun during the 1948 Nakba in order to drive out its Palestinians inhabitants
The history of Gaza is full of surprises: I had no idea it was home to a Christian Byzantine school of rhetoric, "an important library that could compete with Athens, Alexandria, Beirut and Constantinople" and also an Festival of Roses that celebrated "the arrival of Spring and the workings of Eros" at which poetry was read- in other words a sort of erotic Gaza Litfest.
The Church of St. Porphyrius, which was first built in 425 AD, is the last survivor from this world. It still, just, survives though the Israelis shelled its outbuildings last year. 450 Palestinians, mainly Palestinian Christians, were sheltering there. Eighteen were killed.
And as @GhassanDahhan has just pointed out to me, Polybius in about 120BCE commends the people of Gaza for their bravery in the face of external aggression: penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman…
The caves were carved with clear Gupta influence in the 5th-6thC, probably under the patronage of the Vakataka or Kalachuri dynasty; but not one inscription has ever been found which can solve the conundrum of who commissioned these fabulous master works.
1. Eight armed Shiva Nataraja, in the graceful Lalitha pose, embodying the eternal energy of creation which shapes and gives birth to the universe.
2. The Eternal Shiva- Sadashiva
Of the five faces of Shiva, three are visible:
On the left, Aghora/Bhairavi, the fierce and terrifying aspect of Shiva.
On the right, Vamadeva/Uma, the beautiful, feminine and pleasing aspect of Shiva.
In the centre, Mahadeva/Tatpurusha, the fusion of male and female, locked in meditation, eyelids lowered, lips closed, the embodiment of absolute knowledge.
3. Adhikari Shiva- Shiva in the act of skewering the demon Andhakasura, who had desired the beautiful Parvati and tried to abduct her. Not a good move. Despite having been given a boon by Brahma that any drop of his blood that touched the ground would grow a new demon, Shiva made short work of him by collecting his blood in a skull-cup and feeding it to the blood thirsty goddess Chamunda. But Andhaka realised the error of his ways, praised Lord Shiva and was forgiven. Eventually he was made the Chief Commander of the Shiva's dwarf armies, the Ganas.