William Dalrymple Profile picture
Apr 12, 2021 17 tweets 13 min read Read on X
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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More from @DalrympleWill

Mar 14
A Morning at the Shaiva caves at Elephanta

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.Image
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.Image
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.Image
Read 10 tweets
Feb 20
ANNOUNCING A MAJOR NEW @EmpirePodUK SERIES:
IRELAND & EMPIRE

Episode One-
COLONISING IRELAND:
Henry VIII, Elizabeth I & The Tudor Conquest of Ireland Image
Ireland is the only country in Western Europe that has experienced being colonised in the modern era. It was used by England as a laboratory for imperialism, and was the site of bloody colonial wars for centuries, yet many people in the neighbouring United Kingdom have little understanding of Ireland’s history.Image
The new @EmpirePodUK series on Ireland & Empire begins with the Tudor Conquest. By the 1500s, there were small pockets of English imperialism in Ireland via descendants of the Anglo-Norman invasions of the 1190s, but they were concentrated along the southeastern coast.

However, when Henry VIII launched the Protestant Reformation in England, establishing control over Ireland suddenly became a top priority. In 1541, he declared all Irish people as his subjects. He built upon previous laws banning Irish language and customs, and created a militarised society. And by Elizabeth I’s reign, the Tudors introduced plantations in Ireland which granted land to English and Scottish settlers.Image
Read 5 tweets
Feb 10
What sort of democracy ransacks bookshops? The Israeli police just pillaged my brilliant friend Mahmoud Muna's wonderful bookshop opposite the American Colony, the best in Jerusalem. Apparently Muna and his nephew Ahmed have both been arrested & marched into court...
theurbanactivist.com/idea/a-booksho…
Muna is a wonderful, wise and learned guy and has encouraged generations of travellers to read more deeply into the contested history of Jerusalem. He recently co-edited this excellent collection of essays on Gaza. I hope @pen_int will immediately take up his case. Image
"Israeli police raid Jerusalem bookshops and arrest Palestinian owners. Raid on Educational Bookstore branches described by rights groups as part of harassment campaign against Palestinian intellectuals"

theguardian.com/world/2025/feb…
Read 4 tweets
Feb 2
Avi Shlaim and Eugene Rogan discuss Avi's Three Worlds: Memoir of an Arab Jew @JaipurLitFest: "Our Jewish community was very well integrated in Baghdad, where we were one minority among many. Europe had a Jewish problem. Iraq did not." Image
Avi Shlaim: "My mother regarded Zionism as an Ashkenazi thing. She thought it was nothing to do with us. Most of us were very happy in Baghdad." Image
Avi Shlaim: "When I was working on this book I came across new evidence that the Mossad let off bombs in Jewish premises in Baghdad to frighten us to emigrate to Israel. The evidence is, I believe, incontravertible. I am completely certain that Israel was responsible for the uprooting of the Jewish community of Baghdad."Image
Read 5 tweets
Jan 2
New from @EmpirePodUK -

ZEBRAS & ZODIACS:
JAHANGIR & THE MUGHAL ART REVOLUTION Image
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The Emperor Jahangir was a true connoisseur of beauty. His reign witnessed a flourishing of art, particularly through his patronage of workshops of brilliant artists who between them created a series of extraordinary masterpieces. Image
The reigns of Jahangir saw the artistic highpoint of the Mughal atelier, and with it the moment of greatest celebrity for the masters at court. Jahangir awarded his two master artists, the brilliant animal painter Mansur and his rival Abu’l Hasan, the titles Nadir al-Zaman, ‘Wonder of the Age,’ and Nadir al-Zaman, “Wonder of the Times.”

Abu’l Hasan seems to have been a particular favourite of Jahangir. “I have always considered it my duty to give him much patronage,” wrote the Emperor in his own autobiography, the Jahangirnama, “and from his youth until now I have patronised him so that his work has reached the level it has.”Image
Read 8 tweets
Jan 1
The oldest surviving sculptures of the Buddha in Southeast Asia. Found at Oc Eo, now on the Vietnamese side of the Mekong Delta, and the presumed site of one the very first Indic-influenced courts in the region, known to the Chinese as Funan. Image
The Chinese called this city state Funan – the Indians, Vyadhapura. We do not know what it was called by its own inhabitants. A Chinese court envoy who came to Funan in the third century ce left the first eyewitness portrait of this nascent trading world. ‘This place is famous for precious rarities from afar,’ wrote the Chinese Xue Zong in the third century ce: ‘pearls, incense, elephant tusks, rhinoceros’ horn, tortoise shell, coral, lapis lazuli, parrots, kingfishers, peacocks, rare and abundant treasures enough to satisfy all desires.’Image
To 21stC eyes, the tall waterlogged wooden Buddhas found at the site are astonishingly beautiful- like Giacometti's Walking Man, and even more than that, the Etruscan bronze know as The Shadow of the Evening which inspired some of his best work Image
Read 5 tweets

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