Railing pillar fragment: flowering vase of plenty
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This upper section of a stupa enclosure railing pillar is filled with a wide-mouthed vase brimming with lush plants. On the upper frieze a pair of geese (hamsas), holding flower buds in their beaks, are flanked by blue lotuses and fish. The design’s symmetry and stylized blooms recall West Asian imagery popular in northern India during the preceding two centuries. However, the wide-mouthed vase is purely Indian in form. The surge of plant life emerging from a five-pronged form seen here is associated with the primordial man (purusha). This and other expressions of auspiciousness were absorbed into early Buddhist imagery as signs of greatness; the Buddha was understood to have thirty-two such signs (lakshanas).
Artwork Details
- Title: Railing pillar fragment: flowering vase of plenty
- Period: Shunga
- Date: ca. 150–100 BCE
- Culture: India, Bharhut Great Stupa, Satna district, Madhya Pradesh
- Medium: Sandstone
- Dimensions: H. 20 1/2 in. (52 cm); W. 13 3/4 in. (35 cm); D. 6 11/16 in. (17 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Lent by Allahabad Museum, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh
- Rights and Reproduction: Photo by Theirry Ollivier
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art