Veneration of the flaming pillar
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Pillar imagery in both Buddhist and Brahmanical traditions is understood to bridge the human and heavenly realms. According to the literature of early Buddhism, the Buddha miraculously raised a sacrificial post (yupa) so that monks could gaze upon it in wonder. Even in its incomplete state, this panel with jubilant fly-whisk-waving attendants, dwarfs (ganas), and celestial celebrants (vidyadharas) conveys a sense of ecstatic devotion. Here the divinely adorned post rises majestically, interrupted at regular intervals by a fruit-form disc (amalaka) with acanthus-leaf projections upon which the celestials dance.
Artwork Details
- Title: Veneration of the flaming pillar
- Period: Ikshvaku
- Date: late 3rd century CE
- Culture: India, Nagarjunakonda, possibly Stupa Site 6, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh
- Medium: Limestone
- Dimensions: H. 23 1/4 in. (59 cm); Est. W. 7 7/8 in. (20 cm); Est. D. 3 15/16 in. (10 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Lent by Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights and Reproduction: Courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art