Lotus Base with Squatting Gana Figure
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This pedestal, a rarity in Dvaravati art, shows a familiar motif in early Indian Buddhism: an obese dwarf supporting emblems of the conquering faith. Such grotesques represent pre-Buddhist nature-cult deities (yakshas and yakshis), the spirit forces that inhabited the landscape, submitting to the authority of the new religion. This sculpture was recovered in Ayutthaya, but, like so much religious imagery found at the former capital, it must have been transferred there in Ayutthaya’s heyday, before the 1767 sack by the Burmese. It perhaps came from the ancient city of U Thong, a major center of Dvaravati culture.
cat. no. 17
cat. no. 17
Artwork Details
- Title: Lotus Base with Squatting Gana Figure
- Date: ca. early 8th century
- Culture: Central Thailand
- Medium: Sandstone
- Dimensions: H. 18 7/8 in. (48 cm); W. 11 in. (28 cm); D. 5 7/8 in. (15 cm); Wt. 85 lbs (52 kg)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Lent by Chao Sam Phraya National Museum, Ayutthaya, Thailand (5/6 CH)
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art