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Yaksha Padmanidhi, the wealth guardian with a lotus crown
India, Nagarjunakonda, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh
Not on view
Padmanidhi and his companion Sankhanidhi served as the chief attendants of Kubera, god of wealth, guarding his hoarded riches. The figure here has the squat physique of the goblin protectors of the spirit world. A cornucopia of coins cascades from his lotus-shaped head device into his lowered hand. In keeping with wider trends in iconographic development, the shift from symbolic to human representation of treasure happens in about the third century CE; this sculpture thus represents one of the oldest personifications known. The figure probably dates from the reign of the Ikshvaku king Ehuvala Cantamula, who is credited with a building boom of Brahmanical temples at Nagarjunakonda. While a Hindu context is most likely, the later use of both Padmanidhi and Sankhanidhi as stupa guardians in Sri Lanka demonstrates that they were also popular in a Buddhist setting.
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