YAKSHA STELE.

CENTRAL INDIA.

PROBABLY MADHYA PRADESH.

10TH - 11TH CENTURY.

H. 92 CMS, 36 ¼ INS.

A dramatic and important pink sandstone stele depicting a bejeweled Jain Yaksha seated in lalitasana with his right hand raised in vitarka (teaching) mudra, attended by devotees including one holding an offering dish and another proffering what appears to be a bag; the apex with three celestial attendants (gandharvas), one wielding a drum and two others bearing garlands.

The auspicious srivasta mark on the chest indicates that this sculpture is Jain in origin.

A Yaksha (fem. Yakshi) is a nature-spirit, usually benign, who acts as a caretaker of the natural treasures concealed in the earth and in tree roots. They occur in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythology.

For a related image, see the Yaksha couple in the Santinatha Jain Temple, Khajuraho – fig. 51 in O.C. Gangoly and A. Goswami, The Art of the Chandelas,Calcutta: Rupa & Co., 1957. For a related image of a Yakshi in the British Museum, see cat. no. 72B in P. Pal, Jain Art from India: The Peaceful Liberators, New York: Thames and Hudson, 1994.