Corner Railing Pillar with Drinking Scenes, Yakshis, and Musicians
100s CE
- Medium
- red sandstone
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 80 x 22.9 x 24 cm (31 1/2 x 9 x 9 7/16 in.)
- Culture
- India, Mathura, Kushan period
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This pillar reflects the influence of Greco-Roman culture on Indian art and the influence of Gandharan styles and bacchanalian themes on the art of Mathura. The pillar depicts female figures who, seemingly intoxicated, play instruments and dance. Two additional scenes are carved on the base. First, a hunchbacked woman pours wine for an obese male fertility figure (yaksha). The second scene probably illustrates the story of the horse-headed yakshi who ate her victims.
