Cleveland Museum of Art

Section of Monolithic Railing with Bather and Lotus Medallions

Date

c. 150–250 CE

Medium

red sandstone

Culture

India, Mathura, Kushan period

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Railings demarcated a sacred space, such as a tree shrine or a stupa. Images associated with purifying waters were carved on the railings, as if to symbolically cleanse those who passed through the gate. Under a fruit-bearing tree is a young woman squeezing water from her hair. In a visual depiction of an ancient Indian poetic trope, a goose mistakes the drops of water for pearls and comes to eat them. In the windows above, carved on the coping stone, are two voyeurs and a bowl made of leaves filled with flower garlands, which would be used to adorn the sacred site.

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