Cleveland Museum of Art

Nature Divinity (Yakshi)

Date

c. 75 CE

Medium

mottled red sandstone

Culture

India, Mathura, Kshatrapa period (c. 20 BCE–114 CE)

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This powerful figure personifies the ideal of the young mother in the form of a nature goddess associated with birth and nourishment. Her iconic stance with the weight equally distributed on both feet indicates that this statue was an object of worship. Her extraordinary headdress, well preserved in the back, and full complement of jewels and ornaments, point to the idea of wealth, which leads to prosperity. The prominence of the peacock (enemy of serpents) on the back of her headdress suggests she has the power to protect against snakebite.

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