Cleveland Museum of Art

Pendant in the Shape of a Fish-Tailed Elephant

Date: 185–72 BCE
Medium: gold
Culture: India, Shunga period (185–78 BCE)
Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

Because of water's life-giving properties, animals such as fish and Indian elephants who love the water were considered auspicious. This composite elephant with a playfully raised trunk and a curling fish tail would have been strung as a pendant on a necklace.

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