Cleveland Museum of Art

Head of a Bodhisattva

Date

75–early 100s CE

Medium

red sandstone

Culture

India, Mathura, Kushan period

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This monumental male head must have originally belonged to a larger-than-life Bodhisattva image. The imposing turban is of the type worn by royalty, divinities, and nobility during the Kushan period from the first through third century. The round, fleshy face, heightened by a subtle smile, retains the powerful quality of early Kushan and pre-Kushan images of nature divinities, known as yakshas .

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