Cleveland Museum of Art
Roundel with Mermaids and Lotus
- Date
- c. 100 BCE
- Medium
- ivory
- Culture
- India, Bengal, Chandraketugarh area, Shunga period (185–78 BCE)
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
This ivory disk was possibly part of a massive earring around which lobes were stretched so that they rest on the shoulders. Eight figures that are half woman and half fish hold hands in a ring around a series of concentric circles containing floral imagery. Their hands and tails make the repeated form of an auspicious trident-shaped symbol, often depicted with fish tails in combination with a lotus flower. The full-breasted forms, the tails, and the lotus flowers evoke the imagery of life-giving waters. A circle of eight female figures later comes to refer to the maidens of the eight directions of the sky ( ashtadikpalikas ).
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
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