2-726-344 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Corner Railing Pillar with Drinking Scenes, Yakshis, and Musicians, 100s. This upright post was positioned at the corner of a square railing or gateway surrounding a sacred site, demarcating it from the outside world. The carvings depict a bacchanale: grapevines heavy with fruit set the scene and musicians accompany the drinking and dancing. Below, a hunchbacked woman ladles wine into a cup for a dwarf in a rocky setting. On the other face, women, like the maenads of ancient Greece, struggle to keep their garments on, while below, a lustful horse-headed nature divinity, a yakshi , accosts a young man. Forested drinking scenes associated with the god Bacchus were probably introduced into India with Roman merchants who traveled by sea to the Indus River during the flourishing time of the Silk Road, when this sculpture was made. Bacchanalian scenes reflected the joy of merchants who successfully survived the dangerous journey and accrued wealth. Indian artists in Mathura adapted them and incorporated them into the auspicious imagery that ornamented the exterior of a sacred site.