Stupa Panel with a Mahapurusa Figure in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2023

Title: Stupa panel with a mahapurusa figure, probably a yaksa honring the Buddha

Period: Ikshvaku

Date: 3rd century CE

Culture: India, Kotta Nandayapalem, Karlapalem, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh

Medium: Limestone

Dimensions: Visible overall: H. 51 1/2 in. (130.8 cm); W. 34 1/2 (87.6 cm); D. 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm)

Classification: Sculpture

Credit Line: Lent by Amaravati Heritage Centre and Museum, Andhra Pradesh

Object Number: TS.191

This panel depicts a noble figure attended by four dwarfs (ganas), who alternately hold an umbrella aloft, carry a vessel, or raise their hands in reverence. All four have short, corpulent physiques and wear their hair in distinctive topknots. The central figure, dressed in princely garb, stands with his left hand on his hip and holds a large lotus bloom in his right. Such lotus-bearing figures attended by dwarfs represent the last vestiges of the yaksha (nature deity) sculptural tradition in the Andhra territories and the prototype for images of the bodhisattvas, the Buddhist saviors who first appear as attendants to the Buddha.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/762020