Art History 414-Curating India (Khullar, Winter 2016): Objects

Note:  Due to differences in transliteration schemes and/or the original language or languages, words may have different spellings and may not always be linked to one another; for example:  yakshis are also called yaksis or yakshini or yaksini.  The yakshi from the Great Stupa at Sanchi is also called the Sanchi Torso by some authors.  Sanchi is also spelled Sanci in some systems. 

• ARTstor:  Images from museums around the world.  

Provenance information, size, material, repository.  Able to zoom into image for study.  Register to download images.

• Museum web site

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

1.  Torso of a fertility goddess (yakshi), from the Great Stupa at Sanchi

Includes provenance information and notes with references to museum and other publications; possible resources for paper; also alternate views of the piece including the back.  This particular piece also has audio commentary regarding the sculpture's origin and purpose.

Image of the Torso in the South and Southeast Asian Art section, Gallery 176

Able to see what the object looks like in the room in the museum

As per the audio information, an image of a yaksi touching a tree from the British Museum

2.  Yakshi, fragment from a railing of a stupa, Bharhut

Includes provenance information and notes with references to museum and other publications; possible resources for paper.

View of the Yakshi fragment from Bharhut in the museum using Google Arts & Culture

• Oxford Art Online:  Includes Grove Art and other Oxford University Press art reference titles, images, background information, bibliographies
• Art Research Guide:  Access Images Research Page:  Includes links to other image resources such as Camio and other museum websites.  

Note:  If you choose an object from a local museum, see if there's an exhibition catalog available with information on the object, or if there is acquisition information available through a museum bulletin or newsletter.  If all else fails, consult a curator or museum registrar.  

Using ARTstor, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's website, and Oxford Reference Online, the following resources were identified as potentially being relevant to our topic:

Torso of a fertility goddess (yakshi), from the Great Stupa at Sanchi

• Cunningham, Alexander.  Bhilsa Topes; or, Buddhist Monuments of Central India (London, 1854), pl. XIV.
• Coomaraswamy, A.K.  "A Yaksi Torso from Sanchi," MFA Bulletin 27 no.164 (December, 1929), pp. 90-94
• Coomaraswamy, A.K., "The Sanchi Yaksi Torso," MFA Bulletin 28 no. 165 (February, 1930), p. 18.
• Coomaraswamy, A.K., Yaksas, 2 vols (New Dehli, 2001) [reprint].
• Irwin, J.  "The Sanchi Torso," Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, vi (1974–5), pp. 52–66.
• Marshall, J. and A. Foucher.  The Monuments of Sanchi, 3 vols (Calcutta and London, 1940).
• Mitra, J.  Sanchi (New Delhi, 1973).

Yakshi, fragment from a railing of a stupa

• Barua, B.  Bharhut, 3 vols (Calcutta, 1934–7/R Patna, 1979).
• Cunningham, Alexander.  The Stupa at Bharhut (London, 1879), pp. 36, 39-40, pl. LII, 1.
• Coomaraswamy, A.  "A Yakshi Bust from Bharhut," MFA Bulletin, October 1931, p. 81.

Image credit:  Yakshi, fragment from a railing of a stupa; Indian, Shunga period, about 120 B.C.; sandstone sculpture; Denman Waldo Ross Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.