Buddha's Previous Life as a Woodpecker: Javasakunda Jataka (c. 175–225 CE): Art, History and Details

Buddha's Previous Life as a Woodpecker: Javasakunda Jataka (c. 175–225 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Scenes from the past lives of the Buddha were among the major themes found on early Buddhist monuments. This one exemplifies his acts of kindness and his intelligence in one of his past lives when he was a born as a woodpecker and helped dislodge a bone from a lion's throat.

Object facts

• Title: Buddha's Previous Life as a Woodpecker: Javasakunda Jataka
• Date: c. 175–225 CE
• Culture: Southern India, Andhra Pradesh, possibly Amaravati, Satavahana period (100s BC-AD 200s)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: limestone
• Dimensions: Overall: 30.7 x 54.2 x 9.6 cm (12 1/16 x 21 5/16 x 3 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Andhra, Amaravati
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1970.350

Collection credit

Gift of George P. Bickford

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pope, John. An Exhibition of the Sculpture of Greater India, A Fully Illustrated Catalogue. New York: C.T. Loo & Co, 1942.
• Lee, Sherman E. Buddhist Art. Detroit Institute of Arts, Twenty-Fourth Loan Exhibition, October, 1942. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1942.
• Miniatures and Small Sculptures from India. University Gallery, April 10th Thru May 29th, 1966. Gainesville: College of Architecture and Fine Arts, University of Florida, 1966.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.