Nature Divinity (Yakshi) with Dwarf Hermaphrodite (c. 100 BCE): Art, History and Details

Nature Divinity (Yakshi) with Dwarf Hermaphrodite (c. 100 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Nature divinities, or yakshis, are associated with the life-giving forces of plants, so her headdress includes a dramatic array of leaves and flowers. Her companion, a female figure with male genitalia, is a dwarf who has connections with the fecundity of the earth. Terracotta figurines were often venerated in domestic shrines for the ongoing prosperity of the family.

Object facts

• Title: Nature Divinity (Yakshi) with Dwarf Hermaphrodite
• Date: c. 100 BCE
• Culture: India, Shunga period (185–78 BCE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 18 cm (7 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Sunga
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1972.259

Collection credit

Gift of Adrienne Minassian by exchange

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1972." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 3 (1973): 63-115.

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.