Pendant in the Shape of a Fish-Tailed Elephant (185–72 BCE): Art, History and Details

Pendant in the Shape of a Fish-Tailed Elephant (185–72 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Because of water's life-giving properties, animals such as fish and Indian elephants who love the water were considered auspicious. This composite elephant with a playfully raised trunk and a curling fish tail would have been strung as a pendant on a necklace.

Object facts

• Title: Pendant in the Shape of a Fish-Tailed Elephant
• Date: 185–72 BCE
• Culture: India, Shunga period (185–78 BCE)
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: gold
• Collection: Indian Art - Sunga
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1973.63

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "The Year in Review for 1973." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (1974): 31-78.
• Sengupta, Arputha Rani. Buddhist Jewels in Mortuary Cult: Magic Symbols. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 2019.

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.