The Bewitching Yakshi

The Bewitching Yakshi

The Didarganj Yakshi is widely accepted as one of the finest and most precious artifacts of ancient Indian art. It is India’s Mona Lisa, one of the finest sculptures ever discovered. Yakshis are a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, who are caretakers of the natural treasures hidden on earth and appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist literature. 

She was discovered by chance, on the banks of the Ganga in Didarganj, a village near Patna in 1917. According to a Patna Museum publication, the then commissioner of Patna, EHS Walsh records in a letter that a man known as Ghulam Rasoolsaw what looked like the base of something sticking out of the muddy banks of the Ganga near Didarganj. He proceeded to dig out the stone and thus the statue was discovered. For years the base of the statue was being used by washer-men to wash clothes.

It was acquired by the Patna Museum in 1917 and she became one of the most prized possessions, a symbol of ancient India’s aesthetic proficiency.The statue suffered damage over the years it lay buried. The left arm is missing and the Yakshi’s nose is chipped. Despite these disfigurations, the statue exudes a romance and magic of a time gone and is a breathtaking example of the superior level of craftsmanship of our ancient artisans.Apart from folk representations in terracotta, this sculpture is one of the earliest visual statements of the Indian ideal of female beauty.

There are two opinions to the antiquity of the Didarganj Yakshi. Archaeologists have dated it to the 3rd Century BCE, while some historians, basing themselves on details of ornamentation, insist that it belongs to the 2nd Century CE; a broader consensus places it in the Mauryan period.It is difficult to date it properly because it is a standalone discovery, no other associated artifacts were found at the same site.

The Didarganj Yakshi has been used as a roving art ambassador by India. She has travelled across continents and has been exhibited in many countries, including the Festival of India held at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, USA. It was during one such exhibition that the nose was chipped off.

This highly polished chunar stone sculpture embodies close-to-perfect standards of feminine beauty of ancient India. The Yakshi holds a chauri (flywhisk) in the right hand whereas the left hand is broken. Her figure is voluptuous with a full bust, slender at the waist and wide at the hips. The prominent breasts, the narrow waist and broad hips are classic features of feminine beauty of all ages.The sculptor’s sensitivity towards the round muscular female human body can be seen from the folds of muscles that have been properly rendered. More unusual but prescribed norms of beauty are incorporated as the grivatrivali – the three fold lines on the neck and katyavali – folds of flesh at the waist. The tightening of garment around the belly creates the effect of a bulging belly. Heaviness in the torso is depicted by heavy breasts and impressive back. The slight bend in the left leg endows the statue with a subtle impression of graceful motion. The image has been painstakingly burnished to create a glossy surface.

On a recent trip to Patna to attend a conference, I stopped by the Patna Museum to see the Didarganj Yakshi. The Yakshi stood in the centre of a special gallery, her smiling self, elegantly carrying her voluptuous, polished body, despite her broken arm and chipped nose. I was simply bowled over.  My date with the Yakshi was an unforgettable experience. I went back each of the three days I was there, slipping away from the drab deliberations and spending time with her. I just fell in love, head over heels.

The most striking about the statue, after one has absorbed the obviously attractive features, is the graceful manner in which the figure endears itself. The Yakshi stoops slightly forward instead of standing upright, seeking a posture of humility. The smile on her lips is elusive, yet hauntingly sweet. The design of her right leg is slightly bent as if due to the weight of the fly-whisk she holds and the firmness of her grip on the chauri, shows the delicacy of rendition in detailing.

Equally striking is the depiction of clothes with which her body is draped. The lower garment, elegantly folded and pleated in the front is held in place by exquisite waist ornament (cummerbund). Every fold of the garment on the legs is shown by protruding lines clinging to the legs, which create a somewhat transparent effect. The upper garment is pulled across the back and allowed to fall at the sides.

The sheer beauty of the elaborate ornaments that adorn the Yakshi, from her head to toe, at the ankles, forearm and neck are the earliest examples of these characteristic items which from then on were represented in all sculptures of women. The fly whisk seen in her right hand can still be found at wedding ceremonies all over Bihar. Interestingly, this style of ornaments remains unchanged to this day.

The Didarganj Yakshi could well have become a sacred object of popular worship had it not been ‘rescued’ by archaeologists and art historians and turned into an icon of classical Indian art. Noted archaeologist Partha Chatterjee writes “But as the Yakshi stands in her splendid isolation in an otherwise unremarkable and now somewhat drab provincial museum in Patna, the historian today can ask: Who does the Yakshi exist for there? For the small community of scholars, connoisseurs, museum officials and uninitiated viewers who have invested in her with her unique historical, aesthetic and national value, or for the masses who throng the spaces of all such museums in India, who remain completely oblivious of her true art- historical worth, who bring to her at best a curious gaze or totally improper obeisance?