Yamuna and two attendents (Image)
Metal, sculpture Copper with fire gilding
7.75 inches
Nepal
Ca. 18th century
Patan school
Museum #: 92.045
By Natalie R. Marsh
5 May, 1998
This Nepalese fire gilt copper sculpture represents the goddess Yamuna,
the personification of the Yamuna, or Jumna, River in India. She is identified
by the tortoise below her lower right hand. Frequently Yamuna is shown standing
directly on the tortoise which serves as her vahana, or vehicle.1
In South Asia many rivers are personified as goddesses and worshipped as
symbols of fertility and abundance. They are considered incredibly auspicious
and powerful sites where numerous rituals take place. When paired with the
goddess Ganga, the personification of the Ganges River, Yamuna assists in
marking the entrances to both Buddhist and Hindu sacred spaces and monuments
such as temples and shrines. Here Yamuna is depicted holding the mirror
in her upper right hand and the kumkum jar, a container that holds
vermillion powder, in her upper left hand. The kumkum jar and mirror
are highly auspicious attributes, shown here to indicate the beneficence
of this goddess' power. Yamuna's primary left hand is held in abhaya
mudra, the gesture granting fearlessness, and her primary right hand
is posed in varada mudra, which symbolizes the granting of boons.
The goddess is flanked by two unidentified devotes, recognized as such by
their secular dress. Due to the sculpture's current decontextualized state,
the goddess'multiple roles, and the inconclusive evidence provided by the
iconography, the actual purpose of this piece remains unclear.
1 Viennot, Odette, Les Divinites Fluviales Ganga et Yamuna, 1964.
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