Didarganj Yakshi

Anarchists are dead against the accumulation of wealth as it leads to inequalities and inequities of all kinds and not least to the hubris that everything can be bought including mother nature. That is why the adivasis all over the world, the quintessential anarchists, have traditionally had norms in place to prevent the accumulation of wealth. However, the accumulation of wealth does have some benefits. One of them is the creation of works of art of a high quality which would not have been possible on a lower material base. There was a time about three centuries before the christian era when the first great empire in India was set up by the Mauryan dynasty which peaked under the rule of Asoka and it was headquartered at what is now Patna in Bihar. This period is also famous for its great works of art, the most visible and talked about examples being the Asokan pillars whose lion figure embellished capitals have been used in currency notes and the chakra or spoked wheel in the national flag. However, the piece of sculpture, that puts all other ancient Indian art in the shade is the Didarganj Yakshi shown below.

Wealth needs to be secured. Those who are poor will naturally try to get at the accumulated wealth and so it has to be guarded. There are numerous legends in India which talk about minor gods and goddesses being deployed to guard wealth. Such divine men were called yakshas and women yakshis. There was immense wealth accumulated in the city of Pataliputra as Patna was known in Mauryan times and so the legends of the yakshas and yakshis too must have proliferated. The Didarganj Yakshi is the result of a happy admixture of the art of sculpture and the fantasies of mythology in those ancient times.
The photo above does not do justice to the mesmerising quality of this piece of art as it stands majestically tall at 6 feet eight inches on its pedestal shining in the light focussed on it because of the exquisite polish on the sandstone from which it has been sculpted. Despite its nose being broken as well as one of its arms this beautifully carved figure of a voluptiously breasted semi-nude woman with a fly whisk is so captivating that one can spend hours standing and watching it.
I first came to hear about it in the late nineteen eighties as a youth when it was transported to exhibitions abroad and won international acclaim. Ever since then I had thought of getting a first hand look at it. However, I could not manage a trip to Patna, where it is kept in the museum. It was first discovered by a villager in the sand on the banks of the Ganges river in Didarganj near Patna in 1917. It was soon moved to the museum by the Archaeological Survey of India and over the years it has become an icon of Indian art nationalism. Indian art historians have contended that this sculpture is visible proof that ancient Indian art had its own moorings independent of west Asian or Hellenic influences.
Luckily for me it so happened that I got a consultancy assignment that required me to spend two months in Patna in May and June and I seized this opportunity to fulfil my youthful tryst with the famous Yakshi on the threshold of old age. The entrance to the Patna museum is dark but as soon as you take the left turn into the sculpture gallery the first thing you see is the wistfully smiling and big breasted Yakshi welcoming you in all its splendour. A poem in stone. I used to have my Sundays free initially before the pressure of work built up and I would walk down to the museum which was about a kilometre and a half from my hotel and spend an hour viewing the Yakshi from various angles always ending up gazing at the welcoming smile on its face.
Feminist art historians have raised the issue of why nude and semi nude figures of women have been the subject of great sculpture in India from the ancient times to the medieval ages. Obviously the artists were labouring under a patriarchal mindset. Similarly it is a fact that the Mauryan empire and Asoka's dominance were built on the decimation of tribals. A process that has continued to gain momentum over the centuries since. Nevertheless it is impossible to ignore the artistic excellence of this culture as symbolised by the Didarganj Yakshi just because it was exploitative of tribals and women. This contradiction between the forward march of civilisation and the decimation of tribals and subordination of women which is so poignantly symbolised in the figure of the Yakshi also made me ponder over the distance I have travelled from my days as a young penniless activist living a de-classed life among the tribals in Jhabua and my present status as a money earning development consultant. Life is always grey instead of being black and white and so it is best to enjoy the luminous beauty of the Didarganj Yakshi without delving too much into the darkness that is there beneath it.