{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O13423"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O13423/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010DE8462/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010DE8462/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2010DE8462","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2010DE8464","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BC5541","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O13423/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O13423","accessionNumber":"IS.133-1999","objectType":"Icon","titles":[{"title":"Yaksa","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The cults devoted to nature spirit worship in early India generated the earliest corpus of sculptural evidence from the subcontinent, and prepared the way for image making for the religions which followed and displaced the yaksa and yaksi cults. Monumental stone sculptures survive from northern India, along with an array of small clay and terracotta images that were produced across the length of the Gangetic plains. The style and clay-body here suggests that this moulded image of a seated yaksa is from Bengal, where many examples of these cult figures have been found. This example is similar to finds from Chandraketugarh and other coastal sites in Bengal, but its precise provenance is unrecorded.\r\n\r\nThe figure is represented as a grotesque with a hunchback physique and corpulent body. He is garlanded and wears an ornamental woven headband crowned with a curious hair construction (jatamukuta); he is seated on a cane stool. The figure has been moulded in a two-part mould, the sections being luted together with a clay slip, the vertical seam remaining visible. Such images were produced in large quantities for placing at yaksa shrines, which may have ranged from a simple stone slab serving as a platform-altar beneath a tree or at a tank or riverside, to constructed yaksa shrines of which a number are recorded in inscriptions from the Kushan period. The precise religious or magical function of such figurines is unknown but we may assume they were essentially protective and talsimanic, to ward off the malevolent forces that were understood to roam the Indian countryside.","physicalDescription":"Seated yaksa.  The function of such small icons is unclear, although they may have served as devotional tools for appeasing the spirits of the natural world.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Clay","id":"AAT10439"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"}],"styles":[{"text":"Sunga","id":"AAT18880"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2010DE8462","2010DE8464","2006BC5541"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"137","id":"THES49876"},"free":"","case":"R","shelf":"3","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Moulded image","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"India","id":"x29790"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1st century BC to 1st Century AD","earliest":"-0100-01-01","latest":"0100-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"12.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"5.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"19.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"(including mount)"},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"169","unit":"g","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Purchased from Danny Biancardi, beneficiary of the estate of his father Alex Biancardi.\r\nThe purchase was made possible with the assistance of Jean-Michel Beurdeley, Fausta and John Eskenazi, Alexander Gotz, Henry Ginsburg, Jonathan Hope, Peter Marks, Anna-Maria and Fabio Rossi, Spink and Son Ltd, Tom and Danielle White, Doris Wiener and an anonymous donor. \r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Seated yaksa, terracotta, Bengal, eastern India, 1st century BC-1st century AD","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Guy, John: 'Indian Temple Sculpture', London  V&A Publication, 2007, p.40, pl.40.\r\nISBN 9781851775095\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"L'escultura en el temples indis : l'art de la devoció : exposició organitzada per la Fundació \"La Caixa\" i el Victoria & Albert Museum, Londres. [Barcelona: Obra social, Fundació \"la Caixa\", c2007 Number: 9788476649466","id":"AUTH339669"},"details":"p.57, Cat.17","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Jansari, S. and Muthukumaran S., <i>Ancient India: Living Traditions</i>, London: The British Museum Press, 2025","id":"AUTH410830"},"details":"pp. 29-30, Fig. 1.14","free":""}],"production":"Chandraketugarh, Bengal, eastern India.","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"MOULDED IMAGE OF\nYAKSA\nTerracotta\nChandraketugarh, Bengal\nEastern India\n1st century BC-1st century\nAD\n\n\nIS.133-1999","date":{"text":"25/09/2000","earliest":"2000-09-25","latest":"2000-09-25"}}],"partNumbers":["IS.133-1999"],"accessionNumberNum":"133","accessionNumberPrefix":"IS","accessionYear":1999,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2025PD5215","2019LW0071"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-06-05","recordCreationDate":"1999-12-15","availableToBook":false}}