An Important Dated "Yaksha" from Mathura: Bhatishri's Manibhadra

By Donald M. Stadtner

Manibhadra Mathura, 431 Sandstone Height 99 cm Private collection

While students of religion scoff at the legendary visits of the Buddha to ancient Mathura, it is a pity that the Master was not reborn in order to tour the city during the third decade of the fifth century. Much of northern India then was under the control of Kumaragupta I (r. c. 41455), whose subjects were feverishly founding Hindu, Buddhist and Jain monuments. In Mathura, the Buddha would probably have been invited to visit a monastery where a woman named Bhatishri was the presiding governess. Together they would have admired an array of Buddhist statuary whose value today is inestimable. The spectacular example in Figure 1, a stone image of the deity Manibhadra, was possibly placed within the entrance to Bhatishri's monastery. That this same image would occupy a significant place in charting the course of early north Indian sculpture centuries later could scarcely have occurred to them.

The seated figure is carved from a single block of the spotted red sandstone characteristic of the Mathura region. A five-line Sanskrit epigraph incised on the base records that Bhatishri established this image in a monastery during the reign of Kumaragupta in the year 112:

Success! In the victorious ruling year 112 of the great lord, the king of kings, the illustrious Kumaragupta, in the year 5 of continuous reckoning, in the 2nd month of the rainy season, in the third day, the governess of the monastery [vihara] Bhatishri, who was the wife of Dona, the son of Nagabuddha, the son of Nagashri, and the daughter of Dharmaghosa, and the mother of Chandranaga, caused to be made the image [pratima] of the great commander [senapati] of the yakshas, Manibhadra, for the residents of the monastery. What merit there is in this gift, let that be for all sentient beings.

The year 112 belongs to the Gupta era (c. 319c. 550), and therefore the sculpture can be dated to 431. The addition of the `year 5' in the inscription has no ready explanation, since regnal years are not included in Gupta epigraphs. However, another inscription in Mathura from the time of Kumaragupta I reveals the same unusual use of two dates, the first in Gupta era 121, or 440, followed by the year 15 (Sharma, p. 209, fig. 43). If 15 and 5 are subtracted from the two dates provided in the Gupta era, the results are nearly equivalent, 425/426, respectively. Only a third Gupta inscription bears two dates in the same fashion, a Mathura epigraph of Chandragupta II (Gupta era 61, or 380), followed by the year 5 (D.C. Sircar, Select Inscriptions Bearing on Indian History and Civilization, Calcutta, 1965, pp. 277-79). Perhaps confined to Mathura and based on multiples of five, these three inscriptions relate to regnal years but in a way that is not yet understood.

Manibhadra is second only to the supreme leader of the yakshas, Kubera. Yakshas, or `nature deities', play a ubiquitous role in the subcontinent and figure among the earliest and most celebrated icons in Indian art, together with their female counterparts, yakshis. In Hinduism, Kubera is counted among the Guardians of the Eight Directions. He is also one of the Regents (lokapalas) of the Four Quarters in Pali Buddhism who are attended by numerous yakshas, including Manibhadra (Maniyakkhasenapati in Pali). (This rarely depicted group is found among glazed plaques at the twelfth century Ananda temple in Pagan, Burma.) By the Gupta period, Manibhadra was substituted for Kubera in Sanskrit texts such as the Mahavastu and Lalitavistara, perhaps explaining his importance at Mathura. Yakshas can be demonic, exemplified by the legendary pacification of a fierce yaksha tribe by the Buddha in Sri Lanka; and the account by Xuanzang (596-664), the Chinese pilgrim to India, of a local legend in which the Buddha converted a yaksha fond of human flesh. Manibhadra was also a deity dear to travellers and merchants, confirmed in the Hindu epic Mahabharata and by a first century BCE epigraph near Allahabad citing the deity as a protector of caravans (D.C. Sircar, Religious Life in Ancient and Mediaeval India, Delhi, 1971, pp. 141-47). In addition, he is mentioned in mediaeval Buddhist texts among other yakshas surrounding Jambhala, the common appellation for Kubera in Buddhism.

Despite numerous references to Manibhadra in Jain, Buddhist and Hindu literature, depictions are rare compared to those of Kubera. The earliest are two large standing headless figures whose bases carry identifying inscriptions, from Parkham (late 2nd century BCE) and Pawaya (1st/2nd century), in the vicinity of Mathura and Gwalior respectively (Misra, pp. 83-84). The arms of the former image are missing, but the Pawaya sculpture reveals a raised right arm and a satchel in the lowered left hand. The satchel, or money-bag, is an attribute par excellence of the yaksha Kubera and may have been borrowed from Manibhadra. Veneration of the yaksha Manibhadra continued into the Gupta period, but the deity was always overshadowed by Kubera.

The original placement of the sculpture invites speculation, since monasteries in Mathura itself have not survived from the Gupta period. This imposing yaksha, however, may have been designed for a monastery entrance in the same way that a prominent painted image of Manibhadra is found today inside the porch of a rock-cut monastery at Ajanta (this fragmentary fresco on the left side of the verandah in Cave 17 is labelled `Manibhadrah' [sic.]). This tradition of placing a yaksha within entrance chambers is witnessed also at seventh century Sirpur, Chhattisgarh, and at the principal eighth century monastery at Ratnagiri, Orissa (M.G. Dikshit, Sirpur and Rajim Temples, Bombay, 1960, pl. 51). In both cases, the male god is matched with a female image on the opposite wall. The pairing of Kubera, or another yaksha, and the goddess Hariti is found at Mathura during Kushan times (1st-3rd centuries) and is connected to ancient Gandharan imagery of Panchika-Hariti (Sharma, figs 24, 172, 173).

The hitherto unknown Manibhadra rests on a throne, his left foot upon the base (see Fig. 1). His right hand is raised, perhaps signifying abhaya mudra (the gesture of reassurance), while his left grasps the top of a long purse. The subject would probably be identified as Kubera because of its exaggerated stomach and its satchel, had not the inscription specified the donation as Manibhadra. An unpublished sculpture recovered from Mathura in 1992 reveals a similar composition, but the figure holds a cup in his right hand and probably a moneybag, now missing, in the other (Fig. 2). The reverse side of this buff-coloured sculpture reveals red Mathuran sandstone. A record on the base is incised with characters perhaps dating to the end of the fifth century or later. Its iconography denoting Kubera became standard by the end of the Gupta period and continued for centuries (see also figs 5 and 6). In mediaeval sculpture, the purse is often replaced by a mongoose whose mouth spews forth jewels; the addition of two extra arms is another post-Gupta variation. Other images of Manibhadra have yet to be identified, but this impressive sculpture from Mathura and the deity's prominence at Ajanta suggest that this deity enjoyed greater popularity than the two surviving examples imply.

The Gupta manner of depicting a yaksha seated on a throne can probably be connected to a development in the late Kushan period. The most convincing link is a seated image from Mathura, one hand holding a cup and the other a rounded object, possibly a fruit (Fig. 3). The inscription on its base, which dates from the third or fourth century, identifies the figure as `Maharaja, Graha Yaksha called Dharmanitya', an otherwise unknown deity (Williams, p. 14). This convention of seated yakshas, which began in the late Kushan period, gradually supplanted the pre-Kushan tradition of life-size or colossal figures that were free-standing and worshipped independently.

An unpublished double-sided sculpture from Mathura underscores the many ways in which yakshas were depicted in Kushan times, the pot-bellied figure holding cups in both hands (Fig. 4). Perhaps the most famous yaksha from Kushan times is a corpulent seated figure carved in the round, preserved in the National Museum, Delhi. It has been commonly referred to as Kubera, but its identity is unclear, since its attributes are missing. At least two standing figures from Kushan Mathura hold sacks, but their identity must remain undetermined. A Gupta yaksha identified as Kubera holds a cup in his left hand and what appears to be a radish in his right, a unique variation (Fig. 5).

The forty-year reign of Kumaragupta I has yielded only a meagre handful of dated sculptures, namely a Jina pedestal (dated 417), a Buddha image from Mankuwar (429), and a seated Jina (432/433) (Williams, figs 59, 60, 104). These works are reminiscent of late Kushan sculpture and therefore scarcely anticipate the refinement associated with the second half of the fifth century. In 1976, however, a standing Buddha dated to 434/35 was unearthed at the Govindnagar mound in Mathura that challenged the usual thinking about fifth century north Indian sculpture (Williams, fig. 61). On the basis of this dated Buddha, other magnificent Buddhist and Hindu images are now assigned to the second quarter of the fifth century. This masterful Manibhadra therefore greatly reinforces our understanding of this flourishing phase of Gupta sculpture.

Imbuing vitality to such a squat figure posed an irresistible challenge to an anonymous but brilliant sculptor. The yaksha's massive chest forms a stable central axis around which the extremities and drapery are dynamically positioned. The prominent stomach is echoed both in the circular halo above and the cloth on the base. The plain bracelet, armbands and necklace effectively enhance the broad areas of smooth flesh. A wide sash running behind the figure reappears around the waist and rests on the figure's forearm.

The top of the throne is adorned with a fanciful crocodile facing downwards with a triangular object fully inside its mouth. Its rich, exuberant tail contrasts with the chasteness of the neighbouring nimbus. At the centre of each earring is a lion from whose mouth gushes strings of pearls held by outstretched paws. The yaksha's head-dress combines numerous motifs in a compelling ensemble, beginning with a headband comprising diverse twisted strands of minute ornament. The summit is a cornucopia of intricate decorative bands whose basic form also finds parallels with other Gupta period head-dresses (Fig. 5) (see also Deborah E. KlimburgSalter, Buddha in Indien, Vienna, 1995, fig. 217). A large diadem on the side of the headdress features a lion from whose paws pearls descend into the mouths of two tiny crocodiles.

The sensuous lips, thick sweeping moustache, and fleshy folds in the neck convey the combination of strength and earthly pleasure associated with yakshas. Inside the wide eye sockets are incised the pupils and irises. Moustaches were probably a convention inherited from the Kushan period but evidently disappear on Kubera images by the end of the fifth century (Fig. 6; see also Fig. 5).

Three Kubera images attributed to the Gupta period are strong works of art (see Figs 2, 5 and 6), but Bhatishri's Manibhadra transcends them. The drapery beneath the image in Mathura is stiff and ungainly, for example, compared to Manibhadra's sash which descends onto the base with a flourish, terminating in a graceful fish-tail shape (see Fig. 1). Or compare the delicate satchel held by the Kubera in Figure 6, adorned with finely incised decorative motifs, to the simple, sturdy sack of Manibhadra. Also, the composition of the Kubera in Figure 5, with legs symmetrically resting on the base, requires less foresight and skill. Perhaps the most forceful illustration of the genius behind the image of Manibhadra is the way in which the upraised foot is balanced on the throne's edge. A deeply incised line surrounding the heel of the foot creates the appearance that the foot itself is pressing deeply against the figure's stomach. Such a subtle device fosters the ineffable mixture of naturalism and idealism for which Indian sculpture is so justly known. We can only assume that Bhatishri was satisfied with the Manibhadra she had commissioned. Perhaps she felt in competition with the twenty monasteries that the Chinese pilgrim Faxian recorded thirty years earlier during his visit to Mathura. Indeed, this Manibhadra captures the best of Gupta aesthetic ideals.

On the Buddha's purported visit to Mathura he evidently found many things wanting, asserts one Pali text (C. Rhys Davids, The Book of Gradual Sayings [Anguttar-Nikaya], London, 193236, 5.22.10). There was too much dust, the dogs were wild and alms were difficult to collect. Added to that, according to the Sanskrit manuscripts from Gilgit, the Buddha not only found too many bushes and thorns in Mathura but even had to chastise a goddess (devata) that appeared before him naked (N. Dutt, Gilgit Manuscripts, Delhi, 1939, vol. 3, part 1, pp. 14-15). One feels, however, that if the Master were able to return to the sparkling city with Bhatishri in 431 he probably would have reached a very different conclusion.