Possibly eastern Madhya Pradesh
Beginning to mid-eleventh century CE
Sandstone; 64.5 x 24.4 x 17.8 cm
(25-3/8 x 9-5/8 x 7 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lenart, Los Angeles, 69.28.1
Provenance: Acquired 25 November 1969.

As the threshold to the divine realm, temple portals are potent and liminal areas of the structure and therefore lavished with sculptural attention. With the proliferation of temples across northern India, doorways became elaborate and sets of deities came to take specific locations on doorframes (Figs. 44, 45). Typically the two river goddesses, Ganga and Yamuna, stood at the lower doorjambs. Flowing down from the Himalayan peaks where the gods are believed to reside, they link the mountainous abode of the gods with the temples built by their mortal devotees in the valleys below. The Ackland’s Female Attendant would have accompanied these deities, welcoming worshippers to the sacred space and protecting the living deity in the sanctum.

Fragments of vertical bands of sharply incised flame-like patterns rising behind the figure indicate that the piece was part of a larger sculptural ensemble located at the base of a doorjamb (pedya).1 The shift of her hip toward the door indicates her probable position on the right jamb.

She stands within an architectural frame, a lotus bud rising from her now-missing right hand, greeting the viewer with a slight smile. Her square face terminates in a sharp chin. Under finely arched brows, her eyes are elegantly carved, their sharpness emphasized by undercutting at the edges. Her hair is tied above her head with a jeweled clip. Jewelry adorns her breasts, neck, arms, and hip. Suspended beads draw attention to her breasts. Wrinkles on her neck, under the breasts, and around the navel accentuate her full form, while her elegant shape is revealed beneath the fine drapery.

The hairstyle and columns flanking the figure yield clues that allow us to date her. Although such framing of figures is common, the diamond-shaped ornament in the square capital is very distinctive. It occurs on monuments throughout northern India from about the end of the tenth to at least the early twelfth century.2 When considered with her distinctive hairstyle, which was particularly prevalent from the tenth century until the early eleventh century CE,3 it suggests the figure was created from the end of the tenth century to the early years of the eleventh century. Her body type and facial features can be compared with female figures from the eastern Madhya Pradesh region.4 MN

1 Oral communication from Michael W. Meister. An alternate location would have been the pilasters outside the doorframe, but the smooth and contained edges on either side of the piece suggest that this was less likely.
2 For the diamond in capitals motif, see for example a doorjamb in the Bahu temple (ca. 975–80 CE) at Nagada, Udaipur District, Rajasthan, illustrated in Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture, North India: Beginnings of Medieval Idiom, ed. M.A. Dhaky, vol. 2, pt. 3, bk. 2 (New Delhi and Philadephia: American Institute of Indian Studies and University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), plate 468.
3 Multiple examples of figures displaying this hairstyle are illustrated in Dhaky, Encyclopaedia, vol. 2, pt. 3, bk. 2: a doorway in the Kakora Baba temple (ca. 975–1000 CE) at Bahua, Fatehpur District, Uttar Pradesh, plate 265; wall sculptures on the Lakshmana temple at Khajuraho, Chhatarpur District, Madhya Pradesh (ca. 950 CE), plates 181–184; a doorway in the Ghantai temple at Khajuraho (ca. 975 CE), plate 214; wall sculptures on the Vishvanatha Temple at Khajuraho (ca. 999 CE), plate 227; a doorway in the Shaiva matha at Chandrehe, Rewa District, Madhya Pradesh (ca. 973 CE); the Shaiva goddess at Gurgi, Rewa District, Madhya Pradesh (tenth to eleventh century CE); the Hara-Gauri image at Gurgi, now in the Rewa Museum (ca. tenth century CE), plate 158; a door jamb now in the Vishnu-Varaha temple at Bilhari, Jabalpur District, Madhya Pradesh (ca. 950 CE), plate 161; and a doorway in the Shiva temple at Marai, Satna District, Madhya Pradesh (ca. 975 CE), plate 127. This last figure’s proportion, posture, and ear-adornment are strikingly similar to the Ackland’s piece.
4 She also bears similarities to figures from Garwha, Allahabad District, Uttar Pradesh, now in the Allahabad Museum. For an illustration, see M. Mohan Mukhopadhyay, Sculptures of the Ganga-Yamuna Valley (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1984), plate 50. Email communication from Darielle Mason, 2/28/2006.