Two Sections of a Copestone

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Two Sections of a Copestone

India, Uttar Pradesh, Mathura region (?), circa 50 BCE-5 CE
Sculpture
Mottled red sandstone
(a) 6 1/2 x 39 3/4 x 5 1/4 in. (16.51 x 100.96 x 13.33 cm); (b) 6 1/2 x 25 1/2 x 5 1/4 in. (16.51 x 64.77 x 13.33 cm)
From the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, purchased with funds provided by the Jane and Justin Dart Foundation (M.81.90.21a-b)
South and Southeast Asian Art
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

These two fragments of a copestone, and several additional sections in the National Museum, New Delhi, Museum of Asian Art, Berlin (10092), and the Cleveland Museum of Art (2011.145), originally funct...
These two fragments of a copestone, and several additional sections in the National Museum, New Delhi, Museum of Asian Art, Berlin (10092), and the Cleveland Museum of Art (2011.145), originally functioned as a top structural element of a railing (vedika) around a Buddhist or Jain funerary monument (stupa) in the Mathura region. See M.85.62, M.85.224.5, and a complete section of a comparable Mathura stupa railing in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1943.71). The decoration consists of a recessed frieze of animals (three lionesses and one ram) alternating with a honeysuckle motif. Above the frieze is a row of alternating bells and buds suspended from an astragal molding. Copestone b has an incomplete Prakrit inscription written in the Brahmi script. The complete inscription and translation have been published by Herbert Härtel. It reads, Caused to be made by Kashiputra Yashaka, the confidant of King Suryamitra, the son of Gopali. (Herbert Härtel, “Eine Mathura-Inschrift der vor-Kusana-zeit,” in Beiträge zur Indienforschung (Berlin: Museum für Indische Kunst, 1977).
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Bibliography

  • Little, Stephen, and Tushara Bindu Gude. Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art across Asia. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2025.
  • Rosenfield, John.  The Arts of India and Nepal: The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection.  Boston:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966.
  • Little, Stephen, and Tushara Bindu Gude. Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art across Asia. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2025.
  • Rosenfield, John.  The Arts of India and Nepal: The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection.  Boston:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966.
  • Trabold, J. The Art of India, An Historical Profile.  Northridge, CA:  California State University Press, 1975.
  • Pal, Pratapaditya. Indian Sculpture, vol.1. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; University of California Press, 1986.
  • Pal, Pratapaditya. In Pursuit of the Past: Collecting Old Art in Modern India, circa 1875-1950. Mumbai: Marg Foundation, 2015.
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