Unknown
Two Addorsed Tree Dryads50 BCE-50 CE

On view:

Resnick Pavilion, floor 1

Sandstone architectural bracket sculpture of a kneeling female figure with raised arms, braided hair, and beaded jewelry, carved in high relief from the base of a weathered rectangular corbel

Sandstone bracket figure of a female yakshi in a dynamic bent-knee pose, arms raised to support a rectangular architectural element above; wearing beaded jewelry and a low hip girdle, with braided hair and foliage carved in high relief behind her.

Sandstone relief sculpture of a female figure in tribhanga pose, adorned with beaded jewelry and a low-slung garment; flanked by foliage and attendant figures in high relief against a rectangular backing slab.

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Two Addorsed Tree Dryads
Place Made: India, Madhya Pradesh, Sanchi, Stupa I
Date Made: 50 BCE-50 CE
Medium: Sandstone
Dimensions: 24 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (62.23 x 41.91 x 19.05 cm)
Credit Line: From the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, purchased with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Balch
Accession Number: M.85.2.1
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: South and Southeast Asian Art
Curatorial Notes: In this sandstone image of two elegantly adorned women standing back-to-back (addorsed), the women’s voluptuousness exemplifies the traditional Indian ideal of feminine beauty, which is closely linked with natural abundance. Each of the individualized women holds the branch of a fruit-bearing or flowering tree, suggesting a type of tree nymph of Indian poetry--a beautiful woman who can make trees or flowers bloom by a mere touch of her hand or foot (shalabhanjika). The inclusion of the beautiful tree nymphs and other nature spirits in Buddhist art represents the assimilation of popular village and folk divinities into the higher religion that served to broaden its appeal and attract converts.

These addorsed dryads originally served as a bracket between two gateway lintels of the Great Stupa at Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, and thus would have been seen by worshippers on both sides of the gateway. Built in the 2nd century BCE on the site of an even earlier stupa or reliquary mound, Sanchi is one of the most important early Buddhist sites in India. Its four gateways - added in the early first century CE and 30 feet in height - still stand today. For a miniature Votive Stupa, which is a devotional version of a large stupa, see M.85.224.6.
Selected Bibliography: Peyton, Allysa B. and Katherine Anne Paul. Arts of South Asia: Cultures of Collecting. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2019.
Little, Stephen, Tushara Bindu Gude, Karina Romero Blanco, Silvia Seligson, Marco Antonio Karam. Las Huellas de Buda. Ciudad de México : Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 2018.
Little, Stephen, and Tushara Bindu Gude. Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art across Asia. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2025.

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