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.
