These two addorsed female worshippers were originally baluster figures from the architrave of an entrance gateway (torana) to a Buddhist or perhaps Jain funerary monument (stupa), such as at Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh (gateway: circa 100–75 BCE) or Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh (gateways: circa 50 BCE–1st century CE). They were previously attributed to Central India, late 2nd-mid-1st century BCE (Rosenfield 1966, p. 23 no. 3) or subsequently to Bharhut, circa 100 BCE (Pal 1986, pp. 147-148, no. S27). More recently, they were reattributed by Sonya Rhie Mace to the Mathura region, circa 150 BCE, on stylistic grounds and because the red sandstone used for the carving is closer to that of Mathura sculptures than the plum-colored sandstone of Bharhut images. (See Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura, Ca. 150 BCE-100 CE (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 22-23, Figs. 12a and l2b).
The two women both wear large copious jewelry, including ornamental chains around their head and long hair, necklaces, armlets, bangles, bracelets, anklets, and ornate hip belts (katibandha). They have diaphanous lower garments and long shawls draped around their waist and forearms. They stand with one leg slightly bent in mirror-image postures. The woman on side a carries a flywhisk or flower with long blossoms in her left hand. She holds what is likely a fruit or gem in her right hand. The woman on side b has her hands held in the gesture of adoration (anjali mudra).