Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Head of a yogini or goddessfront

© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

  • Head of a yogini or goddess (side)
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Head of a yogini or goddess

  • Details

    show all
    Associated place
    Gujarat (possible place of creation)
    Rajasthan (possible place of creation)
    Date
    2nd half of the 17th century - 1st half of the 18th century
    Material and technique
    grey sandstone
    Dimensions
    44 x 34 x 23 cm max. (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    sandstone
    Technique index
    carved,
    carved
    Object type index
    religious/ritual equipment,
    figurine
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Purchased, 1965.
    Accession no.
    EA1965.41

  • Further reading

    Harle, J. C., and Andrew Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987), no. 60 on pp. 49-50, illus. p. 50

Location

    • First floor | Room 32 | India from 600

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

    Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

    In Indian art, most detached heads sculptured in stone have been broken off their bodies, as in the case of [EA1963.27, EA1961.138, EAOS.61, and EAX.245]. In Rajasthan or Gujarat, however, heads such as this one replaced the tip of the central spine of each of the four sides of the śikhara (“tower”) of the “northern” types shrines built at a relatively late date. They are called yoginīmukhas (yoginī heads) and presumably represent one of the minor female deities or demonesses who follow Durgā. In certain other parts of India, lions or other figures occupy this position.

    The style or approximations to it is most often seen in small brass heads from the same regions of western India and, except for folk art (there are traces of folk style here), represents the final purely Indian stylistic development there before the admixture of European elements.

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