A Unique Hariti Image from Gandhara

Summary

Usha Jain introduces and analyses an unusual Gandhāran sculpture of Hārītī, a Buddhist goddess associated with fertility and the protection of children. The relief, housed in the Indian Museum in Calcutta and originating from Jamal Garhi, shows Hārītī standing beneath a flowering tree with her husband Pañcika and two children. Hārītī holds a noose in one hand and touches her husband with the other, while a nude child stands between them. Jain contextualises the iconography by retelling Hārītī’s myth: once a child‑devouring yakṣiṇī, she was converted by the Buddha and transformed into a beneficent mother figure. The article compares this depiction with other Gandhāran and Mathuran images, noting features such as foreign dress, jewellery and the blending of Greco‑Roman and Indian artistic conventions. Jain discusses the symbolism of the noose, the significance of the children’s poses and the rarity of such complete family scenes in Buddhist art. Through stylistic and epigraphic analysis, she argues that the sculpture reflects a synthesis of local cults and Buddhist didactic narratives, thereby enriching our understanding of Hārītī’s worship and the cosmopolitan nature of Gandhāran art.