ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, SWAT VALLEY, 2ND-4TH CENTURY CE

Imbued with an aura of motherly guardianship, the present figure represents the yakshi-turned-Buddhist deity, Hariti. Perhaps the single most prevalent female deity in the ancient region of Gandhara, Hariti is revered as a grantor of wealth and fertility. She was likely integrated into the Buddhist pantheon as a direct adaption of the Kushan protector goddess Ardhokhsho, although she is also seen as an indirect analogue to the Greek goddess Tyche, Roman Fortuna, Hindu Shri and Persian Anahita, all exhibiting similar iconographical qualities. Despite her prevalence, this more than four-foot tall figure abounding with children and jewels, is among the few large-scale sculptures of Hariti remaining in private hands.
Hariti derives her identity from a story of conversion. Born a ravenous yakshi, Hariti is said to have birthed over 500 children. To sustain her large family, day by day, she devoured a child in Rajagriha, Buddha’s place of residence. Upon hearing of her activities, the Buddha concealed Hariti's own dearest child, Priyankara, underneath his offering bowl. Searching for her child, Hariti grew so distressed by the perceived loss of one of her own that she finally understood the pain she had caused the mothers of Rajagriha. Buddha convinced her to amend her destructive behavior, and in return, ensured that monasteries leave food out for her every day.
Consequently, images of Hariti with a child in her arms were commonly installed in food halls of Buddhist monasteries to ensure fertility and sustenance. In the seventh century travelogue, A Record of Buddhist Practices Sent Home from the Southern Sea, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Yijing described images of Hariti placed upon porches in dining areas across South Asian monasteries, and witnessed abundant food offerings made with wishes for fertility and wealth— which Yijing insisted were always fulfilled (see Junjiro Takakusu (trans.) A Record of Buddhist Practises, Oxford, 1896, p. 37). Reading this account, one would expect to see ample images of Hariti surviving to the present day; the reality, however, is quite contradictory, with the number of surviving figures of Hariti paling in comparison to monumental images of Buddha and the bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Maitreya.
The importance of Hariti cannot be understated. While pregnancy, labor, and infancy are all highly precarious stages in human life, the archeologist and historian A.D.H. Bivar believes the development of Hariti as a primary image in the Buddhist pantheon resulted from a devastating pandemic known as the Antonine Plague in the second century of the Common Era (see A.D.H. Bivar, “Hariti and the Chronology of the Kushans” in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1970, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 19-20). Suspected to have been smallpox, Bivar posits the epidemic developed in South and Central Asia during the reign of the Kushan emperor Kanishka (c. 127-150 CE) and spread to pandemic-reaching proportions throughout the Roman Empire and China via the caravan routes of the silk road trade. Causing drastic social and political effects throughout the region, it is possible Hariti’s popularity reflected a growing desperation to preserve a fragile population fraught by biological disaster.
Iconographically, Hariti is almost always depicted surrounded by her children, often climbing and clinging to her figure. At times, she is represented with fangs, suggesting her pre-conversion yakshi-ogress identity. She is often paired with her consort Panchika, a yaksha chief and patron of wealth, together representing familial bliss. Representations of her seated upon a throne in the “European Style,” while holding a cornucopia, draws close comparison to the Greek goddess Tyche who is depicted with similar attributes. A finely carved grey schist sculpture at the British Museum (acc.no. 1950,0726.2, see Zwalf, A Catalogue of the Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum, London, 1996, p. 98) perfectly encapsulates a Graeco-Buddhist representation of the tutelary couple, Panchika dressed as a Greek soldier and Hariti hoisting a large cornucopia. Images of Hariti survive in both large-scale gray schist statuary and smaller architectural reliefs. A gray schist bust of a bodhisattva, sold at Christie’s New York, 27 March 2003, lot 8, wearing a collar necklace centered with a pendant of Hariti holding a cornucopia suggests her image was also popularized on personal amulets.
The present figure of Hariti is wrapped in a clinging tunic, revealing a solid body type associated with fecundity and good health. Children beside both feet tug at her dress, while two more rest on either shoulder. A fifth child originally hung from her proper left breast, however only remains of their forearm exist in its present state. She holds a commanding stance to offer her protection to mothers and infants. A wealth-giving goddess, she is dressed in fine jewelry— a necklace, collar, weighty earrings, and a pair of coiled serpentine armlets, a favored motif of Graeco-style jewelry. Her face is square, with wide eyes, an urna denoting her divine rank, and pursed lips with a rare and remarkable remnant of rosy polychromy in the recessed area. Upon her neatly coifed hair and a wreath of tightly woven leaves, rests an unusual and informative headdress representing city walls, likely symbolizing her role as a location-specific protective deity.
Although her Japanese, Korean and Chinese Buddhist variants prospered into the modern era, Hariti all but vanished from the Swat Valley, eventually succeeded by the bodhisattva Tara in the seventh-ninth centuries. Despite her allegedly universal monastic prevalence, surviving monumental examples of the deity are relatively limited. Comparable examples are preserved in public collections, including a well-modeled figure of Hariti at the Lahore Museum (acc. no. G-102) holding three children in a naturalistic pose. A seated image of Hariti surrounded by seven children at the British Museum (acc. no. 1886,0611.1, see Zwalf, A Catalogue of the Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum, London, 1996, p. 90) bears resemblance to the present example, particularly in the rendering of the children and Hariti’s wreath and adornments. Finally, a dated and inscribed grey schist image of Hariti at the Chandigarh Museum (acc. no. 1625, see A. Proser, The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara, New York, 2011, p. 20, fig. 8) can be considered the closest known comparanda to the present example in terms of composition and style, exhibiting a similar firmness in her posture and demeanor and children held in identical positions.