The Railing Pillar Yakshi: Norton Simon Museum

The object being analyzed is the Railing Pillar Yakshi on display at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. The object depicts a yakshi, traditionally a fertility spirit, usually associated with a tree, standing on top of a gremlin or imp-like figure in relief. Above the yakshi is another smaller figure in which only the torso is shown. The second smaller figure is surrounded by columns and appears to be in something like a chaitya hall. The yakshi has a similar purpose to others surrounding such places as a stupa, however, it is much less ornate and a tree is not depicted with it. Due to this, the yakshi must have transitioned in meaning to appeal to more people and to expand their reach and meaning to more people. To begin, the object is
The lines serve as a guide for the path that a viewer’s eyes should take and as a result, the viewer first see the ideal form, the goddess, next he or she sees that which could represent them, the imp-like creature, a possible motif for humanity, or at least, the unenlightened, and then next, the driving force behind the goddess is wanted, so the eye is directed upwards to find the figure which appears to be more powerful than the yakshi. The yakshi’s simple ornaments could be due to a transitioning of the message of yakshi’s from an ideal to a more mundane and human obtainable form, which as a result, provides a sense of security and safety for those who are circumambulating the stupa in which the railing is around. The yakshi nevertheless is depicted as being divine but is much more relatable than other images of her. Another example of such a transition is in the form of the fertility tree motif being missing from the object, which is curious because the yakshi were previously synonymous with such a tree and such a change could be for what was mentioned above, that being that the Indian artisans, or rather the religion in general, are trying to appeal to more people, trying to make the yakshi appeal to a more mundane role. However, this does not fully remove the divine aspect of the figure as the lines of the object create a very clear distinction from