Page 66 - 2021 March 17th, Indian and Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art, Christie's New York City

A Rare Figure of Hariti

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 alike
attributes. A finely carved gray 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 Greco-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 protective deity.
Although her Japanese, Korean and Chinese Buddhist variants prospered
into the modern era, Hariti all but vanished from 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 gray 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
The goddess Hariti with three children; Sikri, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province;
dark schist, 36 ½ in. (92 cm.) high; Lahore Museum, G-102. 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.