Railing pillar with female figure beneath a tree

Voluptuous women and vibrant plant life symbolize fertility in many cultures. According to ancient Indian traditions, the touch of a woman of childbearing age would bring a tree into flower. This idea was incorporated into Buddhist art as it developed more than two thousand years ago. The female figure here has the full hips and breasts and the narrow waist that were admired as beautiful and as symbols of abundance. The branches of the tree behind her spread over her head. On the reverse of the pillar are shown open lotus flowers, which reinforce the sense of blossoming fertility. Such a pillar would have supported a stone railing surrounding a stupa. (A wall panel on the far side of this gallery describes the stupa.)