Fragment from a Railing Crossbar with Noblemen Riding an Elephant in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2023

Title: Fragment from a railing crossbar: nobleman riding an elephant

Period: Shunga

Date: 1st century BCE

Culture: India, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh

Medium: Sandstone

Dimensions: H. 16 3/8 in. (41 cm); W. 27 15/16 in. (71 cm); D. 4 3/4 in. (12 cm)

Classification: Sculpture

Credit Line: Lent by National Museum, New Delhi

Object Number: TS.066

The 1915 discovery of this and other railing fragments in Mathura confirmed the presence of a Buddhist monastery complex a short distance from the city center in the early centuries BCE. A richly bedecked elephant carries a ruler of one of the eight kingdoms that laid claim to a portion of the Buddha’s remains following his cremation. Given the absence of a reliquary from the scene, this may represent an earlier moment in the narrative, when the kings of the region traveled hastily to Kushinagar to secure their share of the relics; the texts report that one of the claimants arrived late.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/761672