INDIA, ORISSA, 11TH CENTURY

Apsaras are celestial beings in Hindu and Buddhist culture. Originally envisioned as female spirits of cloud and water, they later transformed into nymphs and fairies. Beautiful, young and elegant, apsaras are skilled in the art of dancing and possess the ability to change their form at will. Comparable to the muses of ancient Greece, the 26 apsaras in Indra’s court each symbolise a different aspect of the performing arts. While they predominantly appear in sculptures, apsaras also play significant roles in literature, dances and paintings in South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures.
Stylistically idealised and nymph-like, the celestial damsel reflects the aesthetics two centuries earlier. When compared to a sandstone apsara at the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (acc. no. 1998.745), both apsaras exemplify the ideal female beauty of the time, characterised by prominent breasts, small waists and long legs. With their hips twisted to one side, these celestial beauties strike dancer-like poses that display their physical charm to maximum advantage. (Pal, Pratapaditya. A Collecting Odyssey: Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1997, pp. 335-36.) The lotus base on which the present apsara stands signifies her high status and association with water, similar to the lotus-leaf parasol of the Chicago apsara. Clothed in a very thin piece of fabric, the figure is adorned with a headband, armlets, necklaces and a belt.