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Selfie with replica of Chauri Bearer / chauri is fly-whisk.

The sculpture is currently located in the Patna Museum in Bihar, India.

It is 64″ tall, carved out of a single piece of stone.

Estimated to date from ca. 3rd century BCE.

Discovered at Didarganj on the outskirts of the city of Patna, in 1917

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The sculpture is currently located in the Patna Museum in Bihar, India. It is 64″ tall, carved out of a single piece of sandstone. The chauri [fly-whisk] is held in the right hand whereas the left hand is broken. This life-size free-standing sculpture is highly polished sandstone, and the lower garment has a somewhat transparent effect. It was excavated from Didarganj, on the banks of the Ganges River, in 1917. The Didarganj Chauri Bearer is estimated to date from ca. 3rd century BCE.

An wonderful article by Nanak Ganguly on Patna Museum, throws some light on its discovery..click here....
The records of the Patna Museum relate that the well preserved statue of the female cauri (fly whisk) bearer was found when the villagers at Didarganj, Pataliputra. According to some scholars she first made her appearance in as buried object on the banks of the river Ganga at a place called Didarganj on the outskirts of the city of Patna in 1917. What attracted the attention of a local maulavi was the jutting edge of the large pedestal of the statue, which, when dug out, turned out to be the base of a life sized-voluptuous female figure, carrying a long fly whisk flung over one shoulder. A semi-nude figure with wide hips and large globular breasts, the statue was impressive on many counts-its size(standing six feet eight inches on its pedestal), the intricate style of its modeling, and, not least, the lustrous polish of the sandstone.

The Didarganj Chauri Bearer is widely viewed by archaeologists as one of the finest examples of Mauryan art, and one of the most precious artefacts of ancient Indian sculptural art. Mauryan art encompasses the arts produced during the period of the Mauryan Empire (4th to 2nd century BCE), which was the first empire to rule over most of the Indian subcontinent. It represented an important transition in Indian art from use of wood to stone. It was a royal art patronized by Mauryan kings especially Ashoka. Pillars, Stupas, caves are the most prominent examples.

 

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Yakshi or Yakshini is the female counterpart of the male Yaksha, and they are attendees of Kubera, the Hindu god of wealth. They are the guardians of the treasure hidden in the earth. A yakshi is accepted as a symbol of fertility by the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain faiths. She is usually portrayed as beautiful, voluptuous woman, with wide hips, narrow waists, broad shoulders, and exaggerated, spherical breasts. She can cause a tree to bear fruit simply by touching it with her foot. Sculptures of yakshi are often seen in elaborate architectural motifs on the façades of temples and stupas. They became Salabhanjikas (sal tree maidens) with the passing of the centuries, a standard decorative element of both Indian sculpture and Indian temple architecture.

 

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