Keshanistoyakarini - lady drying her wet hair

Title
Keshanistoyakarini - lady drying her wet hair
Year/Period
11th century
Region
Khajuraho style, Chandella, central India
Material
Dimension
Object size: ,
With stand: 107 x 30.5 cm,
Object size: ,
Without stand: 99 x 27 cm
Accession No.
1998-01381

This sculpture is of an apsara-devangana (celestial nymph or beauty) drying her wet hair. The figure of apsara is depicted from its back almost three quarter visible. The depiction of the transparency of the lower and the upper garment and the details of the jewellery denotes contemporary trends in women’s accessories. It forms part of the temple mandovara (wall) display in the gallery that incorporates images of deities, dikpalas (directional deities), apsara-devangana and vyalas (leonine creature) and rishi (sages). Apsaras are semi-divine spirits who are water and air-borne and appear and disappear at will.