{
"data": {
"id": 123438,
"accession_number": "1943.661",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Naga (Serpent Divinity), 300s CE. India, Mathura, Kushan period. Sandstone; overall: 67.3 cm (26 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1943.661",
"current_location": "242A Ancient India",
"title": "Naga (Serpent Divinity)",
"creation_date": "300s CE",
"creation_date_earliest": 300,
"creation_date_latest": 399,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"India, Mathura, Kushan period"
],
"technique": "sandstone",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art - Kushan, Mathura",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 67.3 cm (26 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.673,
"height_inch": 26,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 13, 1985-January 15, 1986), Asia Society Galleries, New York, NY (February 13-April 6, 1986), and Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (May 13-July 13, 1986).",
"opening_date": "1986-02-13T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1943",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1943-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The coils of a serpent's body and the bottle of water in his hand confirm the identity of this figure as a water serpent divinity called a naga. Nagas continue to be important divinities in local piety, for they control the forces of water, essential for prosperity.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60759930"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1943.661-naga-serpent-divinit"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Codrington, Kenneth de Burgh, and William Rothenstein. Ancient India from the Earliest Times to the Guptas with Notes on the Architecture and Sculpture of the Medi\u00e6val Period. London: E. Benn, Limited, 1926.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pl. 22D",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Hollis, Howard. \u201cThree Indian Buddhist Sculptures.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 31, no. 3, 1944, pp. 33\u201337.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 36",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/25141113"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 748",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n135"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 229",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n253"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 229",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n253"
},
{
"citation": "Czuma, Stanislaw. \u201cMathura Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum Collection.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 64, no. 3, 1977, pp. 83\u2013114.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 87, fig. 5",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/25152680"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 288",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n308"
},
{
"citation": "Pal, Pratapaditya. \u201cA Kush\u0101n Indra and Some Related Sculptures.\u201d Oriental Art, vol. 25,no. 2 (Summer 1979): pp. 213-230.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 19, p. 222",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Czuma, Stanislaw J. and Rekha Morris. Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. no. 27, p. 88",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 15",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n30"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.661",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
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"print": {
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"full": {
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 123438,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1943-12-29T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 300,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "300s CE",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Nagaraja"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:21:03.815000"
}
}