Capital

myminifactory

Pillar capital in the form of a winged lion, made of carved sandstone from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh dating from the late 1st or early 2nd centuries AD during the Kushan period. The sculpture would have formed the capital of a pillar (stambha) framing the entrance to a sacred enclosure. The curious form of the tail, usually given the form of an aquatic creature, here may be associated with a plough share, the attribute of the Hindu deity Balarama, whose origins appear to be as an agricultural deity.