18.Yakṣa Padmanidhi
- Late 3rd century
- Nagarjunakonda, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh
- Nagarjunakonda, Andhra Pradesh
Padmanidhi and his companion Sankhanidhi served as the chief attendants of Kubera, god of wealth, guarding his hoarded riches. The figure here has the squat physique of the goblin protectors of the spirit world. A cornucopia of coins cascades from his lotus-shaped head device into his lowered hand. In keeping with wider trends in iconographic development, the shift from symbolic to human representation of treasure happens in about the third century CE; this sculpture thus represents one of the oldest personifications known.
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