Majapahit Terracotta, Java, 14th C.

The Hindu mother goddess Hariti, protector of children, is shown here in her Javanese form as Men Brajut. She sits with a child on her lap which she hugs against her chest and holds another behind her back. Hariti is often identified as the wife of Kuvera, the nature deity (yaksha) who presides over earthly riches. Open at the top, capital flared to allow the passage of a wooden post, the terracotta figure served as an ornament on the base of a pillar, probably of an open pavilion (mendopo). Many such sites have been identified in Trowulen, the capital of the Majapahit Kingdom of East Java. Provenance: Private collection, London. Acquired in the 1980s. A similar figure can also be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2009.321). See also Pratapaditya Pal, Icons of Piety, Images of Whimsy: Asian Terracottas from the Walter-Grounds Collection, Los Angeles 1987, nos. 79 & 82.