The city of Pompeii was a prominent centre of trade and affluence in the Roman Empire prior to the eruption of the Volcano Mount Vesuvius in AD 17. Being completely submerged in the lava, the ancient city was preserved with remarkable details. Through excavations, Pompeii became one of the best sources of Ancient history in the world and revealed the everyday life of the common people.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Pompeii is the fact that every single artefact from the bygone era has remained visibly untouched and preserved despite the natural calamity— archaeologists attribute this to the lack of air and moisture following the volcanic eruption. In the early 20th century, amid the ruins of this ancient Roman city, archaeologists unearthed an exquisite figurine that resembled the Indian Goddess Lakshmi.
The statuette, standing 25 cm high and carved from ivory, is referred to as ‘Pompeii Lakshmi’ and was found in a wooden chest along with sundry objects in a private home in Pompeii. Pompeii Lakshmi is depicted nude except for a girdle around her waist and heavy jewellery. She is wearing heavy necklaces, bangles, an elaborate head ornament and elaborate coiffure. Two female figures on either side of her probably depict attendants. The statuette was found in many pieces and was painstakingly reassembled by archaeologists and conservators.
The base of Pompeii Lakshmi bears a Kharosthi inscription, which suggests that it could have travelled from Gandhara in ancient India (present-day Pakistan). The most widely accepted source of the sculpture is believed to be Bhokardan in Maharashtra (modern-day Jalna), which was a part of the Satavahana territory as female figures similar to Pompeii Lakshmi were discovered by archaeologists there.
The baffling discovery revealed deep cultural exchange and trade between ancient India and the Roman Empire in the first century AD. The nomenclature of the Pompeii Lakshmi was debated via intensive historical analysis. By observing closely the iconography of the figure, it was agreed that it was a representation of the Yakshi, a spirit deity in the Indian ritual traditions as the figure lacked many of the attributes of Lakshmi, like the lotus, elephants or owl.
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However, the Pompeii Lakshmi had similarities with the syncretic sculptures erupting with a close encounter of Greco-Roman culture with the Indian traditions in the Gandhara region. Some sculptures from the period were multi-dimensional and carried different meanings to different people. For example, a figure from Gandhara was considered a Bodhisattva Vajrapani by the Buddhist laity and the Heracles or Hercules by the Greco- Roman people.
It is argued, that the iconography represented in this statuette may have been imported from the Classical world, possibly derived from the iconography of Venus attended by cherubs holding cosmetics containers, which are well known in Greco-Roman art. Most probably, the figurine was possibly a syncretic version of the Venus-Sri-Lakshmi figures that started appearing in the first century AD.
The Pompeii Lakshmi would therefore be a mixture of Indian and Classical art. Yet another fascinating aspect of the statuette is that her features closely resemble female figures featured across Buddhist monuments at prominent sites like Bharhut (late second-century BC) and Sanchi (50-25 BC) in central India as well as Karle (50-75 AD) in western India.
The intimate intermingling of religious motifs in the Pompeii Lakshmi point to the syncretic religious culture of the ancient people, where continuous exchange of beliefs and ideas was taking place and differences in religious practices were embraced wholeheartedly.
