Stair Stringer with Triton

This small, triangular stone panel originally acted as a decoration for the side of a stairway that was once part of a stupa, a large, mound-shaped Buddhist monument that enshrined holy relics. The mythical figure represented is a triton, a merman that in this period was often shown with wings and a horse’s forelegs. The triton in the stupa decoration, probably matched with real and mythical figures on the other stair stringers, symbolized that beings from all realms of existence were welcome.

Although the triton comes from Greek and Roman mythology and the figure is sculpted in a Graeco-Roman style, this work was created in South Asia during the Kushan Empire (30–375 CE) in the region known as Gandhāra (today parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan). It was a wealthy and cosmopolitan region, a crossroads for trade and travel. Connections with ancient Greece date as far back as the time of Alexander the Great (4th century BCE), and in the Kushan empire sculptures that combined Indian and Graeco-Roman styles were made in large numbers for Buddhist sites.