Among Mauryan idols, the idol inscribed with the name Manibhadra (Yaksha) was found from which place?

Correct — option (4), Parkham.

The colossal yaksha statue whose inscription names Manibhadra was found at Parkham, a village in the Mathura area of present-day Uttar Pradesh. It is now in the Mathura Museum.

Radha Kumud Mookerji's Hindu Civilization (Part II) lists eleven colossal Yaksha and Yakshi statues. Of these, he says, the inscriptions on the Parkham Yaksha and on a yaksha from Pawaya (Gwalior) "mention the label Manibhadra (general of Kubera) for the images".

V. S. Agrawala's Studies in Indian Art lists the "Yaksha statue from Parkham village in Mathura district (inscribed)" first among yaksha figures of the folk-art tradition of the Mauryan period.

The statue's date is argued. Agrawala places it in the Mauryan period, as the stem does. Mookerji puts the whole group in his chapter on northern India c. 650–325 BC, earlier than Ashoka's court art.

Wikipedia's article on the statue reports a mid-2nd-century-BCE dating by Heinrich Lüders and about 150 BCE by Sonya Rhie Quintanilla. The find-spot is the same on every dating.

Parkham Yaksha: inscribed with the name Manibhadra.

Why the others are wrong

• (1)
  Jhing-ka-Nagra — The statue from Jhing-ka-Nagra, also in Mathura district, is a yakshi, not the Manibhadra yaksha.

  Agrawala places this yakshi, worshipped as Mansa Devi, at Jhinga-ka-nagara. Mookerji records that the Mansa Devi yakshi's inscription carries the label "Yakshi Layava" and names the sculptor Naka, not Manibhadra.

• (2)
  Noh village — Noh is the Rajasthan site among the options. Agrawala lists a "Yaksha statue found at Noh, village in Bharatpur district" in the same Mauryan-period group.

  He marks the Parkham, Pawaya and Patna statues as inscribed, not the Noh yaksha, and the Manibhadra label is recorded for Parkham and Pawaya.

• (3)
  Besnagar — Besnagar gave female statues, not the inscribed Manibhadra yaksha.

  Agrawala lists a yakshi from Besnagar near Bhopal, now in the Indian Museum, and another yakshi at Besnagar locally known as the Telin. Mookerji also lists two Besnagar female statues.

Agrawala describes yakshas and yakshis as figures "worshipped as part of the folk cults prevalent in ancient India". Large free-standing stone statues of them survive from Mathura, Patna, Pawaya, Besnagar, Noh and other sites.

Agrawala describes two art traditions of the Mauryan period: court art, seen in Ashoka's monuments, and a folk tradition seen in these yaksha and yakshi statues.

The Parkham inscription, in Heinrich Lüders's translation quoted on Wikipedia, calls the figure "the Holy One" (bhagavat), caused to be made by eight brothers, "members of the Manibhada congregation".

The inscribed Pawaya yaksha is a second image labelled Manibhadra. K. P. Jayaswal once read the Parkham statue as a portrait of King Ajatashatru, a view Raychaudhuri says "has not met with general acceptance".

Key facts

• The Parkham Yaksha was found at Parkham, near Mathura, and is in the Mathura Museum.
• Mookerji: the inscriptions on the Parkham and Pawaya yakshas both label the images Manibhadra.
• Agrawala lists a yaksha statue from Noh village in Bharatpur district among the yaksha figures of the Mauryan-period folk tradition.
• The Jhing-ka-Nagra yakshi, worshipped as Mansa Devi, is labelled "Yakshi Layava" and names the sculptor Naka (Mookerji; Agrawala gives the village).
• Datings differ: Mauryan (Agrawala), c. 650–325 BC (Mookerji), mid-2nd century BCE (Lüders) and about 150 BCE (Quintanilla), the last two as reported by Wikipedia.

Common traps

• Manibhadra's name is inscribed on two statues in Mookerji's account, Parkham and Pawaya; only Parkham is among the options.
• Jhing-ka-Nagra's statue is also inscribed and also from Mathura district, but its label is Yakshi Layava.
• "Mauryan" is one dating among several for the Parkham Yaksha: Agrawala places it in the Mauryan period, Mookerji before Ashoka (c. 650–325 BC), and Lüders and Quintanilla in the 2nd century BCE.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Besides the Parkham Yaksha, which early yaksha statue bears an inscription labelling it Manibhadra ?

  • (a)Pawaya (Padmavati) Yaksha
  • (b)Noh Yaksha
  • (c)Besnagar Yakshi
  • (d)Jhing-ka-Nagra Yakshi
  Answer(1) — Mookerji says the inscriptions on the Parkham and Pawaya statues both give the label Manibhadra. Option (2), the Noh yaksha, is not marked inscribed in Agrawala's list; option (3), Besnagar, gave female statues; option (4), the Jhing-ka-Nagra statue, is labelled Yakshi Layava.
• practice — not a real PYQ

  In V. S. Agrawala's list of early yaksha statues, the yaksha from Noh village is placed in which district ?

  • (a)Mathura
  • (b)Bharatpur
  • (c)Gwalior
  • (d)Vidisha
  Answer(2) — Agrawala lists a "Yaksha statue found at Noh, village in Bharatpur district". Option (1), Mathura, is the district of the Parkham and Jhing-ka-Nagra statues; option (3), Gwalior, is where the Pawaya yaksha is kept; option (4) is not the district he gives for Noh.