The secret of the “ass-curse” stones scattered across western India
Skip to navigation Skip to content AAREFA JOHARI That position. REVEALED The secret of the “ass-curse” stones scattered across western India April 6, 2015 By Aarefa Johari They sit innocuously in an airy gallery in Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji museum—drawing barely a glance. But a closer look at the two engraved stone slabs from the 11th century reveals a rather explicit scene: A donkey with an erect phallus poised over a woman, about to have sex with her. As it turns out, scores of stone slabs with this configuration of figures lie scattered across Maharashtra and parts of Goa. In Marathi, these stones are called gadhegal , from gadhe , which means donkey, and gal , which could mean either a stone or a curse. Archaeologists studying medieval Maharashtra have often referred to them as ass-curse stones. But until now, very few scholars have written about them in detail. New interest Since 2012, a group of archaeologists in Mumbai and Pune has t...