Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

A catalogue of the Ashmolean’s collection of Indian art by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield (published Oxford, 1987).

Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

Publications online: 143 objects

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Figure of a deity or warrior-hero on a horse

  • Literature notes

    Folk bronzes of horsemen were produced in great numbers in Western and Central India, where the cults flourished of various deified heroes who were represented as mounted Raiput warriors. Among the aboriginal Bhil tribes, a bronze figure of a horseman, or Spirit Rider, also played a central part in the rites performed at death to help the departed spirit in its ascent to the world beyond, the metal figure becoming the spirit’s temporary abode (Kramrisch, loc. cit.). The Bhils likewise represented their ancestors as horsemen in their memorial stones, although they, like the common people of India generally, did not themselves possess or use horses, which were the prized prerogative of the Rajput aristocracy.

    Elevated on elongated, tapering legs, the plumed and caparisoned horse and its slant-eyed, martial rider have an imposing and barbarous presence. The latter holds the reins and the hilts of his sheathed sword; he also wears a katar, curved dagger and a bossed shield at his back. The conventional royal umbrella (chattra) above his conical head-dress may derive from the iconography of the minor solar deity Revanta, son of Sūrya, who was represented as a mounted nobleman with ceremonial umbrella and was worshipped as a saviour from the dangers of the forest. The projections below three if the horse’s feet may once have been inserted into cross-bars with attached wheels, and the figurine could have thus been used as a toy.
  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaIndiacentral India Madhya Pradesh (possible place of creation)
    AsiaIndiawest India Rajasthan (possible place of creation)
    Date
    19th century (1801 - 1900)
    Material and technique
    bronze, hollow cast
    Dimensions
    18.5 x 13 x 5.1 cm max. (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    Technique index
    formed cast
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by H. L. Dunkley, 1964.
    Accession no.
    EA1964.160
  • Further reading

    Harle, J. C., and Andrew Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987), no. 72 on p. 64, illus. p. 64

Location

    • First floor | Room 32 | India from 600

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

    Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

    Folk bronzes of horsemen were produced in great numbers in Western and Central India, where the cults flourished of various deified heroes who were represented as mounted Raiput warriors. Among the aboriginal Bhil tribes, a bronze figure of a horseman, or Spirit Rider, also played a central part in the rites performed at death to help the departed spirit in its ascent to the world beyond, the metal figure becoming the spirit’s temporary abode (Kramrisch, loc. cit.). The Bhils likewise represented their ancestors as horsemen in their memorial stones, although they, like the common people of India generally, did not themselves possess or use horses, which were the prized prerogative of the Rajput aristocracy.

    Elevated on elongated, tapering legs, the plumed and caparisoned horse and its slant-eyed, martial rider have an imposing and barbarous presence. The latter holds the reins and the hilts of his sheathed sword; he also wears a katar, curved dagger and a bossed shield at his back. The conventional royal umbrella (chattra) above his conical head-dress may derive from the iconography of the minor solar deity Revanta, son of Sūrya, who was represented as a mounted nobleman with ceremonial umbrella and was worshipped as a saviour from the dangers of the forest. The projections below three if the horse’s feet may once have been inserted into cross-bars with attached wheels, and the figurine could have thus been used as a toy.
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