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 Shiva and Parvati (Uma-Maheshvara)

  • Literature notes

    This brass image is closely related in iconography to the small stone stele illustrated as [EAOS.70]; its quality, however, is considerably greater. Umā is a proud little figure and the Nandī has real individuality. The exceptionally thin legs and the slim body of both the central figures add a touch of elegance to this sculpture. They are, moreover, admirably set off by the spare but beautifully proportioned architectural surround.

    The god holds a sweet lime (mātuluṅga), one of his emblems, in his lower right hand; the attendant figures are less numerous than in [EAOS.70], Bhṛṅgi and Umā’s lion being absent. A charming touch is the épergne heaped with sweet cakes, his favourite food, which is placed near Gaṇeśa. Another such object, on the centre of the base, is missing.

    While Jain brasses from Rajasthan or Gujarat of the later Hindu period almost all bear long inscriptions detailing who they were made by and where, as well as a date [see EAOS.108], inscribed Hindu images such as this one are rare at this time. Plastically, this image has escaped the trend towards excessive abstraction in geometric forms of the Jain images as seen in [EAOS.108]

    Mr. M.A. Dhaky of the American Institute of Indian Studies at Rām Nagar, Varanasi, has kindly supplied a transliteration of the image’s inscription:
    Saṃvat 1340 varṣe Caitra vadi 13 Guravadyeha … śrīmad … jāla śrīnnatasavapādānāma (?) … mahārājye śrī Jābālapure samtiṣṭhamāna deva śrī Cāpaleśvara melakamahotsava … bhrati // nandatā … pūjyamāna … // “In the saṃvat (year) 1340, in Caitra, the thirteenth of the dark half and on Thursday, in the great kingdom of … at the festival of the god Cāpaleśvara at Śrī Jābālapura … (rest too fragmentary).”

    Jābālapura is the ancient town of Jālor, in Rajasthan, near Mt. Abu.
  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaIndiawest IndiaRajasthan Jalor (place of creation)
    Date
    1283 (Samvat 1340)
    Material and technique
    brass
    Dimensions
    23.3 x 19.3 x 11.5 cm max. (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    Technique index
    formed cast
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Purchased, 1965.
    Accession no.
    EA1965.5
  • Further reading

    Harle, J. C., and Andrew Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987), no. 56 on p. 47, pp. 48-49, illus. p. 47

    London: Hayward Gallery, 25 March-13 June 1982, In the Image of Man: The Indian Perception of the Universe through 2000 Years of Painting and Sculpture, George Michell, Catherine Lampert, and Tristram Holland, eds (London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1982), no. 441 on p. 217

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

    This brass image is closely related in iconography to the small stone stele illustrated as [EAOS.70]; its quality, however, is considerably greater. Umā is a proud little figure and the Nandī has real individuality. The exceptionally thin legs and the slim body of both the central figures add a touch of elegance to this sculpture. They are, moreover, admirably set off by the spare but beautifully proportioned architectural surround.

    The god holds a sweet lime (mātuluṅga), one of his emblems, in his lower right hand; the attendant figures are less numerous than in [EAOS.70], Bhṛṅgi and Umā’s lion being absent. A charming touch is the épergne heaped with sweet cakes, his favourite food, which is placed near Gaṇeśa. Another such object, on the centre of the base, is missing.

    While Jain brasses from Rajasthan or Gujarat of the later Hindu period almost all bear long inscriptions detailing who they were made by and where, as well as a date [see EAOS.108], inscribed Hindu images such as this one are rare at this time. Plastically, this image has escaped the trend towards excessive abstraction in geometric forms of the Jain images as seen in [EAOS.108]

    Mr. M.A. Dhaky of the American Institute of Indian Studies at Rām Nagar, Varanasi, has kindly supplied a transliteration of the image’s inscription:
    Saṃvat 1340 varṣe Caitra vadi 13 Guravadyeha … śrīmad … jāla śrīnnatasavapādānāma (?) … mahārājye śrī Jābālapure samtiṣṭhamāna deva śrī Cāpaleśvara melakamahotsava … bhrati // nandatā … pūjyamāna … // “In the saṃvat (year) 1340, in Caitra, the thirteenth of the dark half and on Thursday, in the great kingdom of … at the festival of the god Cāpaleśvara at Śrī Jābālapura … (rest too fragmentary).”

    Jābālapura is the ancient town of Jālor, in Rajasthan, near Mt. Abu.
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