Brahmani

MEDIUM Schist

Place Made: Patna District, Bihar, India

DATES 9th century

DYNASTY Pala Dynasty

DIMENSIONS 42 x 20 x 15 in. (106.7 x 50.8 x 38.1 cm) Without frame: 39 x 16 in. (99.1 x 40.6 cm)

COLLECTIONS Asian Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 82.130

CREDIT LINE Gift of Dr. Roger Stoll

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Stele depicting a female carved in high relief, standing with a slight contraposto, surrounded by four recumbent geese seated on lotus pedestals. She has two arms. Her right arm (now void) was at her side and the left arm is raised to hold a rosary. The right hand may have held the kundika, or ritual water pot, an emblem of the Hindu god Brahma and his consort, Brahmani. The section above the goddess' head is now void, but remains indicate that she was originally shaded by a parasol or the branches of a tree. Her face and chest are depicted strictly frontal. The fair is arranged in a chignon with rosettes, and she is ornamented with pendant earrings and a jeweled girdle. The identification of the goddess as the consort of Brahma, is based on the presence of the rosary and the repeated geese, which is the animal vehicle of the god. The stylistic attribution to the Patna area is based on comparison to objects from that region (cf. Frederick M. Asher, The Art of Eastern India, Minneapolis, 1980, pl. 174 for a large relief of a Buddhis image, from Nalanda, given the same date, which Asher bases on comparisons to contemporary bronzes. In the Nalanda relief, the stone has eroded in the same way and tis background has been similarly treated stylistically). Condition: Object is very heavily damaged. Face may have been recut in the style of Post-Gupta period. The right arm is void from the shoulder, as is the right breast, front of torso, and legs. Details of the background are also worn. Relief arrived with its own base.

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

RECORD COMPLETENESS