Collection Highlights: South Asian & Himalayan Art

1615-1618
Bichitr
Mughal dynasty
Reign of Emperor Jahangir
Opaque watercolor, gold and ink on paper
H: 48.0 W: 33.0 cm
India
Purchase F1942.15a

10th century
Chola dynasty
Reign of Queen Sembiyan Mahadevi (d. 1006)
Bronze
H: 107.3 W: 33.4 D: 25.7 cm
India
Purchase F1929.84

Chola queen Sembiyan Mahadevi, whose husband reigned 949–57, was widowed at an early age and was a highly respected patron of the arts who devoted most of her life to temple commissions. During her lifetime, special celebrations marked her birthday in the Shiva temple in the town of Sembiyan Mahadevi, named after her, and a metal portrait of the beloved queen was presented to the temple in her honor. It is possible that the image seen here is that very sculpture. Draped in silks, precious jewelry, and flower garlands, this processional figure would have been carried through the town for public viewing.

This highly stylized image is an instance of the blurring of lines between royal and divine portraiture in ancient Indian art. While the pose is reminiscent of the goddess Parvati, this tall, svelte image with heavy, naturalistically shaped breasts and drapery clinging to her lower limbs is uncommonly individualized in the shape of her face, pursed lips, and long nose. Stylized portrait statues like this were more likely to be identified by their placement in a temple, or their function in specific rituals, than through an actual resemblance to their human counterparts. As such, it would have been recognized as Sembiyan Mahadevi by its use in processions celebrating her birthday.

ca. 1430
Opaque watercolor on cloth
H: 87.7 W: 78.0 cm
Tibet
Purchase F1997.22

Six hundred years ago, a Tibetan abbot venerated his teacher and celebrated the establishment of a monastery by commissioning these precisely painted and richly colored mandalas, or meditation diagrams, on a cloth thangka(also tanka). Exquisite scrollwork, slender figures, and a spirited depiction indicate that the painters came to Tibet from the adjoining Himalayan kingdom of Nepal.

Buddhist adepts visualize the mandala as a three-dimensional palace. During meditation, practitioners imagine themselves traversing macabre cremation grounds and then passing through a ring of flames to enter the square of the mandala-palace. After meditating upon the deities in the four outer circles, they reach the principal deity dwelling in the mandala's center. The red, yellow, and blue forms of the female deity Varahi appear in three of the squares, and the male deity Vajra-Humkara, in union with his consort, appears in this thangka's fourth innermost shrine.

late 2nd-early 3rd century
Kushan dynasty
Stone
H: 67.0 W: 289.8 D: 9.8 cm
Pakistan or Afghanistan
Purchase F1949.9a-d

After meditating for forty days beneath a pipal tree, the Buddha approached the moment of omniscience. Evil demons have failed to distract him, and he calmly touches the earth goddess to witness his attainment of enlightenment. His right hand, lowered in the earth-touching gesture (bhumisparsha mudra), signals that moment. The Buddha is depicted with the characteristic forehead mole (urna) and cranial bump (ushnisha) that symbolize his immense spiritual capacity.