Untitled

Unknown

11th century · Copper sheet, repousséd and engraved, with traces of gilding · Asian Art

The goddess Manasa is seated in royal ease, displaying large circular ear-plug ornaments with engraved hamsa motifs, a torque, pearl necklace, and wears a patterned diaphanous waist cloth (dhoti); her armbands assume the form of an entwining snake. She is crowned with a three-pointed diadem and her hair, gathered in a bun, is offset to her left. Behind her head radiates the seven-headed canopy of the serpent naga, and in her lowered left hand she holds the body of a rearing snake. She gestures varadamudra with her right. Flanking Manasa at upper left is the engraved figure of a seated Hindu rishi, his hands raised in veneration, and upper right the figure of a male deity also seated in royal ease, most likely identified as Shiva by his piled-up hair (jatumukuta). Beneath the rishi appears four lines of an engraved inscription

Artist

Unknown

Date

11th century

Medium

Copper sheet, repousséd and engraved, with traces of gilding

Culture

India (Bengal) or Bangladesh

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Purchase, Frederick and Marie-Claude Butler Gift and Gift of Mrs. W. J. Calhoun, by exchange, 2011