An Indian Puja Sculpture of Shiva's Bull, Nandi. . Unknown maker, Rajasthan, India. 20th century. Carved and painted wood, c...

Description

An Indian Puja Sculpture of Shiva's Bull, Nandi

Unknown maker, Rajasthan, India
20th century
Carved and painted wood, colored and mirrored glass, and wrought iron
62 inches high x 54 inches wide

Depicting the mount (vahanas) of Shiva - male deity of destroyer and transformer - named Nandi, the life-size figure of a caparisoned striding hump-backed bull faces left, his head with curved black horns, glass eyes and protruding tongue, his loose-skinned neck laden with wreaths of carved and painted beads, bells, and roses and collar of applied glass decoration, his legs adorned with golden bracelets, the hind quarters with applied raised decoration; the whole enhanced with polychrome and glass decorations.

The act of showing reverence and asking for a specific blessing, known as Puja in the Indian Hindu tradition, often entails a symbolic figure of an animal associated with a deity, and not a direct image of the deity. The Puja icon serves as an intermediary access to the divine. The artistic merit of the Puja icon visually represents the cosmic energy of the related deity, and is therefore of great spiritual significance.

Small-scale Puja icons are often in temples and homes, but larger figures are often placed in outdoor public spaces.

Provenance:
Spionk & Son, London (1981)
Previously located at the Menswear Mart, Dallas, until 2004.





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