SRI LANKA, ANURADHAPURA PERIOD, CIRCA 5TH CENTURY

The astamangala, or 'eight auspicious signs', are interpreted in different ways in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist traditions and appear in Sri Lanka in early Buddhist sculpture; compare with a smaller rounded bronze vessel, in U. von Schroeder, The Golden Age of Sculpture in Sri Lanka, Masterpieces of Buddhist and Hindu Bronzes from Museums in Sri Lanka, 1992, cat. no. 2, p. 21.