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Lot Essay
This formidable head originally belonged to a large sculpture of Chamunda, the dread goddess. She is a powerful vision of death and destruction. According to Hindu texts, Chamunda or the wrathful emaciated form of Parvati emerged from the forehead of Durga, another epithet of Parvati, in a terrifying form to conquer the demon brothers Chanda and Munda. 'She opens her mouth wide, sticking out an extraordinarily long tongue with which licks every drop of blood falling from the demon's body'. According to the Devi Mahatmya, she is also Kali, the Dark One. Her creation is vividly described in the Markandeya Purana: 'From the forehead of Durga, contracted with wrathful frowns, sprang swiftly a goddess of black and formidable aspect, armed with a scimitar and noose, bearing a ponderous mace, decorated with a garland of dead corpses, with yawning mouth, lolling tongue, and bloodshot eyes, and filling the regions with her shouts' (George Michell (ed.), In The Image of Man, The Indian perception of the Universe through 2000 years of painting and sculpture, exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, p.220 and p.205).
Three representations of the wrathful goddess are now kept in the Allahabad Museum which support the dating of the present sculpture (no accessible inventory numbers; https://www.museumsofindia.gov.in/repository/search/alh_ald/basic/chamunda/0/1/10?museumId=alh_ald). The first is attributed to Jamsot, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, dated circa 12th century; the second, although without any mention of its provenance, is dated circa 11th century (inv. no 1406?); and the third is attributed to Gurgi, Rewa, Madhya Pradesh and is left un-dated. The emaciated face of our Chamunda shows a square jaw line, bulging eye balls, sharp prominent cheek bones, deeply recessed cheeks and pointed chin. Those features are found on the 11th/12th century Allahabad examples. Unfortunately, neither present a headdress in good condition enough to allow for a certain comparison. However, the second Allahabad Chamunda shows a crown made of skulls sharing the same marked smirk as those found on our head. Both also share the same oversized round earrings.
The expression of our goddess conveys a very tangible wrath. It is also extremely finely carved. Her matted hair arranged in a high chignon held together with a crown of smiling skulls is related to the hair style of a Chamunda figure in Metropolitan Museum, New York dated 10th-11th century (1989.121 ; www.metmuseum.org). A sandstone head of Chamunda now at the British Museum and dated to the 11th century also offers a close comparable example (1872,0701.84 ; www.britishmuseum.org). The British Museum Chamunda was acquired by at the Stuart sale at Christie's in June, 1830 and was originally attributed to Central India, circa 9th-10th century (Goswamy, op.cit., cat.451, p.220).
The examples in Allahabad and New York which compare to our Chamunda would support a 12th century dating. However, further research would be necessary to confirm the attribution to Uttar Pradesh.
Three representations of the wrathful goddess are now kept in the Allahabad Museum which support the dating of the present sculpture (no accessible inventory numbers; https://www.museumsofindia.gov.in/repository/search/alh_ald/basic/chamunda/0/1/10?museumId=alh_ald). The first is attributed to Jamsot, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, dated circa 12th century; the second, although without any mention of its provenance, is dated circa 11th century (inv. no 1406?); and the third is attributed to Gurgi, Rewa, Madhya Pradesh and is left un-dated. The emaciated face of our Chamunda shows a square jaw line, bulging eye balls, sharp prominent cheek bones, deeply recessed cheeks and pointed chin. Those features are found on the 11th/12th century Allahabad examples. Unfortunately, neither present a headdress in good condition enough to allow for a certain comparison. However, the second Allahabad Chamunda shows a crown made of skulls sharing the same marked smirk as those found on our head. Both also share the same oversized round earrings.
The expression of our goddess conveys a very tangible wrath. It is also extremely finely carved. Her matted hair arranged in a high chignon held together with a crown of smiling skulls is related to the hair style of a Chamunda figure in Metropolitan Museum, New York dated 10th-11th century (1989.121 ; www.metmuseum.org). A sandstone head of Chamunda now at the British Museum and dated to the 11th century also offers a close comparable example (1872,0701.84 ; www.britishmuseum.org). The British Museum Chamunda was acquired by at the Stuart sale at Christie's in June, 1830 and was originally attributed to Central India, circa 9th-10th century (Goswamy, op.cit., cat.451, p.220).
The examples in Allahabad and New York which compare to our Chamunda would support a 12th century dating. However, further research would be necessary to confirm the attribution to Uttar Pradesh.