A rare bronze waterpot with Gangalakshmi

NORTHEASTERN INDIA, BIHAR, PALA PERIOD, 9TH CENTURY

Details

A rare bronze waterpot with Gangalakshmi
Northeastern India, Bihar, Pala Period, 9th century
The goddess seated on a flat plinth leaning against a bulbous vessel molded with a lotus petal frieze around the shoulder, wearing a dhoti and with two lotus stalks issuing from the base and rising to above her shoulders, a small figure of a crocodile with gaping mouth beside her, with a rich warm brown patina overall
6½ in. (16.4 cm.) high

Provenance

Dr. J.R. Belmont, Basel, before 1966
R.H. Ellsworth Collection
Christian Humann, Pan-Asian Collection, before 1977

Lot Essay

This vessel is a highly unique ritual implement surviving from the Pala period and is of striking design. Gangalakshmi is venerated both in Hindu as well as Buddhist rituals. Compare with a fragmentary ewer in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, see P. Pal, Indian Sculpture, vol. 2, 1988, cat. no. 72, p. 162f., where the author points out vessels of similar shape held by attendant figures in bronzes from Kurkihar, dating to the 9th century, see S. Huntington, The "Pala-Sena" Schools of Sculpture, 1984, figs. 30 and 31.

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