TAMILNADU, SOUTH INDIA, LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY

This model of a gopuram recalls the heavily decorated and very colourful gates of the Minakshi-Sundareshwara temple at Madurai in Tamil-Nadu. The fourteen multi-tiered gateways of the temple are covered with thousands figures of gods, godesses and their mounts, animals and demons painted in bright colours.
A comparable sandal wood model is kept at the Victoria and Albert Museum (no. IM 6-1926) which was given with two others and were collected by a former engineer working for the government in Madras Presidency between 1877 and 1904.