SOUTH INDIA, VIJAYANAGARA PERIOD, CIRCA 15TH CENTURY

细节

A rare bronze figure of Manikkavacakar
South India, Vijayanagara period, circa 15th century
Standing on a lotus base with his right hand raised in the gesture of teaching and the left holding a book, dressed in a short dhoti flared out to the sides and adorned with the sacred thread and various beaded necklaces, the face with wide smile and elongated eyes flanked by pendulous pierced earlobes, the hair in curly locks with two braids at either side
23 7/8 in. (60.5 cm) high

来源

Dr. J.R. Belmont Collection, Basel, before 1966 [no. 716]
Ellsworth and Goldie, New York, 1970
Acquired from the above by the present owner

出版

Exhibition Catalogue, Indische Kunst, 1966, cat. no. 119

展览

Indische Kunst, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, 1 January-13 March 1966, and Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, 18 May - 31 July, 1966

拍品专文

The Shaiva saint Manikkavacakar likely lived in the 9th century, more than a century after the last of the original Shaiva saints. For this reason, he is not classed among the traditional 63 nayanars, but devotion to this later saint was still fervent nonetheless. The hymns recount that Manikkavacakar was originally a minister to the King Varaguna of Madurai, who tasked him with purchasing a large group of horses for the kingdom's cavalry. Enroute on his mission, the young minister encountered the god Shiva disguised as a sagely guru. Enraptured by his teachings, Manikkavacakar used the money intended for the horses to construct a temple to Shiva at Perunturai. The enraged king expelled the young official from his kingdom, and so Manikkavacakar began his life as a wandering devotee, singing the praises of the lord Shiva in song and poem. The common people of Tamil Nadu, stirred by his devotion to the god, began to revere the wandering believer as part of a new group of saints, and like Sambandar or Chandesha before him, Manikkavacakar was eventually represented in sculpture, almost always shown with the book in one hand and the other in the gesture of teaching. For a similar example in the Madras Museum from the late Vijayanagar period, see V. Dehejia, Slaves of the Lord: The Path of the Tamil Saints, 1988, fig. 36.