figure
- Museum number
- 1888,0806.2
- Description
-
Group consisting of a large bird with victims and warriors. The bird's head is almost lost but was probably turned to its left where its sliced remains are joined, by the beak, to the top of the wing; at the top of the other wing is a projection perhaps once connected with another behind the head as a strut. The serpent round the bird's neck shows no sign of also being held in the beak, and the bird's claws seem to lift a male and female by holding them at their sides; the male, in paridhāna, uttarīya, chignon and collar, is joined sculpturally by his feet to an armed figure and a recumbent female below; the bird's female victim, her body twisted and right arm raised to the serpent round the bird's neck, may have a chignon, a sleeved tunic, a girdle and anklets, while her parted legs may wear the paridhāna tightly like trousers. The male victim stretches out his left arm behind the female; his broken right may have held the projection above his right shoulder, perhaps a dish with an offering.
The female at the bottom lies partly on her side, left arm on the ground and overlapping the base, the left leg raised at the knee. The flanking headless warrior has a narrow length of what may be acanthus between the legs and holds a broken shield against the claws grasping the male victim. On the corresponding right, a pair of feet, the underside of a shield against the wing, the arm holding it and part of a back belong to another armed figure.
The eyes, where they survive, are all protruding and rounded and the legs, except those of the recumbent female, are undercut. The wings, like those of atlas figures, consist of sharply pointed, grooved coverts above and longer flight feathers below.
- Production date
- 2ndC-3rdC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 6.70 centimetres
-
Height: 18.20 centimetres
-
Width: 15.90 centimetres
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Grey schist, broken and with soil incrustation. All edges, except part of proper right wing and base in front, damaged. Back of wings and head roughly in the round with some incisions for feathers. At bottom a small rectangular block projects with a ledge, one chamfered side and some horizontal chisel grooves.
- Acquisition date
- 1888
- Acquisition notes
- Collected by Sir Edward Clive Bayley.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1888,0806.2
