- Museum number
- 1962,1231,0.13.66
- Description
-
Opaque watercolour painting of the four-armed Śiva seated in lalitasana on a throne placed on the peak of Mount Kailasa, adored by Narada and Bhringi rather than Tumburu, as noted in the inscription. Narada, with hands in anjali mudra and the rudra vina leaning on his shoulder, stands to the right of the god. On Śiva’s left the three-legged Bhringi, dressed in a tiger skin, plays the cymbals. The god carries in his upper right hand the damaru (hourglass shaped drum) and in his upper left hand the mriga (gazelle), while his lower right is in abhaya and his lower left in varada mudra. Three ascetics, the lowermost seated in utkutikasana with his legs bound with a yogapatta (band tied round a person’s knees), can be seen on the slopes of the mountain.
- Production date
- 1830 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 22.60 centimetres
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Width: 17.60 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Dallapiccola 2010:
Narada and Tumburu, the two divine musicians, are normally inseparable. Tumburu is easily recognizable by his horse’s head. The confusion between Bhringi and Tumburu is probably a slip of the pen.
This painting is part of an album of ninety-one paintings (1962,1231,0.13.1–91) illustrating gods, goddesses, saints and scenes from Hindu mythology. One of the most interesting features of the album are the eight major temple sites included: Srirangam, Tiruvallur, Rameswaram, Tirunelveli, Palani, Madurai, Thiruvanaikoil (Tiruvanaikka or Jambukeshvara) and Tiruchchirappalli. Furthermore, included in this series are some of the most important murtis enshrined in temples such as Venkatachalapati of Tirumala, Vitthala of Pandharpur and Thyagarajasvami of Tiruvarur. The geographical area covered by the paintings encompasses the totality of the former Madras Presidency and extends into the former Bombay Presidency, giving an insight into the most revered pilgrimage sites in early nineteenth-century southern India.
The drawings were first done in pencil, traces of which are still visible. In the course of his work the artist has sometimes changed his mind, as for instance in the positioning of the arms and feet of the figures. Slight shading has been consistently applied to the faces, arms and legs of the figures to suggest three-dimensionality. The vibrant colours and the delicacy of the drawings make the figures stand out from the pages.
The pages are numbered in reverse order from the back, on paper water marked ‘1820’. Occasionally, a brief note is pencilled in English, probably by a British Museum curator, at the back of some of the temple depictions. An almost identical work, albeit containing a hundred drawings, each with bilingual inscriptions in Telugu and English, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IM 355-1923 to 454-1923). The sequence of the images is similar to that in this album.
- Location
- On display (G33/dc66b/s3)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
See 1962,1231.0.13.1
- Acquisition date
- 1962
- Acquisition notes
- Transferred from the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books (OMPB) in 1962.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1962,1231,0.13.66
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: 1167 (Egerton number)
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Miscellaneous number: 1176 (Egerton number)
