VISHNU STELE.

WESTERN INDIA, RAJASTHAN.

11TH – 12TH CENTURY.

H. 99 CMS, 30 INS.

W. 52 CMS, 20 ˝ INS.

An elaborate, imposing polished black stone stele depicting a four-armed standing figure of Vishnu, holding a lotus, a conch, a disc (chakra) and a club (gada), surrounded by kneeling and standing acolytes, leogryphs and a figure on horseback, with multiple references to other vaishnavite incarnations, including the fish (Matsya), the turtle (Kurma), the boar (Varaha), the man-lion (Narasimha) and Rama (with bow); the base with a seated figure of Lakshmi holding a pair of lotuses and flanked by attendants. Vishnu, together with Brahma and Siva, is one of the members of the Hindu trimurti (Skt. ‘Triple Form’). Vishnu becomes incarnate in different divine forms (avatars) from age to age in order to preserve the world.

For a related black stone image of Vishnu from Gadwala, Rajasthan in the National Museum, New Delhi, see cat. no. 345 in Hayward Gallery, In The Image Of Man: The Indian Perception of the Universe through 2000 Years of Painting and Sculpture, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982. See also, cat. no. 54 in P. Pal, Indian Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection, Vol. 2, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988.