 Glazed Terracotta Relief depicting Mara's daughters Current and Past Exhibitions
Terracotta Relief.Burma, Pegu, possibly from the Shwe-gu-gyi pagoda.Late 15th century.H. 47 cm, 18 ½ ins; W. 35 cm, 13 ¾ ins.Mounted in an old wooden frame.A terracotta relief glazed with cream, green and brown and depicting two goddesses (devis), perhaps the daughters of Mara, one holding the other by the arm; an inscription along the top.Provenance:Formerly in the collection of Lieutenant-General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (1827-1900) until around 1970.Thereafter in a private English collection.The southern Burmese city of Pegu (ancient Hamsavati) was one of the capitals of the western Mon Kingdom. One of the most powerful Mon rulers was Dhammaceti (r 1462-92) who erected a series of monuments in 1479 commemorating the seven weeks of the Buddha’s sojourn at Bodhgaya- the place where he attained enlightenment. The central monument is the Shwe-gu-gyi pagoda, now much rebuilt and altered, and before it is a brick shrine built to mark week five when the three daughters of Mara- lord of the Realm of Desires- appeared before the Buddha to seduce him with earthly pleasures. Many of the glazed reliefs from the Mara shrine are now missing and it seems plausible, given the provenance of this piece that it came from the structure itself. Pegu reliefs have been widely copied and authentic, provenanced examples are therefore exceptionally rare.For two closely related images, in the Victoria and Albert and San Francisco museums respectively, see no. 21 in J. Lowry, Burmese Art, H.M.S.O., London 1974 and fig. 295 in M. Girard-Geslan et al., Art of Southeast Asia, H.N. Abrams inc., New York, 1994. The dimensions of the first example are almost identical.
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