INDIA, MADHYA PRADESH, 8TH/9TH CENTURY

This relief depicting the female personification of the Ganges River would have abutted the entrance to a Shaiva temple; it was the Lord Shiva who caught Ganga in his hair, breaking her force as she fell from the heavens to earth. Furthermore, the male figure at left with topknot and third eye displays Shaiva characteristics. In his discussion on a similar relief at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dr. Pal interprets the diminutive figures carrying a parasol and water pot as attendants to a royal or divine female bathing, an appropriate visual metaphor for the god of the Ganges. The relief would have had an associated relief depicting the goddess Yamuna, again a personification of one of India's mighty rivers. The two deities can be distinguished by their mounts; while Ganga stands on a makara, Yamuna is always depicted riding a tortoise. Two closely related examples are published. The first is from the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, see P. Pal, Indian Sculpture, vol. II, 1988, pp. 116-118, cat. no. 45a. The other is of Yamuna, in the Musée Guimet, see A. Okada, Sculptures indiennes du musée Guimet, 2000, p. 103, cat. no. 37. Both comparables show a similar array of figures, including a younger parasol-bearer turned away from the viewer. Each is less complete than the current example, which includes the garland-bearers and other architectural details above.