{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O480079"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O480079/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020ML8708/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020ML8708/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020ML8708","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020ML9170","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020ML9171","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O480079/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O480079","accessionNumber":"911(IS)","objectType":"Figure","titles":[{"title":"Vishnu","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Figure of Vishnu sitting cross legged in a yogic position with four arms. Only the lower right hand now holds an attribute of a conch shell while the other three no longer have the other attributes shown in the drawing illustrated in Moor(1861) which consisted of a <i>chakra </i>and <i>gada</i> in the upper two hands and an open flower in the lower right hand. He is crowned with a <i>karanda makuta</i> and he bears a Vaishnavite cast mark on his forehead. He has a garland of rosettes round his neck with a necklace, bangles, armbands and anklets and earrings. The original base of a circular plith with a lotus petal moulded rim is missing. There are two metal strusts soldered between the elbows of the upper arms and the hips., presumably to strengthen the sculpture.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Sir Charles Wilkins commissioned this figure as part of a set of Hindu gods."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[{"text":"casting","id":"AAT53104"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"zinc alloy, casting","categories":[{"text":"India Museum","id":"THES286062"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2020ML8708","2020ML9170","2020ML9171"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES371867"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Figure","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Benares","id":"x30824"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Now known as Varanasi"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1780s","earliest":"1775-01-01","latest":"1793-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"No later than 1786 when the donor returned from India to England."}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Donated by Sir Charles Wilkins to the India Museum and transferred to the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) in 1879. It was numbered 424 in the India Museum Slip Books. Sir Charles Wilkins,  F.R.S. (1749-1836) was a founding member with William Jones of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He trained as a printer and joined the East India Company as a writer arriving in India in 1770 where he gained the support of Warren Hastings, the Governor General, who encouraged him to further his linguistic studies in Sanskrit. This resulted among other publications on Sanskrit grammar and language in the first translation of the Bhagavad Gita into English in 1785. He returned to England in 1786 and subsequently became the first Director and Librarian of the East India Company’s library at India House in 1800. His collection of zinc alloy deities which he had commissioned while in Benares (now Varanasi) was published in The Hindu Pantheon by Edward Moor in London in 1810. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Zinc alloy figure of Vishnu, sculpture, Benares, ca. 1780s","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Moor, E. & Moor, Allen Page (1861), <u>Shrisarvvadevasabha. Plates illustrating the Hindu Pantheon reprinted from the work of Major E. Moor...Edited, with brief descriptive index by...A.P. Moor, London, Hertford,</u> p.13\r\nMoor, E. (1810). <u>The Hindu Pantheon</u>\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":"AUTH356588"},"details":"Moor, E. (1810) The Hindu Pantheon, London, Johnson, p.420, note","free":"p.420 note\r\n'The beautiful specimens of HINDU mythology, cast at BENARES under the superintendence of MR. WILKINS and some PANDITS, have never received the least polish or filing, but are now seen at the INDIA house museum exactly as they made their first appearance from the moulds. PLATE 3 – fig. 2.3. of PLATE 13 – plates 15.48.50 AND 51.'\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["911(IS)"],"accessionNumberNum":"911","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"India Museum Slip Book","id":"THES50388"},"number":"424"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2021MU9419"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-05","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-25","availableToBook":true}}