{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O63615"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O63615/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BF1905/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BF1905/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BF1905","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KY5531","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019LX7872","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O63615/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O63615","accessionNumber":"IS.85-1949","objectType":"Sculpture","titles":[{"title":"Sankhaparusha and Gadadevi","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"The carving comprises a fragment from the right hand side of a stele devoted to Vishnu. There are two figures, a male and a female, from its lower part which are personifications (<i>ayudhapurushas)</i> of the conch and the mace, two of Vishnu's emblems. Both figures are standing in a swaying pose, turning their bodies slightly to the left. The right hand female figure is carved against a plain slab while the male figure is carved proud of any back slab.  Curving down behind his head and right shoulder is a fragment of a heavily beaded garland which probably is part of the garland which would have been draped round the body of the god down to his shins.   Both figures have heart-shaped faces with chiselled lines for their arched eyebrows and fish-shaped eyes with circles for the pupils touching the upper lids. Both have bare torsos except for their elaborate jewellery. They both have similar necklaces,  arm bands and wrist bangles and  the female figure also wears a long string of pearls which falls between her breasts, swinging down to her left hip. They both have large cylindrical earrings with a curving central motif.  The garments covering their lower bodies are held in place with girdles of a herring-bone design from which dangle tails between strings of pearls down the front of their right hand thighs.\n\n The female figure is holding aloft a lotus blossom, now badly abraded, in her right hand, behind which can be seen the fragmentary remains of a mace, which identifies her as Gadadevi, the personification of Vishnu's emblem. She has loosely wavy hair carved in lines with a row of inverted curls along the hairline ( the right side of which is damaged), rising to a rounded bun on top of her head.  This is held in place by an ornate chaplet bound with alternate strings of pearls and ribbons. She, like her companion, has large cylindrical earrings with a curving central motif. Her diaphanous garment covering the lower part of her body is folded back over her hips and is inscribed with a diagonal pattern of paired parallel lines at wide intervals.  She also has a scarf (<i>uttariya</i>) draped across her forearms which plunges to the ground behind her missing left arm in a row of folds.\n\n  The male figure holds a conch to his chest, which identifies him as Sankhapurusha. He has similarly wavy hair which sweeps back from a peaked hairline with a cluster of curls above his visible left ear.  He is wearing a conical headdress which is wound up to a peak in a material decorated with a trellis pattern from an ornamental band with a central cockade at its base.  He has a pleated sash which  is wound round his thighs and knotted at his left side.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"shale","id":"AAT11281"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved in high relief - shale.","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Figures","id":"THES274372"},{"text":"Hinduism","id":"THES48941"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2006BF1905","2018KY5531","2019LX7872"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES373946"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Figure","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Rajasthan","id":"x29841"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"9th Century","earliest":"0800-01-01","latest":"0900-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"15","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"7.75","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"7.75","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Purchased from Ernest Schweiger in 1949, formerly having belonged to his father Imre Schweiger, the eminent Indian Art dealer, who left some of his collection on loan at the V&A on the outbreak of war, 1939. \n      The personifications of Vishnu's emblems, called <i>ayudhapurusha</i>, have their sex determined by the gender of the word in sanskrit.  Thus the mace '<i>gada</i>' is feminine: and represented by a female. The wheel, '<i>chakra'</i>, and the lotus, '<i>padma</i>' are neuter and shown as eunuchs, while the conch,'<i>sankha</i>' is male and shown as a man.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Two attendant figures (part of a  stele), Shale, Rajasthan, 9th century.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"For note on Ayudha Purusha see: T.A.G.Rao, Elements of Hindu iconography, I.II, 281-296."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"Hindu","id":"AAT73727"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["IS.85-1949"],"accessionNumberNum":"85","accessionNumberPrefix":"IS","accessionYear":1949,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-06-24","recordCreationDate":"2001-12-06","availableToBook":true}}