The delicately incised and well-drawn design on the surface of this unique and enigmatic ivory box lid is an unusual composition of three variants on the common mithuna (amorous couple) theme set in a landscape with hunting scenes. Groups of elephants, deer, and water buffaloes are depicted around the edge.

This ivory records an extremely rare pictorial style of figural drawing that to date has not come down to us in any other media except for a very few unfinished architectural stones with incised designs and, in a somewhat related style, a few of the famous third- to fourth-century ivories from Begram in Afghanistan. Despite the object's purporting to come from West Bengal in the northeast, the slim, attenuated figural style here is more commonly associated with, but not restricted to, third- to fourth-century relief carvings from Andhra Pradesh in southeast India, particularly the site of Nagarjunakonda. Since many early ivory objects having the same color and patina as this lid have been recovered from West Bengal but none to my knowledge from Andhra Pradesh, it is difficult to reconcile the disparity in purported provenance. If the box lid did originate in West Bengal, perhaps the transmission of styles can be explained by theorizing a southern-trained artist working in the north. Better explanations may exist.