Sundareshvara teaching a bird a mantra
These eighteen drawings depict sculptural piers in the Pudu Mandapa (‘New Pillared Hall’), a temple festival hall built around 1630 as an addition to the Minakshi-Sundareshvara temple complex at Madurai. The hall was constructed at the behest of the Nayaka ruler Tirumala Nayak (r. 1623–59), whose reign marked a high point in temple and courtly patronage at the southern city of Madurai. The interior gallery is adorned with 124 elaborately sculpted piers, capitals and lintels decorated with narrative reliefs of the Brahmanical gods and local legends devoted to their worship. These meticulously executed ink drawings are on English laid paper watermarked ‘J. Whatman’ and with the firm’s trademark fleur-de-lis and the year 1798.
Artwork Details
- Title: Sundareshvara teaching a bird a mantra
- Artist: Unidentified artist, Indian
- Date: ca. 1800
- Culture: India, Madurai, Tamil Nadu
- Medium: Ink and wash on J. Whatman paper watermarked 1798
- Dimensions: Sheet (folded): 16 1/8 × 10 1/16 in. (41 × 25.5 cm)
Sheet: 16 1/8 × 20 1/8 in. (41 × 51.1 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 2021
- Object Number: 2021.338
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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