Stupa drum panel with protective serpent
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This drum panel depicts an elegant stupa with a shrine, at center, framed by pilasters that resemble a stupa enclosure railing gateway. The entwined snake that occupies the shrine is the naga, the supreme protector of the relics housed within the stupa drum. A canopy of foliage-like umbrellas (chattras) crowns the structure, with the branches of the bodhi (wisdom) tree metamorphizing into a profusion of honorific umbrellas. Inscribed railings from the period link the donors to officials in the service of King Sivamaka Sada, the last of the Sada rulers, reigning in the second half of the first century CE.
Artwork Details
- Title: Stupa drum panel with protective serpent
- Period: Sada
- Date: second half 1st century CE
- Culture: India, Amaravati Great Stupa, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh
- Medium: Limestone
- Dimensions: H. 57 1/16 in. (145 cm); W. 30 1/2 in. (77.5 cm); D. 3 15/16 in. (10 cm)
Display module: H. 67 1/2 in. (171.5 cm); W. 37 3/4 in. (95.9 cm); D. 17 in. (43.2 cm) - Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Lent by British Museum, London
- Rights and Reproduction: © The Trustees of the British Museum
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art