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SOUTH ASIAN OBJECTS FROM THE COLLECTION
INDIA
Sculpture from the Kushan Period
Sculpture from North India, 5th-7th Centuries
Jain sculpture
Sculpture of the Pala Period
Stone Sculpture from Hindu Temples
Sculptures from South India, 8th-9th Centuries
Bronze Sculpture of the Chola Period
Art for the Mughal and Rajput Courts
Hindu Temple Hangings
Buddhist Painting from India, Nepal, and Tibet
NEPAL
Buddhist Painting from India, Nepal, and Tibet
Sculpture from Nepal
PAKISTAN
Sculpture from the Kushan Period
SRI LANKA
Two Bodhisattvas from Sri Lanka
Saint Mannikkavachaka
India, Tamil Nadu; Chola period (880-1279), 12th century
Copper alloy
H. 19 1/4 in. (48.9 cm)
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of Asian Art
1979.027
Mannikkavachaka, who lived during the 9th century, is one of a group of sixty-three Hindu saints who dedicated their lives to the worship of Shiva. Sculptures of these saints played an important role in the imagery of south Indian temple complexes and were usually placed in halls surrounding the main sanctum. Before devoting his life to Shiva, Mannikkavachaka was the trusted minister of a Pandya king. One day, while carrying a vast amount of money to purchase horses for the king, Mannikkavachaka encountered Shiva disguised as a sage. He was so moved by the sage's teachings that he forgot his errand and used the king's money to build a shrine to Shiva at Peruntai, in south India. Shiva rescued Mannikkavachaka after he was thrown into prison by the enraged king. Mannikkavachaka can be identified by the manuscript he holds in his left hand. The book is the Tiruvachakam, a set of fifty-one hymns to Shiva written by the saint. Both this sculpture and another in the Asia Society Collection of Saint Sambandar (see Related Objects), are reputed to have been excavated from the Tiruvan Vanpanalur Temple, built during the Chola period. Their similarities in size and style, for example, their straight noses and full lips, suggest that they were made at the same atelier.
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