Pair of Lions Red Sandstone India, Madhya Pradesh or Uttar Pradesh

Both lions crouching, each with a front paw raised, their heavy bulging eyes with incised irises and pupils set beneath a curling mane, the muzzles finely detailed with curving whiskers, the mouths open with tongues extended and teeth bared in a snarl, a single lotus incised on the top of the female's head.  

Freestanding lions were placed as guardian figures in North Indian temples either at the entrance to a shrine or at the top of the stairway to the jagati surrounding the central shrine. The addorsed positioning of the heads of the current pair suggests that they were placed opposite one another at an entrance to a shrine.

The full carving, bulging eyes and the treatment of the mane can be compared to lion images of the late Gupta period. For a closer comparison dated to the 8th century, see Desai and Mason, 1993, cat. 4, p. 148.