Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Works of Art

Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Works of Art

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 391. Chamunda Standing on a Prostrate Shiva, India, Pahari, possibly Mandi, circa 1840.

Property From a Private Malibu Collection

Chamunda Standing on a Prostrate Shiva, India, Pahari, possibly Mandi, circa 1840

Auction Closed

September 20, 05:33 PM GMT

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Private Malibu Collection

Chamunda Standing on a Prostrate Shiva 

India, Pahari, possibly Mandi, circa 1840


Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper


Image: 8¼ by 5⅞ in. (21 by 15 cm)

Folio: 9½ by 7¼ in. (24.2 by 18.4 cm)

The fearsome form of the Goddess Devi, victorious after her battle with the asuras, stands on the body of a white shava (corpse-like) Shiva. She bears her attributes in her four arms: a sword, skull, lotus and a pair of scissors, wearing a tiger skin skirt and ornaments. A crown of coiled serpents adorns her head. She stands in a charnel ground strewn with human bones. A yellow and green background with a red streaked cloudy blue sky provides a striking contrast to Devi's indigo-hued form.


See Sotheby's New York, 21st March 2019, lot 977 for another wrathful manifestation of Devi as Mahakalika. Another illustration of Devi in the form of Kali seated on Shiva, also from the Punjab Hills, is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, accession no. 1994-148-505.