Page 16 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

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A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF THE COSMIC SLEEP OF VISHNU Published
SOUTH INDIA, TANJORE, NAYAK PERIOD, CIRCA 1800 Pal, The Elegant Image: Bronzes from the Indian Subcontinent in the
4 3/8 in. (11.1 cm) high Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection, New Orleans, 2011, p.172, no.93.

$20,000 - 30,000 Exhibited
Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Bronzes from the Indian Subcontinent in
Represented in this sculpture is Vishnu, considered by his followers as the Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art, 5
the supreme deity and divine source of the universe. From his navel August - 23 October 2011.
arises the four-headed god Brahma to enact the creation of a cosmic
cycle (kalpa). Meanwhile, Vishnu sleeps, attended to by two consorts, Provenance
one of whom massages his right leg. The deity reclines above the Collection of Siddharth K. Bhansali, New Orleans
multi-headed serpent, Shesha. It is from a state of cosmic slumber Acquired in London between 1978-83
that Vishnu periodically awakes as an avatar to restore balance to
the cosmic order (dharma) by vanquishing an egregious transgressor.
Whereas Pal attributes this bronze to South India’s Vijayanagara
period, related examples attributed to c.1800 in the Norton Simon
Museum (P.1996.3.4) and the Victoria & Albert Museum (IM.159-1929)
suggest a more likely attribution to the Nayak period, and the mitres
worn echo those seen in Tanjore painting of the period.

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