Object Notes

Painting from India survives from at least the 5th century in the form of magnificent murals on the interior of Buddhist monasteries, and then later in Buddhist and Jain religious manuscripts painting on palm leaves.

This is the left doorjamb (dvara-shakha) from a temple in central or western India (the present-day states of Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan).

The exterior walls of north Indian temples dating to the 9th through 12th centuries are replete with sculptural images projecting from the surface and presenting the worshipper with a sense of a mountain populated by the gods and their attendants.

This relief dates from the late 11th or 12th centuries. The four-armed male deity carved on the central projection of the relief holds a rosary and a lotus in his right hands, and a por

This Pala-dynasty stele depicting Jambhala reflects a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist influences. The Buddhist deity Jambhala is associated with Kubera, the Hindu god of wealth.

The most common representations of Durga depict the goddess slaying the buffalo demon, or together with Shiva, her husband. However, she is occasionally shown alone on her lion mount, as she is in this wooden sculpture.

This gray schist relief from the Kushan period in Gandhara shows Budda Shakyamuni engaged in his daily activity of giving his teachings to disciples and ordinary people. He stands with his robe slightly gathered up, its corner held in his upraised left hand.

This figure is an architectural support in the form of a winged strong man called an "atlant." The term atlant refers to any carved stone architectural support in the form of a muscular, robust male figure.