figure (ritual & belief: representations)

Stone statue of Nandi seated with its left fore leg folded under its body, the right bent and extending forward, the tail curled round to its left. The bull has decorative harness including a bridle and two neck bands, the lower consisting of a row of bells hanging from a band, the upper a chain of interlocking sections. The bridle has a floral embellishment where each strap intersects with another and a pendant from the centre of the forehead. The two incurving horns have a further element of harness consisting of straps which surround the horns and meet between them. Where they meet there is a floral badge from which a bell in half section hangs at the back of the bull's neck. The ears are wide and long, pointing backwards. Under the chin is a dewlap; behind the neck a hump. On its back is a decorative mantle attached at the rear by bands which pass under the tail. From the bands a row of hanging decorative elements. The mantle has a narrow border suggestive of an upper and lower cloth. The upper is decorated at each corner with foliate motifs, with a large design at the centre consisting of a central 8 petalled flower surrounded by 8 pointed stellate or floral elements. The bull is on a rectangular stone plinth, carved from the same block, this resting on a separate stone plinth with horizontal moulding.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

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