Durga Copper Plate / Artist Unknown, India, Kulu, Himachal Pradesh
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About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 1975/2.146
- Title
- Durga Copper Plate
- Artist Nationality
- Indian
- Medium and Support
- copper
- Object Creation Date
- 19th century - 20th century
- Object Creation Place
- Asia (continent)
- India (nation)
- Himachal Pradesh (state)
- Kulu
- Creation Place 1
- Asia (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- India (nation)
- Creation Place 3
- Himachal Pradesh (state)
- Creation Place 4
- Kulu
- Style/Group/Movement
- folk bronze/brass
- Dimensions
- 23.8 cm x 14.8 cm (9 3/8 in. x 5 13/16 in.)
- Century
- 19th-20th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Ritual Objects
- Primary Object Type
- figure
- Secondary Object Classification
- Metalwork
- Secondary Object Type
- figure
- Physical Description
- An eight armed goddess sits astride a tiger with uplifted tail. She carries a noose, punch dagger, shankha, and trident in her right hands and a bow, ring-like discus, arrow and shield in her left arms. She wears a long garland of either large rudraksa or heads around her heck along with other necklaces and pendants. She sits with legs pendant wearing a long skirt. Behind the figure a Om symbol with the end of the letter twirled around it twice and the word Shri written in Devanagari script. Below the figure a grid of letters forms a sacred diagram. The lines forming the grid all end in trident forms. Each square of the grid houses a different letter in nagari.
- Subject Matter
- Labeled as Durga, an umbrella title or classification for Goddess images, she is probably more aptly title as Mujunidevi in Kulu, the place where this was mostly likely produced. That title is used in publication of both Ananda Coomaraswamy and Davidson, p. 103. But the iconography is pan-Indian as the name Durga is fully descriptive. Consistently the goddess rides on a tiger or lion, often apparently a combination of both felines, and carries weapons with which to kill demons. The Goddess was produced to kill demons that the gods could not kill and it was only a creation of the Goddess out of their combined powers that the demons were quelled. Here weapons of a variety of the Gods are present suggesting that collective power.
- Secondary Keywords
- animals and creatures
- associated concepts
- mammals
- people
- people (agents)
- people and culture
- people by gender
- religion
- religions
- religions and religious concepts
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 895 x 1269
- File Size
- 93 KB
- Record
- 1975/2.146
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1975-sl-2.146/1975_2.146.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Related Links
Portfolios
- In public portfolios
IIIF
- Manifest
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1975-SL-2.146:1975_2.146.JPG
Cite this Item
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- Full citation
-
"Durga Copper Plate; Artist Unknown, India, Kulu, Himachal Pradesh." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1975-sl-2.146/1975_2.146.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 19, 2024.
