14. Shiva Importante et très rare sculpture de Shiva Late Shunga dynasty, ca. 1st Cent. B.C., North India, Northern region of Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) Mottled red sandstone, h. 160 cm (text see pp. 4-7) Prov.: Han Coray (Zurich) before 1930 (only Shiva) Anthony Greville-Bell until 1940 Estate of the late Patricia Withofs, acquired in 1985 Offered for sale by Spink and Son, London, 1994 Publ.: Jonathan Tucker, An Important Group of Sculptures from India, Southeast Asia and China, London 2015
Fig. 7 Detail of Shiva’s knee, covered by a skin of a feline showing face and claws
15. Vyala Importante sculpture d’un Vyala Ca. 10th-11th Cent., Central India, Madhya Pradesh Pink sandstone, traces of pigments, h. 71 cm Prov.: La Compagnie des Indes et de la Chine, Paris Martin Doustar, Brussels Fig. 3 Yaksha Manibhadra, Auriga Period, late 1St Cent. B.C., found at Gwalior, now at Gwalior Museum Sandstone (after Ludwig Bachhofer, Early Indian Sculpture, 1939, pl 62)
Publ.: Martin Doustar, A Passage through Asia, Brussels 2015, cat. 11
Fig. 4 An ithyphallic Shiva, and Uma, Uttar Pradesh, Gupta period, 5th Cent. (Government Museum, Mathura, inv. 30 2084) (after The Golden Age of Classical India. The Gupta Empire, Editions de la réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, 2007, pp. 158-159)
Vyala, also called Sardula, is a mythological creature of the Hindu pantheon and a common figural motif of temple architecture. In Hindu legends, Vyala is depicted with the body of a lion, the tail of a peacock, and the trunk and tusks of an elephant. This mythical creature has also been described as a leogryph, part lion, part griffin, with some bird-like features.
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