A RED SANDSTONE FIGURE OF A CELESTIAL BEAUTY (SURASUNDARI)


NORTH INDIA, 10TH/11TH CENTURY20 1/2 in. (52 cm) high
|This figure is not consciously posing, she is a surasundari, a celestial beauty whose presence on the exterior temple wall is auspicious. In Hinduism, surasundaris strengthen the potency of prayers offered in the temple as their beauty beckons the deity to listen to them. Produced in a 10th-/11th-century style seen in North Indian sculpture particularly in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, this surasundari's hair, face, and jewelry are redolent of images of loving couples (mithuna) seen on the early-11th-century Chitragupta temple of Khajuraho, built c.1025 (cf. Béguin, Khajuraho, Milan, 2017), and her lower garment and sash are similar to that of a c.10th-century sculpture of Shiva in the British Museum (1880.450). Provenance Collection of John Edward Marshall, Massachusetts, acquired in 1968 Thence by descent