A STONE RELIEF WITH VARAHA Central India, 10th-11th century (?) The sculpture depicting in accentuated relief a standing deity with an anthropomorphic body and boar's head, at his feet a semi-reclining figure, four arms, three of which are gaps and one supporting a club, at the top left the synthetic representation of a city resting on his fangs. 40 x 26 cm Provenance: Italian private collection. Varaha is one of the earthly manifestations (avatar) of Vishnu, an important Hindu deity. As in this relief, the most widespread iconography of Varaha is that in which he is depicted with the body of a man and the head of a boar, in his hands - in addition to the mace (gada) - a lotus flower, the disc and a shell. The legend with which it is most often associated, described in this relief, is that in which he defeated the demon Hiranyaksha, who had stolen the earth to hide it in the depths of the cosmic ocean