AN INSCRIBED NAGA FRAGMENT FROM A JAIN TEMPLE, WESTERN INDIA, 15TH-17TH CENTURY
Deeply and skillfully carved from pure white marble as intertwined serpents rising below the spreading naga hood with finely incised eyes, surmounted by a shikhara above several dedicatory inscriptions.


Inscriptions:
To the top, ‘Parampita Parmatma’, and a dedication to Shri Nagad, above donor dedications to ‘Rajanti Raghwala’ and ‘Prithviyay’.


Provenance:
From the private estate of Monica Ghizzardi, Belgium.

Condition:
Good condition with old wear, weathering, minor erosion, and calcification inside the naga hood indicating a later usage as a basin, minor losses, small nicks, light scratches.

Weight: 17.9 kg (excl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 62 cm (excl. stand).

With a fitted metal stand. (2)


Expert’s note:
The present lot is related to
Parshvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankara
, whose symbol is the snake
.
Jain temples in Western India, such as the Ranakpur Temple in Rajasthan, feature marble carvings of the deity with similar iconography. His mother is said to have seen a black serpent crawling by her side before his birth, and in sculpture and painting he is always identified by a canopy of snake hoods over his head. According to accounts in the Kalpa Sutra, Parshvanatha once saved a serpent that had been trapped in a log in an ascetic’s fire. The snake, later reborn as Dharana, the lord of the underworld kingdom of nagas, sheltered Parshvanatha from a storm sent by a demon.