
Cleveland Museum of Art
Varaha, Boar Incarnation of Vishnu
- Date
- 700–800s
- Medium
- sandstone
- Culture
- Central India, probably Madhya Pradesh
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 169268
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
The Hindu god Vishnu took the form of a boar to rescue his wife Bhu (Earth in Sanskrit) from the bottom of the primordial ocean, where she had been hidden by a demon. Here shown with the head of a boar and the powerful lunging body of a warrior, Varaha holds out one of his four elbows as a seat for the earth goddess who he has rescued. In his two left hands, he hold the conch and discus.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift of Maxeen and John Flower in honor of Dr. Stanislaw Czuma
- Provenance
- (Adrian Maynard Oriental Art, London, UK, sold to John and Maxeen Flower) | ?-2011: Dr. John and Maxeen Stone Flower [1928-2010], Shaker Heights, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 2011-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Part of a LinkedCulture topic
Buddhist and Hindu IconographyThese objects are connected by their representation of sacred figures and deities from Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions across Asian cultures, including sculptures, paintings, and ritual objects depicting buddhas,
183 objects from 5 institutions
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