Label Text:
The eastern Indian state of Odisha is home to a thriving souvenir painting tradition associated with a famous temple in Puri that houses potent images of Jagannatha, a form of the Hindu god Vishnu, and his brother and sister, Balabhadra and Subhadra. Distinguished by their very large eyes, circular faces, and lack of necks, hands, and legs, these icons are highly abstracted incarnations of the divine. The triad appears together—the yellow-skinned Subhadra squeezed between the dark-faced Jagannatha and the fair-complexioned Balabhadra in the toy chariot. The chariot references an annual summer festival during which the three are processed in enormous chariots down Puri’s main avenue.

Tags:
carts; figurines; Hinduism; horses; patterns

Subjects:
Figurines; patterns (design elements); Horses

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2017.22

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.