A sandstone relief of a Nagaraja couple Northern India, Gupta period, 5th-6th century 35 x 22.5 in. (88.9 x 57.15 cm.) Provenance: With Kapoor Galleries, by the 1990s.
The erect figures are sheltered by the heads of seven serpents whose tails are intertwined between the couple. While the human forms appear separate from the serpents themselves, this iconography is meant to convey the semi-devine shape-shifting nature of these special beings who can take on human or reptilian forms according to their whim. These deities are often associated with water and thus, agricultural abundance. However, they have an equal capacity to bring great misfortune to humans. Representations of serpent kings and queens began to appear in India as early as the second century B.C. According to Hindu cosmology they reside in the Mahatala loka, one of the fourteen loka in Hindu cosmology, best understood as a plane of existence. Humans reside in a loka above the nagas called the Bhu loka. The depth of this carved sandstone is remarkably preserved given its age. The tapered waits, fleshlike contours, very full lips, large almond-shaped eyes, uniform hairstyles, and simple approach to ornamentation are all indicative of this sculpture’s Gupta-period origin. The female figure’s proportions in particular–with breasts that extend beyond the girth of her hips–separates this sculptural style from the earlier milieu of sculpture emerging around Mathura, among which many naga figures can be found. Compare the present relief to a nagini dated to the second quarter of the fifth century at the Metropolitain Museum of Art. While her hips are more exaggerated (indicative of the slightly earlier date and persisting Kushan influence) the figure is, otherwise, strikingly similar–especially in terms of facial features and ornamentation. This figure, too, would have had a male counterpart.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art comparable Nagini (Serpent Queen or Consort of Nagaraja) India (Madhya Pradesh), Gupta period, second quarter of the 5th century Stone H. 34 1/2 in. (87.6 cm) Gift of Evelyn Kossak, The Kronos Collections, 1987 1987.415.2
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