Jain altarpiece divided into 24 compartments with a central figure, copper alloy, southern India.

Tirthankara Pita Prabhu or Chaturvimsatika Patta or Patta Prabhu, which means 'twenty-four-figure-plaque'.
Altarpiece divided into 25 compartments; in the centre is the twenty-third Jain Tirthankara, Parshvanatha, standing in Kayotsarga (body-abandonment) posture with a five-hooded serpent behind him. In each of the remaining compartments is one of the 24 Jain Tirthankaras seated in meditative posture. At the base of the piece are five figures and two lightly incised lions. The rightmost of these figures at the base may be Padmavati, with her consort Dharanendra on the left - the yakshi and yaksha of Parshvanatha. The composition is enlivened by the swirling floriate forms emerging from the mouth of the expressive kirttimukha (face of glory) that dominates the apex of the main arch, whose top is in the form of makara torana.

Acquired by the India Museum, London, from the collection of Colonel Colin Mackenzie (1754- 1821), who may have collected it in around 1800-1810.

Transferred from the India Museum to the South Kensington Museum (now V&A) in 1879.

The India Museum Slip Book entry, number 478, states that it was presented by 'Col. MacKenzie'. However, it is possible that the object was among those purchased by the East India Company from Mackenzie's widow in 1823. Colonel Colin Mackenzie was a British antiquarian who completed a major survey of the Mysore kingdom in southern India and became the first Surveyor General of India in 1815. Born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, Mackenzie travelled to India in 1783 as an Infantry cadet in the 78th Seaforth Highlanders but in 1786 transferred to become an Engineer in the Madras Army. He spent the remainder of his life in Asia, much of it in southern India, where he carried out a survey of the Nizam of Hyderabad's Dominions (1792-8) and the Mysore Survey (1799-1810), although he also worked in other parts of India and in Java (1811-13). Further information can be found in Howes, J. Illustrating India: the Early Colonial Investigations of Colin Mackenzie (1784-1821), Oxford University Press, 2010 and other publications. Mackenzie's serious research into antiquities began after his return from an expedition to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1796 and was made possible by his association with Kavelli (or Cavelly) Venkata Boria, a Brahmin whose talents as a translator of Indian languages were of great importance to Mackenzie and some of whose family members continued to work with Mackenzie after Boria's death in 1803.

The Slip Book entry for this object records the following information: 'Name of Article, English: Idol (Brass). Ditto, Scientific: A Jaina Saint. Information to be inscribed on label: Tirthankara Pita Prabhu. A plate divided into 25 compartments; in the centre the last [sic] Jaina saint; the rest being representations of the 24 Jaina Tirthankaras, at the bottom some attendants called Dwarapalas.' In fact, the multi-headed snake hood above the central figure indicates that he is not Mahavira, the last Jain Tirthankara, but Parshvanatha or Suparshvanatha.

The shrine can also be identified from its description in H. H. Wilson's catalogue of the Mackenzie collection, number 95.

South India. Probably Tamil Nadu or Karnataka.

Altarpiece divided into 25 compartments; in the centre is the twenty-third Jain Tirthankara, Parshvanatha, standing in Kayotsarga (body-abandonment) posture with a five-hooded serpent behind him. In each of the remaining compartments is one of the 24 Jain Tirthankaras seated in meditative posture. At the base of the piece are five figures and two lightly incised lions. The rightmost of these figures at the base may be Padmavati, with her consort Dharanendra on the left - the yakshi and yaksha of Parshvanatha. The composition is enlivened by the swirling floriate forms emerging from the mouth of the expressive kirttimukha (face of glory) that dominates the apex of the main arch, whose top is in the form of makara torana.

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