Many religious ivory carvings such as these were commisioned by the Portuguese in their colony of Goa on the west coast of India. The imagery seen here is particular to Goan ivories. The Christ Child as the Good Shepherd is usually shown sitting with a lamb in his left hand and a gourd of water at his waist. Beneath his feet is a fountain with two birds drinking, while Mary Magdalene reads a book below. Goa was the second base in India to be established by the Portuguese, having been conquered by Alfonso de Albuquerque (about 1453-1515) during the reign of Manuel I of Portugal initially in 1510, and then reconquered in 1512. Portugal was interested first and foremost in trade, and the discovery of India was motivated by a desire to dominate trade-routes. But the Christian settlers and missionaries were also keen to convert the native populace to Christianity, and religious images in ivory were commissioned to assist in this. Some were exported to Europe, but others evidently remained and were used for evangelical purposes. From the sixteenth century onwards, the four main missionary Orders (Augustinians, Jesuits, Dominicans and Franciscans) built churches and aimed to convert the inhabitants of India. Despite the control of the Church over subject matter, the iconography of Indian art also permeated Christian ivories; the most obvious and at the same time strangest instance of this is the Mount of the Good Shepherd.