Gandharva (celestial musician),sandstone, Orissa, Eastern India, 11th century.

In this baluster from an Orissan temple, a male flautist stands gracefully on a lotus with foliage and plays upon a bamboo flute. His costume consists of a waistcloth with jewelled girdle and a sacred cord (yajnopavita) and jewellery. A leafy branch rises behind him sinuously to add to the sense of movement and to form a canopy above the musician's head. He was clearly part of a celestial orchestra that was attached to the temple wall to permanently entertain the deity of the shrine.

Sold at Sotheby's sale of 15th June 1951, lot 86 together with IS.273-1951. The Sotheby's catalogue states that the pair was ' taken from a wall of a temple at Bhuvaneswar, Orissa, Bengal, when it was repaired in 1899 and given by the Public Works Department of Bengal to an ancestor of the present owner'. Further attempts by the Museum to discover more of their history proved unsuccessful. The conservation work undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India ( A.S.I.) is summarised in their Annual Report of 1902-03, pp.45-46. 'Carvings , when broken and lost, were replaced by new ones with careful discretion' and ' only such carvings have been replaced by new ones of which the original pattern was available'.

The subsidiary scenes in temple decorations are often occupied by semi-divine figures, such as the apsara (celestial beauty) seen here standing beneath a flowering tree holding a mirror and the gandharva (celestial musician), represented playing a flute. Both figures are adorned with jewels and are supported on lotus pedestals.These figures were reportedly collected at Bhuvaneswar in 1899.

Bhuvaneswar, Orissa, India

IS.274-1951