Hayagriva; brass figure; horse-headed with four arms. South India (probably Tamil Nadu), or possibly Odisha or Andhra Pradesh, 18th-early 19th century.

This horse-headed, four-armed deity holding a conch in his upper right (proper) hand and chakra in his upper left hand was previously identified as Kalki (Kalkin), the tenth avatar or incarnation of Vishnu, but the manuscript (representing the Veda) in his lower left hand indicates that this is Hayagriva. Kalki carries a sword and the manuscript was previously thought to be a broken sword, but this seems unconvincing. The figure also lacks the arrow or club associated with Kalki. He sits with his legs strongly crossed in a yogic pose, above a flat square base that may have fitted into a larger shrine or tiered base. The attributes are well-modelled in a manner suggested to be reminiscent of the "Orissa/Andhra" style but there are few other regional indicators. His lower right hand is held in the preaching gesture (vyakhyana mudra) shown with a rosary hooked over his thumb. He is wearing jewellery and a lower garment patterned in bands of circles.

Acquired by the India Museum (Slips No. 9035) from the collection of Colonel Colin Mackenzie (1754- 1821), who may have acquired it some time around 1800-10. Transferred from the India Museum to the South Kensington Museum (now V&A Musuem) in 1879. . 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, in 1754, 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). He died in Calcutta in 1821.

The India Museum Slip Book entry for this figure describes it as 'Idol (Bronze)... Kalki-Avatara... Vishnu in his future Avatara, as Kalki'. However, the figure is now thought to represent Hayagriva.

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