A Blackstone Figure of a Nandi Bull
South India
16th-17th century
Height: 28cm; Length and Depth: 33 by 12 cm.

Reclining on a rectangular plinth, wearing a necklace of bells.

Nandi is the vehicle of Siva, the great “creator and destroyer” of Hinduism. Such images are traditionally displayed in front of a temple entrance.

Provenance
Acquired by a Scottish family in India in the nineteenth century, in whose possession it remained, in Bridge of Allen, from about 1900-2008