A bronze like this, depicting a deity brandishing a weapon and holding a cup, might have been given as a votive in medieval India. The god appears to be one of the numerous warrior spirits of Hindu myth who vanquished evil to save mankind. In the presence of such a work, full of spiritual sincerity, we cannot help but wonder whose gift it was and what favors they sought from the gods. We recognize that those forgotten dreams--for health, wealth and happiness--have hardly altered through the ages. Such a work unites us with a vanished world and with the men and women who gave it meaning. - (PF.1381)
Antiquities Ancient Near East
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