Vishnu as the Boar Varaha
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In Hindu belief, the world has suffered from numerous calamities that have threatened its existence. In this sculpture, Varaha, the boar incarnation, or avatar, of the god Vishnu, rescues the earth after it is flooded by a demon.
Rooting beneath the water, Varaha hooks the earth with his tusk and retrieves it. The damaged left jaw of this sculpture once supported the earth, which was personified as a small goddess figure. This particular form of the god is known as Yajna Varaha. Yajna Varaha is covered with a multitude of figures, as the great sages of the world seek refuge in the bristles of his coat.
Nasli (1902–1971) and Alice (nee Arvine, 1910–1993) Heeramaneck, New York, by 1929;
With C. Edward Wells Objects of Art, Inc., New York, by 1944;
Purchased from C. Edward Wells Objects of Art, Inc., by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1944.
Rare Asiatic Art: The Heeramaneck Collection (New York: American Art Association, Inc., 1929), 94, no. 264, (repro.).
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 126, (repro.).
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 381, (repro.).
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 269, fig. 37, (repro.).
