A Tamil Nadu teak wood model of a temple gate (gopuram) Southern India. Late 19th/early 20th century - image-1
A Tamil Nadu teak wood model of a temple gate (gopuram) Southern India. Late 19th/early 20th century - image-2
A Tamil Nadu teak wood model of a temple gate (gopuram) Southern India. Late 19th/early 20th century - image-1A Tamil Nadu teak wood model of a temple gate (gopuram) Southern India. Late 19th/early 20th century - image-2

Lot 38 Dα

A Tamil Nadu teak wood model of a temple gate (gopuram) Southern India. Late 19th/early 20th century

Auction 1235 - overview Cologne
08.12.2023, 11:30 - India/Southeast Asia, Tibet/Nepal, China, Korea and Japan
Estimate: 3.000 € - 3.600 €
Print page
Watchlist

A Tamil Nadu teak wood model of a temple gate (gopuram)
Southern India. Late 19th/early 20th century

On a rectangular basis, the entrance hall with two double panel doors with a multi-tiered roof carved with deities and yakshis. Lacquered and small replacements.
Height 69 cm; width 40.5 cm; depth 33.5 cm

In Southern India, especially in the province of Tamil Nadu, Hindu temple precincts are enclosed by a wall with impressive multi-storeyed gate towers. Also, the smaller entrance gates within the compound are multi-storeyed. In Madurai, the gate of the Minakshi Sundareshwara temple is fourteen storeys high and decorated all over with deities, animals and demons, as is the smaller gate entrance of the Rajaraja temple in Tanjore.
Europeans who lived in India in the 19th and 20th centuries often acquired such models of gopuram as souvenirs. Three models, for example, are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (including IM 6-1926) and come from the collection of a British engineer who worked in Madras between 1877 and 1904.