An altar or home shrine is a sacred space where Hindu families conduct daily worship (Puja) to connect to the divine through prayers, supplication, songs, rituals and offerings. The components of puja provide a multi-sensory experience: worshiping deities’ images; making offerings of light, flowers, water, and food for the gods to bless; and consuming offerings, all with fragrant incense, oil lamps and candles and bells. The 7 items on a puja tray help devotees use all senses, symbolizing that the whole person is involved in devotion: a bell, oil lamp (diya), incense holder, incense, water container, spoon and chopra container for kum kum to mark devotees’ foreheads. Shrines also contain for devotion murtis, sacred deity images containing the spirit of each deity which Hindus believe shows devotion and love to God. The most common deities are Ganesh, Krishna, Shiva, Parvati, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Saraswati, and Nandi, which, depending on the family’s wealth, are made of terracotta, wood, metal (brass bronze, or even silver or gold), stone or marble. Statues, vessels, paintings or objects from nature may also be used and a home may have more than one shrine and display many deities.
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This finely cast antique figurine with finely articulated features portrays Nandi with jewels sitting recumbent on a high-tiered throne. Kneeling in reverence to serve Lord Shiva he is a symbol of purity and strength. Small figurines were placed on home shrines with other deities and significant family items. Made using lost wax it is a one-of-a-kind piece
Dhokra items like this measuring bowl for rice or other grains are beautifully and often intricately decorated, very accessible, made with an appealing simplicity and in uncomplicated forceful and captivating forms. Made by the lost wax technique, each item has a distinct one-of-a-kind identity as the mold is broken after use so no copies can be made. This charming piece is a typical small grain measure and has a rounded lip, bulging body, and handle for hanging and decorated with horizontal striations across the top half bordered by a band of downward striated triangles, and a broad horizontal band at the center. It is in very good condition with a smooth patina from prolonged use and its considerable age.
Click here for the Blog Dhokra Metal Smiths: Retaining Primitive Techniques with Unfailing Success
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This antique brass vessel was a daily measuring bowl for rice or other grains made by the Dhokra metalsmiths from Eastern India using lost wax casting which creates a unique and distinct identity and a one-of-a-kind object. Dhokra items are beautifully and intricately decorated, very accessible, made with an appealing simplicity and their uncomplicated forms are forceful and captivating. This charming one is a typical small grain measure with a round lip, bulging body, handle for hanging and decorated with horizontal striations across the top half bordered by a band of downward striated triangles and a broad horizontal band at the center. It is in very good condition with a smooth patina from prolonged use and its considerable age.
Dhokra items like this measuring bowl for rice or other grains are beautifully and often intricately decorated, very accessible, made with an appealing simplicity and in uncomplicated forceful and captivating forms. Made by the lost wax technique, each item has a distinct one-of-a-kind identity as the mold is broken after use so no copies can be made. This charming piece is a typical small grain measure with a rounded lip, bulging body, and handle for hanging and decorated with horizontal striations across the top half. It is bordered by a band of downward striated triangles with bosses at the tips, and a broad horizontal band at the center. It is in very good condition and has a smooth patina from prolonged use and considerable age.
Click here for the Blog Hindu Home and Temple Shrines and Religious Practices
Dhokra items like this measuring bowl for rice or other grains are beautifully and often intricately decorated, very accessible, made with an appealing simplicity and in uncomplicated forceful and captivating forms. Made by the lost wax technique, each item has a distinct one-of-a-kind identity as the mold is broken after use so no copies can be made. This charming piece is a typical small grain measure with a rounded lip, bulging body and handle for hanging. It is decorated with horizontal striations across the body and small and large raised zig-zag horizontal bands at the top and underneath are crossing bands with signs of verdigris. It is in very good condition with a smooth patina from prolonged use and its considerable age with a slight loss above the handle.
Click here for the Blog Dhokra Metal Smiths: Retaining Primitive Techniques with Unfailing Success
Click here for the Blog Hindu Home and Temple Shrines and Religious Practices
Dhokra items like this measuring bowl for rice or other grains are beautifully and often intricately decorated, very accessible, made with an appealing simplicity and in uncomplicated forceful and captivating forms. Made by the lost wax technique, each item has a distinct one-of-a-kind identity as the mold is broken after use so no copies can be made. This charming piece is a typical small grain measure, with a rounded lip, bulging body, and handle for hanging and decorated with horizontal striations across the top half bordered by a band of downward striated triangles, and a broad horizontal band at the center. It is in very good condition with a smooth patina from prolonged use and its considerable age.
This Hindu prayer bell was likely placed on a home or temple altar and in daily puja rituals. This simple yet elegant bell has a smooth and undecorated body with only incised parallel rings circling plain surfaces and is topped by a pair of Garudas sheltered by a hood of Nagas. Garuda, the mythical winged bird that is Vishnu’s mount, and Naga, a seven-headed hooded serpent, are natural enemies and when they are represented together, they symbolizes peace, a very appropriate adornment for the tranquility and serenity elicited by the pleasing sounds of a prayer bell.
Martin Lerner an Steven Kossak, The Lotus Transcendent: Indian and Southeast Asian Art from the Samuel Eilenberg Collection, Harry Abrams, New York, 1991.
This graceful South Indian cast brass oil lamp with attached spoon was used for Hindu prayer rituals. It has an oil reservoir in the center, a shallow yoni shaped burner at the front, a finial at the end and it is mounted on a flared circular foot. The top surface is decorated with incised floral motifs.
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