Varaha – Boar incarnation of Vishnu

2012.349

Varaha – Boar incarnation of Vishnu

2012.349

Description

Varaha is the third incarnation of Lord Vishnu.He is depicted with the human body and boar head.He is holding a gada (mace),shankha(conch) and Goddess Earth on his left elbow and the serpent shesha in his feet.

According to Hindu scriptures the myth of Varaha when he subdued the demon Hiranyaksha who had hidden the Earth under the waters. Varaha is depicted in his anthropomorphic form, with a human body and face of the Boar. He holds the emblems of the Vishnu, the shankha,the lotus,the disc and the mace which he strikes the demon.The fierce aspect of the demon is generally recognised as the animal in him.

The collection of Indian bronzes from different parts of India has been collected over 50 years ago by Dr. Ernst Mischa Jucker and Angela Jucker. The Swiss couple who lived in Ettingen outside Basel began collecting Indian folk art and cloth paintings in early 1960s.

Dr. Jucker was a leading research chemist and top manager of Sandoz, a predecessor company of Novartis visited Orissa for a Science conference in 1959 where he met the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and spoke about Indian culture, art and religion. Fascinated with the information Dr. Jucker heard from Panditji, he visited few antique shops hoping to find objects linked with the Indian tribal and rural people.

Dr. Jucker entrusted the collection to Dr. Daniel Vasella of Novartis, hoping that it would find its way back into a museum in India. Dr. Vasella through Ranjit Shahani, Country President, Novartis India gifted the collection of 850 bronzes to the museum in the year 2012.

Angela and Ernst Mischa Jucker Collection.

Collection

Sculptures

Object Type

Sculpture

Material

Bronze

Schools/Culture/Period

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Technique

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Date

19th Century CE

Location

Maharashtra

Dimension

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