Ivory ‘singha’
The head of the singha, with its huge eyes and open jaws, is the most prominent part of the object, while the yakṣa has a more smooth, childlike appearance. Measuring only 23 cm in height and 7.7 cm in width, it's quite heavy due to its depth (8 cm.) and constitution, and needs to be held with two hands. The tiny rectangular-shaped ivory part at the bottom suggests the object was intended to be attached to a pedestal or a fragment of a bigger statuary complex. Traces of polychromy reveal that it was dyed in different, alluring colors originally. The colors have deteriorated over time but would have contributed to its lifelike appearance.
Stories
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"Transformation(s) Through Time"
story by Pietro Cavallari.Many centuries ago, an elephant died. From its body, eroded by time, a pair of tusks were extracted and taken by expert craftsmen of India. From there, the elephant was given a new life in the form of this leonine ivory statue. Little did the elephant know that it would play a role in a coming of events that characterized the Indian subcontinent and its relations with distant empires and merchants… until it found its way to a museum in the Netherlands and was born once again.