Pic of the month – Jewels of Nandi

For this month’s Pic, I am going to take you all on a tour to Mysore in Karnataka, India  and show you a beautiful rock sculpture of nandi commissioned by Maharaja Dodda Devaraja Wodeyar (1659–1673) of Mysore. Nandi is a holy bull worshiped not just as the vehicle of Lord Shiva and his gatekeeper but also as his close confidante. These are pictures of the famous Nandi of Mysore, located at Chamundi hills. This beauty is 16 feet high and said to be 24 feet long.

Type – Object/monument Photography

Jewels of Mysore Nandi

A Nandi is usually portrayed in white, but this stone Nandi is magnificent. It has been sculpted in sitting position with its left foreleg folded in an about to get up posture. I would like to bring your notice to all the jewelry, the finer details that have been executed brilliantly. Apart from the many sequences of bells and garlands dexterously carved over the bull one can spot various other jewelry like the head piece, ear cuff, waist belt, thigh chain and ofcourse the back patch.

Nandis in most temples wear similar jewelry but the workmanship in this particular sculpture is fascinating. If we look closely, It seems as though most of the jewelry has been inspired by Traditional dance jewellery of the Devadasis. The hip chain at the back of the sculpture looks a lot like the Mekala (bells on a hip chain) that primarily court dancers wore as per sangam literature and the ear cuff looks like Karnaphool (ear flower).  The pattern of the third necklace (on the Nandi), is used to make silver anklets even today. I will show you one such re-purposed anklet soon.

You can read about ancient Indian Jewellery here

I hope you found it interesting
Cheers