Indian Temple Fragment Depicting Monkey, Based

Hunched figure with its head in its hands, wearing a coat of peeling pink-white paint.

This temple fragment depicting monkey is Jain, from Gujarat, India, and dates to the mid 18th century. It is carved & painted stone. Jain texts picture the universe as shaped like a man, broad at the top, narrow in the middle and broad again at the bottom. Crouching carved figure folds forward with its arms wrapped round the knees and its head tucked down. Pale pinkish paint flakes across a warm orange-tan body, and the figure sits on a rough, uneven base. It is 12 inches wide, 4 deep and 12 high.

Deep in thought, or possibly in a mood.