Indian Carved Pillar with Cross Style Capitol & Stone Base

Its colors have the look of oil on water, and its top is all carving.

From Khera, Gujarat, India, this carved pillar with a cross style capital and stone base dates to the late 19th or early 20th century. It is carved wood and stone. Wood carving in Gujarat often covered the upper parts of a post most heavily, where the eye naturally goes. On this one, a fluted shaft flickers with red, green and dark brown. Above it, deep foliate panels and a square lattice turn grey-green beneath a jutting cross top. Paws or leaves curl from the corners of the round stone base. Eighty-five inches high and 21 deep.

Hard to walk past without looking up. Presumably the idea.