Indian Door Lintel with Fish, Peacock, and Elephants

Elephants, a peacock and a fish, all agreeing to share one doorway.

This door lintel comes from the border of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, India, and dates to the late 18th or early 19th century, in carved teak. In Indian homes and temples the threshold mattered, and the beam over a door was a natural place for auspicious creatures and protective imagery. The gently arched panel crowds figures, birds and vines toward a central wheel, with a fanned peacock tail beneath it and an elephant toward one end. Dark brown wood deepens every recess. 53 inches wide.

Most people looked up only once. That was probably enough.