Indian Temple Fragment Depicting Lion

Seated maned cat in scaled curls, with turquoise-green traces at the nostrils for good measure.

This temple fragment depicting lion is Jain, from Gujarat, India, and dates to the mid 18th century. It is carved & painted stone. Manusyaloka paintings, also called Maps of the Human World, show the universe as a cosmic wheel of time in which individual lives are only pin pricks. Carved pale stone cat sits upright on a rectangular base, its mane worked into neat rows of scales and its face set in a wide, flat frown. Green traces mark the nose, and the surface is smooth and lightly stained. It is 4.5 inches wide, 5.5 deep and 12 high.

Fierce in principle, and rather well groomed in practice.