467 - A SANDSTONE FIGURE OF SKANDA RIDING NANDI, KHMER EMPIRE, ANGKOR PERIOD 12TH CENTURY

A SANDSTONE FIGURE OF SKANDA RIDING NANDI, KHMER EMPIRE, ANGKOR PERIOD 12TH CENTURY Dimensions: Height 48 cm Wide 13 cm Depth 37 cm without base Weight: 16.100 grams This sandstone sculpture depicts Skanda, the Hindu god of war and son of Shiva and Parvati, seated calmly upon Nandi, the sacred bull and traditional mount of Shiva. Skanda wears a conical headdress with incised geometric details and sits upright in a composed posture, his hands resting on his lap. Nandi is carved with compact proportions, solidly modeled to suggest strength and stability, and stands upon a rectangular plinth. The iconography is highly unusual: in mainstream Indian tradition Skanda (also known as Karttikeya or Murugan) is almost invariably depicted riding his peacock mount (paravāni). The Khmer sculptural corpus, however, occasionally presents Skanda upon Nandi, reflecting both the close association between father and son and the assimilation of Skanda into Shiva’s divine entourage. This rare variation highlights the creative adaptation of Indic iconography within the Khmer religious milieu. The restrained yet monumental carving style, with rounded modeling and minimal surface ornament, is characteristic of the Angkor Wat period. The sculpture's dynamic modelling conveys the protective and auspicious associations of its sacred imagery.