Michael Backman Ltd - Home
Rare Painted Wooden Portable Shrine for the Jagannathi Trio
Orissa or Rajasthan, India
19th century
height: 22cm, width with doors extended: 33cm
The shrine or story teller's box, of painted wood, comprises a cabinet with a series of doors that fold out to ultimately reveal the Jagannathi Trio of Krishna, his
brother Balarama and their sister Subhadra as separately carved and painted figures. The Trio are worshipped most fervently at their temple in Puri, Orissa.
The doors are profusely painted inside and out with multiple scenes from religious stories. There is no text: most pilgrims who might have acquired such a
shrine or story teller's box would have been illiterate hence the stories are told via pictures. Altogether, there are sixteen separate interior panels all densely
painted with mythological scenes.
Relatively few examples of such shrines or boxes survive. One, attributed to the eighteenth century and with the image of Subhadra missing, is in India’s
Museum of Folk, Tribal and Neglected Art. A portable Vishnu shrine is in the Ashmolean Museum (inventory no. X.264). It is attributed to South India, late 18th
or early 19th century. Another is in the Denver Art Museum (1985.550) and was illustrated in Arts of Asia, January-February 2007.
References: Aryan, S., Unknown Masterpieces of Indian Folk and Tribal Art, KC Aryan’s Home of Folk Art, Museum of Folk, Tribal and Neglected Art, 2005,
p. 229; and Lanius, M.C., 'Popular and traditional art of South and Southeast Asia in the Denver Art Museum', Arts of Asia, January-February 2007.
Inventory no.: 387 SOLD
Rare Painted Wooden Portable Shrine for the Jagannathi Trio
Orissa or Rajasthan, India
19th century
height: 22cm, width with doors extended: 33cm
The shrine or story teller's box, of painted wood, comprises a cabinet with a series of doors that fold out to ultimately reveal the Jagannathi Trio of Krishna, his
brother Balarama and their sister Subhadra as separately carved and painted figures. The Trio are worshipped most fervently at their temple in Puri, Orissa.
The doors are profusely painted inside and out with multiple scenes from religious stories. There is no text: most pilgrims who might have acquired such a
shrine or story teller's box would have been illiterate hence the stories are told via pictures. Altogether, there are sixteen separate interior panels all densely
painted with mythological scenes.
Relatively few examples of such shrines or boxes survive. One, attributed to the eighteenth century and with the image of Subhadra missing, is in India’s
Museum of Folk, Tribal and Neglected Art. A portable Vishnu shrine is in the Ashmolean Museum (inventory no. X.264). It is attributed to South India, late 18th
or early 19th century. Another is in the Denver Art Museum (1985.550) and was illustrated in Arts of Asia, January-February 2007.
References: Aryan, S., Unknown Masterpieces of Indian Folk and Tribal Art, KC Aryan’s Home of Folk Art, Museum of Folk, Tribal and Neglected Art, 2005,
p. 229; and Lanius, M.C., 'Popular and traditional art of South and Southeast Asia in the Denver Art Museum', Arts of Asia, January-February 2007.
Inventory no.: 387 SOLD
