The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 24, 2023

Surya, the Sun God

early 700s

India, Kashmir

Brass

Overall: 50.4 cm (19 13/16 in.)

Gift of Katharine Holden Thayer 1965.557

Location

237 Himalayan

Description

Surya wears a long tunic and boots suitable for riding horses across the grassland steppes of Central Asia. The sun god was of paramount power among the people of Central and Western Asia who followed religions such as Zoroastrianism, a pre-Islamic faith emphasizing a sacred duality between light and dark. When the image of the sun god began to be made in India from the 100s BC on, he is shown in the dress of the people who revered him the most. Surya is worshipped throughout the Indian subcontinent and Himalayan regions of Kashmir and Nepal alongside both Hindu and Buddhist deities.

Provenance
?–1965
(William H. Wolff [1906-1991], New York, NY, sold to Katharine Holden Thayer [1898-1985] for gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1965–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 231 archive.org
“Art of Asia Recently Acquired by American Museums, 1965.” Archives of Asian Art, vol. 20, 1966, pp. 84–113. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 88, fig. 13 www.jstor.org
Lee, Sherman E. “Golden Anniversary Acquisitions: September 10 through October 16.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 53, no. 7, 1966, pp. 181–284. Reproduced: no. 158, p. 255; Mentioned: no. 158, p. 285 www.jstor.org
Lee, Sherman E. “Clothed in the Sun: A Buddha and a Surya from Kashmir.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 54, no. 2, 1967, pp. 42–63. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 48, figs. 5 and 6 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 231 archive.org
Pal, Pratapaditya. Bronzes of Kashmir. Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1975. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 17, p. 82, pp. 20, 34
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 293 archive.org
Schroeder, Ulrich von. Indo-Tibetan Bronzes. Hong Kong: Visual Dharma Publications, 1981. Mentioned: p. 112, no. 13F; Reproduced: p. 113
Klimburg-Salter, Deborah E., and Maximilian Klimburg. The Silk Route and the Diamond Path: Esoteric Buddhist Art on the Trans-Himalayan Trade Routes. Los Angeles, CA: Published under the sponsorship of the UCLA Art Council, 1982. Reproduced: p. 108, pl. 39
Czuma, Stanislaw. "A Unique Addition to the School of Kashmiri Ivories." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 8 (1988): 298-319. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 310, fig. 18 www.jstor.org
Reedy, Chandra L. Himalayan Bronzes: Technology, Style, and Choices. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1997. Reproduced: p. 154, fig. K41
Pal, Pratapaditya. Sindh, Past Glory, Present Nostalgia. Mumbai: Marg Publications on behalf of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, 2008. Reproduced: p. 14, fig. 5
Vajrācārya, Gautamavajra, and Vidya Dehejia. Frog Hymns and Rain Babies: Monsoon Culture and the Art of Ancient South Asia. Mumbai: Marg Foundation, 2013. Reproduced: p. 75, fig. 4.1
Exhibition history

Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.557