The Parel Relief or Parel Shiva is an important monolithic relief of the Hindu god Shiva in seven forms that is dated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to the late Gupta period, in the 5th or 6th century AD.[1]
It was found in Parel, once one of the Seven Islands of Bombay, and now a neighbourhood of Mumbai, when a road was being constructed in 1931. It was moved to the nearby Baradevi Temple, where it remains in worship, in its own room.[2] There is a plaster cast on display in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum) in Mumbai.[3]
The relief, carved in "white granite",[4] shows Shiva seven times, with a central image surrounded by six other Shiva images which overlap with each other; thus it is a saptamurti ("seven images") composition. All are two-armed except for the top figure which has ten arms.[5] The images exhibit different mudras or hand gestures and some carry attributes, not all now identifiable. There are also five gana or dwarf musicians (or three musicians and two guardians) in the lower area of the piece. The slab is about 3.06 metres high (10.0 ft),[6] or about 3.5 metres (11 ft),[7] with the Shiva figures about three-quarter life-size. It appears to be unfinished, for example in the ganas at lower right.[8]
More precise estimates of the date (all are based on the style) are "around 600",[9] or around 525–530.[10]
- ^ ASI; also many other sources. Although Mumbai was never part of the actual Gupta Empire, art from the area is usually treated as part of Gupta art
- ^ ASI; Michell, 355
- ^ ASI
- ^ Though it does not now appear very white; Koller, 234; Chakravarti, 162
- ^ ASI; Koller, 234; Chakravarti, 162
- ^ ASI
- ^ Howard, 63; Michell, 355
- ^ ASI; Howard, 63
- ^ Howard, 63.
- ^ Schastok, 52