Woman Riding Two Brahman Bulls
This remarkable object is the oldest bronze object in the Museum’s Indian collections, and is a rare survivor of the early bronze culture associated with the late Harappan civilization shared across northern India and the Indus Valley (Pakistan) in the second millennium B.C.
Two humped (‘Brahman’) bulls support a platform on which is a woman is kneeling. Her hands rest on the bulls’ humps. The ensemble is on a rectangular platform, which has been separately cast. The woman has a slender physique, pointed breasts, and hair that extends to her shoulders. She wears a small circular crown-like fitting atop her head, has deep eye sockets and an incised mouth. The symmetry of the female figure is mirrored in standing female clay figurines from this period and later.
Two humped (‘Brahman’) bulls support a platform on which is a woman is kneeling. Her hands rest on the bulls’ humps. The ensemble is on a rectangular platform, which has been separately cast. The woman has a slender physique, pointed breasts, and hair that extends to her shoulders. She wears a small circular crown-like fitting atop her head, has deep eye sockets and an incised mouth. The symmetry of the female figure is mirrored in standing female clay figurines from this period and later.
Artwork Details
- Title: Woman Riding Two Brahman Bulls
- Period: late Harrapan period
- Date: 2000–1750 BCE
- Culture: India (Kausambi)
- Medium: Bronze
- Dimensions: H. 5 1/2 in. (14 cm); W. 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm); D. 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Gift of Jonathan and Jeannette Rosen, 2015
- Object Number: 2015.505
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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