Durga Killing the Buffalo Demon
This small sculpture is a piece of Nepalese art dating back to the 13th century. It is made of a Gilt copper alloy and its dimensions are 10 ⅞ X 13 ⅛ X 7 ½ inches making it a moderate to small-sized sculpture. Although the Rubin Museum has great photos of the object online seeing it in person brings out its beauty. The museum’s display shows the copper tint of this piece. It is very similar to other pieces of this era both in terms of materials and of how certain elements are displayed. Durga Killing the Buffalo Demon depicts a scene from a Hindu legend, showing Durga (deity) defeating the demigod Mahisha. Durga seems to have many arms but this is actually a technique used at the time, by creating an arc with what seems to be many arms it creates movement in the sculpture. Showing a youthful figure, round breasts, narrow waist, cocked head, and more rounded hairlines are very common attributes in Nepalese and Himalayan art, along with, depicting women riding sidesaddle on their animals were used to differentiate between male and female deities.
As the story goes, during battles against the demons all the male gods were unable to defeat the defiant Mahishasura (demon showed in the sculpture) because he had been given a boon of invincibility. The gods then combined their Shakti (energies) into Durga which is a fierce manifestation of the goddess (Devi). She was given all the weapons of the gods which contained their powers. She rode her lion into battle, each of her arms swinging wildly. She defeated Mahisha, and his demon armies, who was hiding in the body of a water buffalo. In Nepal, this event is celebrated as Dasain which happens over nine days during the fall harvest.
In the sculpture, we can see all the elements of the tale. The animals present are a lion and a bull. The bull being larger shows its larger significance in the story. Durga is in a powerful stance with a calm expression on her face showing her dominance over the demon Mahisha, she is displayed on some sort of pedestal and is the largest of the figures showing that she is the most important element of the piece. It also has two figures in the front which seem modular. They are both part of Mahisha’s demon army and are depicted as kneeling to Durga and with their weapons on the floor to show their surrender. The depiction of Mahisha is that of slowness and weakness compared to Durga, it shows that Mahisha was hiding inside of a buffalo which shows cowardice. Durga is seen pulling the demon’s body by the hair and stabbing him before he could even draw his sword showing speed, efficiency, and power.
Overall I found this piece to be very interesting. The story behind the piece is very elaborate and compelling, the fact that all the males couldn’t defeat a demon and that when they joined power it created a powerful female deity is very interesting to see how their culture didn’t think of women as powerless or inferior to men. The intricacy of the work and the fact that it has withstood the testament of time in terms of preservation is an achievement as to how well we can maintain works of art nowadays, the color and all the figures seem practically intact. I do, however, have some questions, there are some squares cut out in the back of the pedestal, I think it is also hollow, does this mean the piece was either meant to be transported and had to be light or was it supposed to be hung like a three-dimensional painting?
