Agni

Agni

This is Agni, one of the eight Dikpalas (guardians of directions). Agni is the guardian of the South-East direction. Agni means fire, and he is the Vedic fire god of Hinduism. Agni is meant to be the medium through which offerings are made to other gods. 

Agni left

In this case, he is identified by his vahana, Ram and the fact that there were four arms. Unfortunately, the arms are broken. Despite that, the inclusion here is mainly because of the rarity of such wooden sculptures. You tend to see wooden relief sculptures and not wooden sculptures in the round.

However, worship of wooden sculptures is not uncommon.  In our ancestral home, the deity is made of wood. And so are the main deities in the Puri Jagannath temple.  It is generally believed that wood was used as one of the media for fashioning deities before the use of metal and stone became common.

The sculpture is about 11.5 cm in height. I have no idea as to the place of origin or age of this piece.

 

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