Lakshmi Hayagriva

This is Vishnu in the form of Hayagriva, accompanied by his consort Lakshmi. The Chakra and Shankha in the upper hands identify this deity as Vishnu. The cin mudra and manuscript in the lower hands identify him as Hayagriva, one of the Gods of learning.

Hayagriva is horse-faced, and Vishnu takes that form to fight and conquer demons who had taken possession of the four Vedas.

As part of my research, I did an image search and was surprised and pained to see a reproduction, albeit a very poor one, of this Vigraha. See below. The details match to the extent that one can safely assume the original, which has been with me for six years, was copied before I acquired it. That copy may have been used to make other copies. This practice by the antique dealers to make a mould of antiques before selling them is questionable, especially when collectors consider antiques as an investment.

Leaving that aside, this Vigraha is about 6 cm tall, and it is full of details. It is from the Karnataka-Maharashtra border. This may be dated to the eighteenth century.

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