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H: 18 Inch · Leather
Estimated Delivery in 2 weeks
Takes approximately 1 week to handcraft
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This inventive Tholu Bommalata artwork by Sindhe Siva depicts Kurma, the second avatar of Vishnu, whose tortoise form underpins one of Hindu mythology's most pivotal cosmic events: the churning of the ocean of milk. Rendered in the shadow puppet tradition of Andhra Pradesh, the piece takes on the particular challenge of visualising a hybrid, part-human, part-animal deity within the flat, profile-based conventions of Tholu Bommalata.
Tholu Bommalata, meaning "the dance of leather puppets" is the traditional shadow theatre of the Deccan, historically performed through the night by wandering puppeteer families whose repertoire drew chiefly on the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata Purana, the last of these being the primary textual source for the ten avatars of Vishnu. Puppets are cut from treated, translucent hide, most commonly goatskin, hand-painted with natural pigments, and finely perforated so that light from behind the performance screen turns each figure into a vivid, glowing shadow. Sindhe Siva belongs to the Nimmalakunta lineage of puppeteers in Dharmavaram, Anantapur district, an eighth-generation family whose work has earned National and State recognition for its craftsmanship.
Kurma is rendered here with a blue-toned complexion, his upper body fully anthropomorphic, complete with a richly tiered crown, layered necklaces and ornamented armlets, while his lower body emerges directly from the rounded, domed form of a tortoise shell. The shell itself is meticulously worked, its surface built up from dense, overlapping scale-like patterning in warm browns and golds, ringed by a decorative red-and-gold border. From beneath this shell extend four stout, clawed tortoise legs positioned around its circumference, along with a short tail, while two fully human arms rise from the shoulders in a raised, gesturing pose. This deliberate hybridity, two human arms combined with four legs and a tail, visually announces his unique status among the ten incarnations.
According to the Puranas, Kurma's avatar was assumed during the Samudra Manthana, the churning of the cosmic ocean of milk undertaken jointly by the gods and demons in search of amrita, the nectar of immortality. When Mount Mandara, used as the churning rod, began to sink into the ocean for want of a stable base, Vishnu descended as a giant tortoise and placed the mountain upon his broad back, allowing the churning to continue and ultimately yielding the nectar along with numerous divine treasures. Kurma thus symbolises steadfastness and the patient bearing of immense burden, qualities essential to the story's outcome.
By translating this composite, load-bearing deity into the bold colour and dense perforation of Tholu Bommalata, Sindhe Siva's Kurma stands as one of the more visually distinctive pieces in the Dashavatara series. It reflects both the artist's technical command of the medium and the tradition's enduring capacity to give tangible, luminous form to even mythology's most conceptually unusual figures.
Each of our artworks are hand painted by master artists across India. We provide a digital authentication certificate with this artwork signed by the artist which will be sent over email after 3-4 days of delivery of the artwork.
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All artworks on the website are hand painted from scratch by our master artists. This makes every artwork absolutely unique and the actual colour and overall artwork may vary slightly from the artwork image posted here.
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