Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Candraprabha, Personification of the Moon
Not on view
The practice of personifying planets has Vedic origins in ancient India and was undoubtedly part of the veneration of the elements in Southeast Asian antiquity as well. Candraprabha, “he who has the moon [candra] in his nimbus,” is best understood from the Indian sources as a planetary deity, although he does seem, as depicted in this repoussé plaque, to have assumed bodhisattva-like qualities and may have been intended to function as a divine saviour in Mon culture. In the context of a number of Buddhist Jataka tales, the hare depicted in the nimbus alludes to selfless acts of giving (dana), leading ultimately to the Buddhist virtue of danaparamita, the perfection of giving.
cat. 149
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