A chromolithograph diptych published by the Calcutta Art Studio around 1885 to 1895, part of a set of five sheets depicting the Ten Mahavidyas, two goddesses to a sheet, labelled in Bengali and English. The left field shows Bhuvaneshvari, worshipped as the embodiment of the power of knowledge and often shown enthroned as a queen of the cosmos. The right field shows Bagala, whose full name Bagalamukhi is read as "the one who checks the mouth", a goddess invoked to silence an opponent's speech and still the restless mind, typically shown pulling the tongue of a demon with one hand and wielding a club in another. Part of the same series later exhibited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in "Household Gods: Hindu Devotional Prints, 1860-1930".
Facts
Classification
Object TypePrint (Engraving, Etching, Woodcut or Lithograph) 2 Custody
Current LocationThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2 Current CustodianThe Metropolitan Museum of Art 2 Medium (class) Subject Matter
Depicted SubjectBhuvaneshvari (left field) and Bagala/Bagalamukhi (right field), two of the Ten Mahavidyas. 2 Rights and Reproduction
Reproduction and CopyrightThis atlas describes and cites the print rather than reproducing an image of it. 2 Connections
Associated With
This source names Bengali directly: "two goddesses to a sheet, labelled in Bengali and English."
Source Goddesses Bhuvanesvari and Bagala, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Belongs to Tradition
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Depicts
Source Goddesses Bhuvanesvari and Bagala, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Source Goddesses Bhuvanesvari and Bagala, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Originated In
India, Regions Source Goddesses Bhuvanesvari and Bagala, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sources
1. When India Reinvented Prints, New York Review of Books
Andrew Raftery, The New York Review of Books, 2026
2. Goddesses Bhuvanesvari and Bagala, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Artcatalogue record, medium/object-type description
A chromolithograph diptych published by the Calcutta Art Studio around 1885 to 1895, part of a set of five sheets depicting the Ten Mahavidyas, two goddesses to a sheet, labelled in Bengali and English.
- Originated In: India, Stored country property on this entity, cited to this source: India
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