Ganga Jumna Holy Water Vase, Hindu, India

A Ganga-jumna Chambu Lota (Holy Water Container)

The cast body of this lota is engraved with ribs of energetic, scrolling foliage and flowers separated by plain applied copper strips. The neck and base are decorated with lotus petals that alternate between copper and brass. The inside of the neck is further engraved with lotus petals. The lota sits on a broad foot.

Zebrowski (1997, p. 216) says in relation to an almost identical lota that it and one other may be “the earliest chambus to have survived,” and that it “impresses with its noble austerity, which centuries of wear have satisfyingly softened both to the eye and to the touch.”

Chambu lotas with their wide, squat bodies that narrow to a small neck are associated with the holy city of Benares and with religious ceremonies. Many were taken from Benares by pilgrims and used to hold sacred water from the Ganges.

For an identical piece, see Zebrowski, M., Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India, Alexandria Press, 1997, p. 213. For a similar piece see Harle J.C., and A. Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Ashmolean Museum, 1987, p. 65.