Lintel Depicting the “Churning of the Ocean of Milk"
Ancient Hindu texts describe a miraculous event known as the Churning of the Ocean of Milk. In this story, amrita, the elixir of immortality is lost in the ocean. The gods (devas) and the demons (asuras) must work together to retrieve the elixir from the depths. Here we see the gods pulling on the body of the great serpent Vasuki, who serves as the churning rope in the story. Vasuki wraps his body around a mountain, as the gods and demons pull him from each side, turning the mountain, which churns the sea.
The figure to the far right holding Vasuki’s tail may be Sugriva, the monkey king.
With C.T. Loo, Inc., New York, stock no. NLP-3, by December 1946 [1];
Purchased from C.T. Loo, Inc. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1948.
[1] New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, New York, C. T. Loo and Company inventory cards.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 193, (repro.).
Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 240, (repro.).
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 2, Art of the Orient, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 147, (repro.).
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 392, (repro.).
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 282, (repro.).