The Hindu deity Vishnu in the form of a boar

When the world is beset with difficulties, the great deity Vishnu assumes various forms to overcome them and reestablish order. Once, Earth, personified as a woman, was trapped at the bottom of the sea. Vishnu took the form of a boar to dive beneath the waters, free her, and carry her to the surface.

Here Vishnu is shown with a boar’s head and four-armed human body. Earth (whose head is broken) is seated at the elbow of Vishnu’s upper-left arm. Vishnu carries in three of his hands his standard symbolic implements: a club, a conch shell, and a war discus. These last two are personified by tiny figures at the lower corners who hold an additional war discus and conch. The waters through which Vishnu has dived are symbolized by four halfhuman-half-serpents who twine near him, and by lotus leaves, flowers, and stems behind him.

The fine-grained stone of this sculpture, and its painstaking carving, suggest that this sculpture may have been intended for the inside of a shrine. Most sculptures  in this gallery were probably positioned  on the outside.