Mughal-style bowl with seated deities and angels

This paper-thin vessel of light-green nephrite shows five Buddhas, each seated inside a triangular cavelike design. The five are identical, and represent the Buddha Shakyamuni, seated with his legs folded in meditation, his left hand holding an alms bowl, and his right hand lowered and pointing downward. Each Buddha is given a burning halo with spiky flames. In between the Buddhas are five peris, the Islamic version of angels. The rim of the bowl has a band of floral motifs not unlike the ones found on blue-and-white porcelain bowls.

In the center of the bowl is a beautifully worked lotus blossom bearing the seed pod, surrounded by three rows of lotus petals. The central lotus is in relative high relief, while the outer rows of petals and the rest of the decorations are in low relief. A similar lotus with seed pod appears on the bottom of the piece, with the lotus petals curving up to form the foot.

This bowl is even thinner than its Mughal prototypes. The floral base is in the Mughal tradition, but the iconography is mixed, for Mughal jades do not display Buddhist images. The appearance of the angels make it even more bizarre. The bowl epitomizes twentieth-century ideas of what a Hindustan vessel should look like.