Provenance:
Alice and Nasli Heeramaneck Collection, New York
Christian Humann (Pan-Asian Collection), 1974-1982
Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, New York, 1982-1993
European Private Collection
The cosmological diagram bears detailed inscriptions, including the names of the principal rivers and mountains with their dimensions and extensions on the seven continents, the names of the oceans surrounding the continents, and the names of the cities surrounding Mount Sumeru. Brahma sits at the center as creator. The circular bands radiating outward are bordered by stylized rivers and rocky mountains and inhabited by animals and human figures in various pursuits.
The painting follows the description of bhugola in the Vayu Purana, a Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas of Hinduism. The text discusses its theories of cosmology, genealogy of gods and kings of solar and lunar dynasties, mythology, geography, manvantaras, the solar system, and the movements of the celestial bodies. The bhugola represented in Nepalese art is also seen in an interesting work residing in the Mohan courtyard, the residential courtyard of the Malla kings and their families, built in 1649 under King Pratapa Malla of Kathmandu (r. 1641–1674). An artifact made of copper and with a gilded surface and incised with inscriptions (a three-dimensional model of the universe likely based on Puranic concepts) was commissioned and installed by King Pratapa Malla in 1656. The text inscribed on the uppermost disk refers to it as bhugola, a word whose literal meaning is “earth ball,” that is, the terrestrial globe. See Gudrun Buhnemann, “A Model of the Universe in Kathmandu’s Old Royal Palace,” History of Science in South Asia, 8, 2020, pp. 1-12.
