STÈLE REPRÉSENTANT UN PORTEUR DE CHAURI EN MARBRE GUJARAT, XII/XIIIE SIÈCLESTÈLE REPRÉSENTANT UN PORTEUR DE CHAURI EN MARBREGUJARAT, XII/XIIIE SIÈCLE51 cm (20 1/8 in.) high A MARBLE STELE OF A CHAURI-BEARERGUJARAT, 12TH/13TH CENTURY古吉拉特邦 十二/十三世紀 大理石持拂藥叉石碑Published:Jan van Alphen, Steps to Liberation: 2,500 Years of Jain Art and Religion, 2000, p. 167, no. 92.Exhibited:Steps to Liberation: 2,500 Years of Jain Art and Religion, Etnografisch Museum Antwerpen, 26 May - 15 October 2000.Provenance:With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970sWhile discussing the present sculpture, van Alphen notes, "As a bearer of the flywhisk, cauri or camara, Indra is a constant companion of the Jina. Earlier Vedic gods often acquired a subservient role, in Buddhism as well as Jainism, as guardians of the cardinal points, or as attendants who lustrate the newly-born Buddha or Jina, and so forth... In the course of time many cauri-bearers have been removed from their original context to live a separate life of their own". Similar diminutive flywhisk-bearers flank a large image of Jina Ajitanatha, dated 1062 CE, in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (Pal et al., The Peaceful Liberators, 1994, pp. 31 & 145, fig. 21, no. 32). Several comparable Jain sculptures from Gujarat dated to the 13th-century are published in Parimoo, Treasures from the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum, 2012, pp. 31-4, nos. 33-7. Also, see a chauri-bearer attributed to the 11th/12th century sold at Christie's, New York, 12 September 2017, lot 615.