The primary decoration on this large basin consists of a band of eighteen individual figures encircling the waist of the vessel. The figures depict the ten main avatars of the Hindu god Vishnu, including Balarama rather than the Buddha, which suggests the patron may have been an adherent of the Vishishtadvaita sect. Interspersed with the avatars are eight images of elegantly coiffed women, most of whom are musicians playing various instruments. Intriguingly, the fact that the avatars and women are intermingled as an ornamental series suggests that the basin was made as a secular decorative art object intended for the international market, either as direct export ware or for sale to visiting Europeans. If it had been made as a religious object for a domestic temple, is more likely that the figures would have been portrayed in separate sets in order to preserve the sanctity of the avatars. The prominence given to the musicians may reflect their artistic legacy of the great Tanjore (modern Thanjavur), ruler Serfoji II (reigned 1798-1832), who is renowned for his enlightened patronage of music, literature, art, and science. This opulent basin epitomizes an indigenous two-tone aesthetic metalworking genre known as Ganga-Jumna ware, which features the use of two metals of contrasting colors. The name for this distinctive metalware derives from the different colors of the two major rivers of north India, the Ganges (Ganga) and the Yamuna (Jumna).