Eastern Javanese hanging vessels for holy water (amrita), the divine nectar of immortality produced during the primordial Churning of the Ocean of Milk (samudra manthana) in Hindu cosmology (see also M.85.282a-b). The form of these vessels, a compressed ovoid body with a tiered cover in the shape of mountain ranges, explicitly represents the axis mundi, Mount Meru, when its inverted spur, Mount Mandara, was used as a churning stick with the cosmic serpent Vasuki serving as the rope. Such vessels, known as amritaghata), were used to hold the sanctified water utilized for ritual libations. See J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Indo-Javanese Metalwork (Stuttgart: Linden-Museum, 1984), p. 125, no. 91; and Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer and Marijke J. Klokke, Divine Bronze: Ancient Indonesian Bronzes from A.D. 600 to 1600 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988), p. 139, no. 87.
Comparable Eastern Javanese hanging vessels for holy water are in the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart (SA 35 302 L); Philadelphia Museum of Art (1990-85-1a,b), Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IS.7-1994); and one deaccessioned from LACMA (formerly M.86.300) and sold at Bonhams, New York, 18 March 2013 (lot 129), https://www.bonhams.com/auction/20903/lot/129/a-copper-alloy-repousse-hanging-vessel-for-holy-water-indonesia-eastern-java-14th15th-century/