Depictions of the Hindu sages Nara and Narayana engaged in conversation, known as Nara-Narayana, were a favored theme in temple decoration during the Gupta Dynasty (319-467 CE). At least two prominent representations are still in situ. The best known is a stone panel on the great Vishnu Temple at Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh, attributed to circa 500-550. Perhaps even more relevant to the present work because of its earthenware medium, is the illustration of the couple on the temple of Bhitargaon, near Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, attributed to circa 425-460, which is made of brick with earthenware panels. The primary iconographic difference between these two well-known images and the LACMA portrayal is that Narayana has four arms at Deogarh and Bhitargaon, which accords with his description in the Vishnudharmottara Purana (3:76) and aptly conveys the theological differentiation between Nara representing mankind and Narayana being an emanation of Vishnu. In the LACMA example, however, Narayana is given only two arms. This may suggest that it is based on the narratives of the sages in the epic Mahabharata (5:53:48 and 5:54:109), in which the number of their arms is unspecified. This interpretation may be supported by a depiction of Nara and a two-armed Narayana on a lintel from Nagari, Chittorgarh District, Rajasthan, attributed to circa 510-520. (See Pratapaditya Pal, "Notes on Two Sculptures of the Gupta Period," Archives of Asian Art 24 (1970/1971), pp. 76-79; and Laxshmi Rose Greaves, "Siva Daksinamurti or Sage Narayaṇa? Reconsidering an Early Terracotta Panel from Ahichhatra," in South Asian Archaeology and Art 2014: Papers Presented at the Twenty-Second International Conference of the European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art Held at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities/National Museums of World Culture, Stockholm, Sweden, 30th of June to 4th of July 2014 (New Delhi: Dev Publishers & Distributors, 2020).
Here, Nara and Narayana both have an ascetic’s piled hair with locks of hair cascading onto their shoulders. Nara is on the left sitting on a brick or wooden seat. His right hand is held to his chest in a gesture of exposition (vitarka mudra). He holds a rosary in his left hand resting on his calf. The emaciated Narayana sits on a wicker seat and reads from a palm-leaf manuscript held with both hands. Another palm-leaf manuscript is on the hourglass-shaped wicker stand between the figures. A tree above the stand suggests that the location is the Badari Forrest, which would accord with the later cited account in the Mahabharata.
Pal has suggested the LACMA relief may be from a now-destroyed 5th-century brick temple at Ahichchhatra, Uttar Pradesh. (Pal 1978, p. 13, no. 1), or from that region and date (Pal 1986, p. 245, no. S122).