Ornate oil lamps may have entered the artistic traditions of Southern Asia through early trade contact with Roman and Byzantine oil lamps. They have long been used in places of worship and for domestic rituals by adherents of all the major religions throughout the diverse regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas. Burning oil lamps help demarcate and purify a sacred space, and they can symbolize a practitioner’s enlightenment. Typically made of brass, bronze, or earthenware (see M.84.213.62), they can be hung from chains such as this example (see also M.89.101.4, M.91.232.3 and AC1992.271.1), mounted on pedestals (see M.79.152.50a-b and M.78.23a and .23b) or stands (see 82.5, M.84.227.8, AC1993.152.1, and AC1995.152.1), or hand-held (see M.91.204). The fuel can be animal fat, such as clarified butter (ghee), or various plant-based oils that is contained in reservoirs or small burner dishes often ovate in shape with depressed corners. The fuel is ignited with a protruding or floating fiber wick. Figural oil lamps were fashioned in a wide variety of conceptual forms, including anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, phytomorphic, abstract, and combined creations. See Sean Anderson, Flames of Devotion: Oil Lamps from South and Southeast Asia and the Himalayas (Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2006).
This hanging lamp from Eastern Java features four burner dishes affixed to a column with a stepped pedestal base. The column continues above the burner dishes and has a woman squatting on a mythical aquatic creature (makara) under an arch with foliate medallions connecting to a trilobed hanging loop. The woman can the identified as Shri (or Sri) Tanjung, who was the beautiful heroine of the eponymous Javanese folktale also known as Banyuwangi (fragrant water). The tale recounts the travails of a faithful wife, Shri Tanjung, who was falsely accused of infidelity by her husband Raden Sidapaksa after the lecherous King Sulakrama, the ruler of Sindurejo kingdom, unsuccessfully to seduce her. When caught in the act by Sidapaksa, the duplicitous king lied that Shri Tanjung had been unfaithful. Sidapaksa was deceived and, believing the king’s lies, stabbed Shri Tanjung with his keris (dagger; see AC1998.249.268). The soul of Shri Tanjung then crossed the river to the realm of the dead riding a makara, which is the scene shown here. Her fidelity was then verified in heaven, and she was returned to earth to live happily ever after with Sidapaksa. The popular tale was illustrated on temple facades during the Majapahit Empire (1292–1527). See also Jan Fontein, The Sculpture of Indonesia (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1990), pp. 293-294, no. 113.