Javanese ritual priest’s bells (ghanta) are distinguished from hanging bells by having clappers to ring the bell. Hanging bells are rung by being struck on the lower rim of its circular base, called a sound bow, with a stick wrapped at one end with cloth. Priest’s bells also have a greater range of finials, including a bull (nandin), lion (simha), serpent (naga), five-pronged thunderbolt (vajra), trident (trishula), wheel (chakra), human or divine figures, and miscellaneous symbols. Hanging bells typically have finials in the form of a rearing lion, with bulls, serpents, and various symbols less utilized. Eastern Javanese priest’s bells differ in the bell form than Central Javanese priest’s bells. In the former the exterior of the bell is typically plain and shaped like a hemisphere, whereas in the latter the bell is stupa-shaped.
This priest’s bell has a finial in the form of a rampant Garuda, the half-avian, half-human sunbird mount of the Hindu god Vishnu. He stands in a circular flange with upright demonic masks known as kala (time, death, or black) heads. The grip beneath the flange is ribbed. It connects to the shoulders of the bell with a lotus base. The shoulders have a band of horizontal lotus petals with upturned leaves. The bell exterior is plain and shaped like a hemisphere with concentric bands on the base.
See also M.77.119 and M.2001.158.2. See J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Indo-Javanese Metalwork (Stuttgart: Linden-Museum, 1984), pp. 102-113, nos. 68-79; Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer and Marijke J. Klokke, Divine Bronze: Ancient Indonesian Bronzes from A.D. 600 to 1600 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988), pp. 120-121, nos. 68-69; and Jan Fontein, The Sculpture of Indonesia (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1990), pp. 243-244, no. 76.