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 (see 78.10, 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 such as this example (see also 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 pole lamp from Eastern Java has a cylindrical fitting on its base for mounting on a staff or columnar stand. It features four burner dishes at right angles with foliate flanges rising from the sides. In the center is a multitiered square plinth atop of which sits an emaciated ascetic holding a sacred manuscript in his left hand. What may be flames extend upward from his shoulders.
A comparable Eastern Javanese pole lamp is in the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart (78 212).
