- Title
- Oil Lamp (samai) with a Peacock and an Elephant Base
- Date Made
- 18th century
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Dimensions
- 40 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 10 in. (102.24 x 13.97 x 25.4 cm)
- Accession Number
- AC1995.152.1
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This columnar lamp is constructed with five tiers of shallow trays serving as fuel receptacles, each with six spouts that also functioned as wick holders. A prominent peacock, seemingly intended visually as a faux finial, is depicted in an upper intermediary position on the shaft. It has a crest of upright feathers atop its head and a train of covert feathers fanned laterally as during courtship rituals. The base is in the form of an elephant wearing forehead and tusk ornaments and necklaces. A turbaned mahout holding an elephant goad sits atop the pachyderm.
Oil lamps from South and Southeast Asia and the Himalayas have been fashioned in a wide variety of conceptual forms, including anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, phytomorphic, abstract, and combined creations. Burning lamps have long been used in places of worship and for domestic rituals by adherents of all the major religions throughout the diverse regions. They help demarcate and purify a sacred space, and can symbolize a practitioner’s enlightenment. See also M.84.227.8 and AC1993.152.1.
