- Title
- Pair of Earrings (pampadam) in an Abstract Form of Garuda
- Date Made
- late 19th century
- Medium
- Gold with lac core
- Dimensions
- each: 1 1/2 × 1 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (3.81 × 4.45 × 3.81 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2000.53.1a-b
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Made of 22-karat gold, these unusual earrings are hollow and filled with lac to prevent denting. The Tamil name for this type of earring is pampadam, which is derived from pampu (Tamil: snake). Their abstract design is usually interpreted as a stylized zoomorphic form of Garuda (the half-avian/half-man mount of the Hindu god Vishnu). Alternatively, they are sometimes thought to represent a stylized egg-laying cobra, which are regarded as semi-divine protective entities capable of enhancing a woman’s fertility. Both interpretations are appropriate, as well as the coalesced anatomical form of the earrings, because of Garuda's mythological antagonism with serpents based on the analogous relations of eagles and serpents in the natural world. This distinctive style of earrings is traditionally worn in the distended earlobes of Hindu women in rural Tamil Nadu, especially in the Madurai region.
