Footed Bowl with Scenes from the Gauttila Jataka

Footed Bowl with Scenes from the Gauttila Jataka

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This vessel is of great importance, not only for the near completeness of this rarely seen form but also for its pictorial content. The scenes depict the Gauttila Jataka, a story of one of the Buddha’s past lives in which a musical competition is instigated by a king at his court in Varanasi after an ambitious pupil challenges his master for the position of court musician. The scenes of southern Indian court life are unique in Indian metalwork; almost no secular or religious metalwork survives from the first millennium in southern India.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Footed Bowl with Scenes from the Gauttila JatakaFooted Bowl with Scenes from the Gauttila JatakaFooted Bowl with Scenes from the Gauttila JatakaFooted Bowl with Scenes from the Gauttila JatakaFooted Bowl with Scenes from the Gauttila Jataka

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.