Sembiyan Mahãdevi - Washington, DC
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Metro2
N 38° 53.305 W 077° 01.640
18S E 324166 N 4306347
Located in the Freer Gallery in Washington, DC
Waymark Code: WMRZ8D
Location: District of Columbia, United States
Date Posted: 08/26/2016
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The Freer Gallery is free to visit and is part of the Smithsonian Institution and open daily 10:30 to 5.
The Gallery's placard for the bronze sculpture is from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and is dated to c. 990. It depicts Queen Sembiyan Mahãdevi as the goddess Parvati. The figure is 36 inches tall and shows the Queen standing and standing with a hand raised to hold a lotus as Parvati would do.
Wikipedia's page for the Queen (
visit link) includes a photo of this very sculpture and informs us:
"Queen Sembiyan Mahãdevi (also Cempiyan Mãtevi, 10th century CE) was a title borne by various queens of the Chola empire. She could be the queen mother (king's mother), grandmother, aunt, etc. The most famous of them all is the mother of King Madurantaka Uttama Chola Deva. She was one of the most powerful queens of the Chola empire who over a period of sixty years constructed numerous temples and gave generous gifts to many temples in South India. Her endowments are simply staggering and she figures as early as, if not before, Saka 901 during the reign of her son. According to an inscription dated 941, Sembiyan Mahadevi is said to have made an endowment so that a lamp may be kept permanently lit in front of the Shiva deity (perhaps not long after the crystallization of the Chidambaram Nataraja (Nataraja) cult)."