Durga as the Slayer of the Buffalo Demon (900s): Art, History and Details

Durga as the Slayer of the Buffalo Demon (900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This depiction of Durga is rare and important, as it is a large-scale example of the goddess in bronze. Her conquest over the buffalo demon is indicated by its severed head at her feet. She stands four-armed and triumphant, with a wheel, conch shell, mace, and clod of earth in her hands.

Object facts

• Title: Durga as the Slayer of the Buffalo Demon
• Date: 900s
• Culture: Cambodia, probably Koh Ker
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 52 x 18.4 x 12.5 cm (20 1/2 x 7 1/4 x 4 15/16 in.); without tang: 44.8 cm (17 5/8 in.)
• Collection: Cambodian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1996.27

A detail from the museum

The figure wears a head-dress, kirita-makuta, a diadem tied in the back and pointed at top.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Asia House Gallery, and Daguan Zhou. Khmer Sculpture. New York: Asia House Gallery, 1961.
• Lee, Sherman E. Ancient Cambodian Sculpture. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1969.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Rare Egyptian Sculpture, Old Master Painting, Important Cambodian Bronze,” June 13, 1996, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.