Festivities Around the Relic of the Turban (on loan)

This sculpture in the Amaravati style comes from the congregation hall of a Buddhist temple in the village of Phanigiri. In an age of empires when ideas of kingship were based on the assertion of power, this sculpture reveals a parallel concept from Indian philosophy of not holding on to power. A significant model for this was the Buddha or Prince Siddhartha who gave up the promise of kingship, symbolised by the removal of his kingly turban, to fulfil his quest for Enlightenment instead.