How accurate are European prints of the Hindu gods?

It varies. Picart's plates of the 1720s relied on travellers' reports and earlier engravings; Sonnerat worked from Indian images he had seen, so his iconography of the avatars and attributes is far closer to the original.

By faith

Hinduism

Hindu gods, avatars and temples as European engravers drew them: the avatars of Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha and the Trimurti from Sonnerat's Voyage of 1806, Brahma after Picart, the gods of Ferrario's costume atlas, and the temple of Arunachalesvara on the Coromandel Coast.

2 prints

By collectionHouses of Worship 2 Rites of the World 45

Order: Price, high to lowPrice, low to high Oldest first Newest first

Houses of Worship · MDCCCVI

1806 Engraving of Arunachalesvara Temple, Hindu Pagoda on Coromandel Coast

1806 · 39 × 28.5 cm$385

Houses of Worship · MDCCCVI

Original Engraving of Hindu Pagoda on Malabar Coast, Antique Temple Print, 1806

1806 · 21.5 × 28.5 cm$190