Details
- Title : INDRA
- Year : c. 17th Century
- Classification : Sculpture
- Medium : Gilt bronze
- Dimension : Height 7 1/4 in. (18.5 cm.)
- Accession No : GNM_LOT 26_PUN_04
- Country/ Geo-location : Nepal
- Collection : PUNDOLE’S
- Status : LIVE AUCTION The Fine Arts Sale (M0007) (as per NOV 2021)
- NOTE : The present work depicts Indra, who according to Buddhist thought is regarded as King of the Gods. Indra is seated in rajalilasana, the posture of royal ease, wearing regal attire, adorned with a magnificent crown and ornamented with jewels. His right hand is raised in vitarka mudra, the gesture of teaching, whilst his principle emblem, the vajra, is supported by a flower at his right shoulder. His characteristic horizontal third eye is finely incised on his forehead beneath a tall foliate crown. As Dr. Pratapaditya Pal notes, this representation of Indra seated in rajalilasana and displaying vitarka mudra is indigenously Nepalese and can be regarded as a local innovation. Compare the present work to a 16th Century Nepalese prototype of this bodhisattva from the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, see Pratapaditya Pal, Art of Nepal, Los Angeles, 1985, p. 119, pl. 50. Indra was often depicted in tandem with his consort, Indrani, see lot 28. For another example see Sotheby's New York, December 1, 2003, lot 25.
- DESCRIPTION : Property from a Private Mumbai Collection
- REGISTERED ANTIQUITY : NON-EXPORTABLE ITEM (Please refer to the Terms and Conditions of Sale at the back of the catalogue.)