Page 154 - Himalayan Art Macrh 19 2018 Bonhams

3069
A MARBLE MUKHALINGA This Mukhalinga depicts three crisply carved benign faces of Shiva,
HINDU SHAHI, CIRCA 9TH CENTURY each with different coiffure and earrings, below the anatomical
10 1/4 in. (25.9 cm) high lingam. A similar and roughly contemporaneous example in bronze
is published in Pal, Art of Kashmir, New York, 2007, p.87, fig.87. For
an English description of the lingam’s iconography as prescribed by
$10,000 - 15,000
the Visnudharma-Puram, see Prayabala Shah, Visnudharma-Puram,
vol. 1, pp.144-5. Also see a more detailed translation of the chapter
Hund sculptures are exceptionally rare. They were produced under in Bhattacharya, Pratimalakshana of the Visnudharmittara, New Delhi,
the Shahi dynasties (6th-11th centuries), which ruled in the lands 1991, pp.29-6.
formerly known under the Kushan empire as the ancient region of
Gandhara. The most recent analysis of this subject is found in Michael Bonhams is grateful to Pratapaditya Pal for his assistance in the
Henss, “The Mystery of the ‘Hund Statues’: An Unknown Chapter of preparation of this lot.
Central Asian Statuary,” in Arts of Asia, January 2016, pp.28-43. As
exemplified in this sculpture, the hair and regalia still echo the visual Provenance
apparatus of Gandhara, while the rounder facial features are informed Private Dutch Collection by 1958
by the Gupta style. Thence by descent

152 | BONHAMS