Page 14 - Bonhams Image of Devotion Hong Kong December 2, 2021

A masterpiece of Hevajra Heruka in bronze at this scale, this sculpture is
remarkably well-designed. Structural posts needed to support the dancing figure
balancing on the toes of his left foot, and to attach the long staff held in the crook
of his left arm, have been entirely camouflaged from frontal view. Meanwhile, the
sensuous modelling, attention to detail, and copper inlay used to enliven the eyes
encapsulate the gem-like quality of refined bronzes from the late Pala period of
Northeastern India (11th-12th centuries). These were the homelands of Vajrayana
Buddhism, and the subject is one of the religion’s earliest and most important
meditational deities (yidams).

Here, Hevajra is represented in his solitary, two-armed ‘heruka’ form. He dances
on a prone figure, wielding a vajra in his raised right hand and a skull cup in his
left. His staff, terminating with a vajra finial and pommel, serves as an aniconic
representation of his consort Vajranairatmya. Hevajra’s flame-like hair has an
effigy of his spiritual sire, Akshobhya Buddha, nestled before it. The arrangement
is similar to another Pala figure of Hevajra Heruka sold at Bonhams, Hong Kong,
2 October 2018, lot 179, and a blackstone stele at the Nalanda Site Museum,
Bihar (Huntington Archive no.3294). A famous stele of Hevajra Heruka from
the 10th/11th century also depicts a similar lobed coiffure, and like the present
sculpture, the severed heads around his garland are limited to the bottom half
(Huntington & Huntington, The Art of Ancient India, 1999, p.399, fig.18.13). A
slightly earlier Pala bronze of the female dancing yidam Vajravarahi, also from
the Nyingjei Lam Collection, was sold at Bonhams, 16 March 2021, lot 305.

Since most Pala sculptures that remained in India were lost or buried during the
Muslim invasions of the early 13th century, this Hevajra’s un-encrusted surface
and buttery patina almost certainly indicate that it was brought to Tibet during the
chidar, a period between the 10th and 12th centuries, often referred to as Tibet’s
apprenticeship of Indian Buddhism. Particularly telling are the smooth signs of
wear on the three skulls near the top of the staff, which evince the sculpture’s
history as a cherished icon. Contemporaneous and stylistically related Pala
bronzes of dancing yidams surviving in Tibet are published in von Schroeder,
Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Vol.I, 2001, pp.294-5, nos.98A-f.

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