Page 40 - Bonhams Image of Devotion Hong Kong December 2, 2021

1015
A GILT COPPER SHRINE TO SHRIKANTHA KAMAKALA
NEPAL, DATED 1818
The base with a Nepali inscription dating its production to Samvat 938 (1818 CE).
Himalayan Art Resources item no.2139
40.3 cm (15 7/8 in.) high

HKD1,000,000 - 1,200,000

尼泊爾 1818 年 銅鎏金濕婆雙身神龕

This shrine invokes a rarely found form of the Hindu god Shiva named Shrikantha,
or ‘the one with the beautiful throat’. He dances with his consort Guhyakali, their
bodies combined, forming an image known as ‘kamakala’ in Nepal. Cosmic
and tantric motifs weave throughout the sculpture, adorning the deities with
many heads and arms, permeating it with fierce and erotic symbolism, and the
convergence of elements.

Shiva is a powerful, unpredictable god of paradoxes. Here the encircling skulls
around his mandorla, his many weapons, and the prone figures crushed underfoot
evoke his role as the Lord of Destruction engaged in a cosmic dance that both
creates and destroys worlds. But he is not the source of his own power, rather it
his consort Guhyakali – the ultimate goddess – with whom he dances in perfect
interpenetrative union.

The five figures seated on the base in between the divine couple and their bull and
lion mounts personify the five elements in Hindu cosmology: earth, fire, water, air,
and space. At the same time, they remind us of the five activities of Shiva’s cosmic
dance: of creation, preservation, destruction, illusion, and emancipation.

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