Page 86 - 2020 September 23 Himalyan and Southeast Asian Works of Art Bonhams

644 W
A BLACKSTONE STELE OF UMA MAHESHVARA
ATTRIBUTED TO AMRITA (A.11TH/12TH CENTURY)
BANGLADESH, PALA-SENA PERIOD, 11TH/12TH CENTURY
28 7/8 in. (73.4 cm) high

$60,000 - 80,000
孟加拉國 帕拉-色那王朝 十一/十二世紀
阿木里塔（活躍於十一/十二世紀）作 黑石濕婆與帕瓦蒂石碑
The archetypical loving couple, Shiva and Uma, known in this form as Uma Maheshvara, sit
above a lotus throne, their long limbs sensuous and supple, languid and intertwined. Shiva
dotes on his divine lover, lifting her gaze towards his with two fingers, stroking her chin. Shiva
leans in, supporting his weight with the trident standing above the lotus base. Ithyphallic, he is
compelled by her beauty.

Below the amorous couple is each of their divine vehicles, the bull and lion in high relief, as well
as a kneeling devotee (left), a frolicking, pot-bellied nature spirit (right), and the fierce, emaciated
Bhringi, a devotee of Shiva, holding a poking iron aloft (center). Above Shiva and Uma, celestial
garland bearers adore them, either side of an exuberant kala face spewing floral curlicues from
its gaping mouth.

The Senas, under whose rule this sculpture was created, were a Hindu dynasty ruling Greater
Bengal who dethroned the Buddhist Palas. Originating from Karnataka, which is known for
the extravagant surrounds of its medieval sculpture, the Sena’s built upon the Pala style by
filling the often plain stele-back with zestful ornamentation. The present stele epitomizes the
Sena style in the highest quality, depicting nuanced foliate swirls arising from the tails of geese
(hamsas) either side of the subject’s throne back. These swirls are narrow and precise and
carved very differently from other equally complex and contemporaneous steles. (For example,
contrast Lefevre & Boussac, Chefs-d’oeuvre du delta du Gange, Paris, 2007, p.209, no.73).
Furthermore, the unusual addition of a pair of budding lotus flowers within the divine couple’s
tri-lobed halo—further evoking their auspicious generativity—is another detail distinguishing the
present lot from the ordinary milieu of Pala-Sena sculpture.

In fact, the stele is attributed to a known, skilled stonemason called Amrita, who was active
in the 11th/12th century. The specific treatment of the foliate swirls thus mentioned, the
articulation of the cloud-edges framing the celestial garland bearers, and the charismatic
kala face, show clearly the work of Amrita’s hand which carved a stele of Surya in the British
Museum with an inscription naming him (fig.1; 1880.3). The inscription also confers on Amrita
the title of susilpin, meaning ‘master-artist’ (Bhattacharya, “Susilpin Amrita”, in Journal of the
Epigraphical Society of India, vol.9, 1982, p.22). A further defining characteristic of Amrita’s
style, as identified by Chanda, is what the latter described as a deliberate “aesthetic impulse”
to conventionally ornament the top portion of the stele-back with great skill, but to leave the
bottom portion surrounding the many diminutive figures plain so as to “to show them off to
best advantage” (Chanda, Medieval Indian Sculpture in the British Museum, London, 1936,
p.66). Amrita worked in the Varendra district of modern-day Bangladesh and is known to have
carved at least one other image with his name on it, a stele of Vishnu in fragmentary condition Fig.1
(Bhattacharya, op. cit., pp.21-2). A large masterpiece of Surya in the Varendra Research The Sun God Surya
Museum is almost certainly by him as well (Lefevre & Boussac, op. cit., p.243, no.91). Also India, 11th century
mentioned with the British Museum’s Surya, Amrita is known for carefully selecting his stones, 51 in. (129.5 cm) high
sourcing ‘Indramilamani’, meaning ‘sapphire’, in praise of the bluish tone of what is more Basalt
commonly known as Rajmahal slate (ibid., p.21). The British Museum, London
Registration number 1880.3
Provenance
Sotheby’s, New York, 2 June 1992, lot 78

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