Page 12 - Maitri CollectionAsian Art Bonhams

T R A N S ITI O N A L A N D

E A RLY M A L L A P E R I OD

S CU L P T U R E F RO M

N E PAL W I TH I N TH E

M AI T R I CO LLE C T I ON

by Jane Casey, January 2018

The Maitri Collection includes outstanding works from the Transitional
(c. 879-1200) and early Malla (c. 1200-1482) periods of Nepal. At the turn
of the 13th century, the Kathmandu Valley supported thriving centers of
Hindu and Buddhist culture. Its great neighbor to the south, however, was
undergoing convulsive change at the hands of the newly established Muslim
rulers, whose invasions of north India had effectively destroyed the Buddhist
homeland. In 1255, the Kathmandu Valley experienced a devastating
earthquake, said to have claimed the lives of one third of the population,
including the king Abhaya Malla. The Khasa Malla kings (no relation to the
Mallas of the Kathmandu Valley) consolidated power in west Nepal around
Dullu in the Jumla Valley, and repeatedly attacked the Kathmandu Valley
between 1275 and 1335. In 1345-46, the Sultan of Bengal, Shams-ud-
din Ilyas, led a punishing raid into the Valley that left much of its wooden
architecture and many Hindu and Buddhist sites in ruins, including important
Licchavi period (c. 300-879) palaces. Finally in 1482, with the death of
Yaksha Malla, the Kathmandu Valley was divided into three main kingdoms of
Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, and Patan.

Despite these political and natural calamities within this period, Nepal
sustained its position as an artistic culture of international renown. Major
painting commissions were undertaken by Nepalese artists for Tibetan
patrons, including those of the iconic 13th century Green Tara in the
Cleveland Museum of Art, a series of spectacular paintings illustrating the
Vajravali mandalas dating to the mid-15th century, and the unparalleled
Dancing Ganesha dating to the first half 15th century. 1

1 Published in Kossak & Casey Singer, Sacred Visions, New York, 1998, pp.144-6; 165-71; 173-7;
and Huntington & Bangdell, Circle of Bliss, Columbus Ohio, 2003, pp.495-7.

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