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3224
A BLACKSTONE STELE OF CROWNED BUDDHA
BIHAR, PALA PERIOD, 10TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.58600
17 5/8 in. (45 cm) high

$200,000 - 300,000
比哈爾地區 帕拉時期 約十世紀 黑石佛戴冠佛坐碑

This stele’s elegant simplicity sets it apart from the vast majority of Pala sculpture. The
restraint shown from busy ornamentation within the backplate allows our attention to rest
on the central subject, captured in blissful meditation. Our eye only departs to admire the
crisp, broad lotus throne, or hug the rounded edges of the symmetrically pleasing stupas.

These stupas might allude to the Buddhas of Antiquity, cited in the Theravada scripture,
Buddhavamsa, which would conform to identifying the central figure as Crowned
Shakyamuni Buddha rather than the Cosmic Buddha Amitayus (this has been suggested
by Brown, The Dvaravati Wheels of the Law and the Indianization of South East Asia,
New York, 1995, p.85). The attribution of Crowned Buddha rests on the presence of
the diminutive effigy of a monkey holding a bowl near the stele’s bottom left corner. This
iconography refers to one of the Eight Miraculous Events of the Buddha’s Life and their
associated pilgrimage sites in Northeastern India, wherein at Vaishail a monkey offered
Buddha a bowl of honey, now resting in his lap. Another example of this Theravada
subject can found on a relief panel from Bodhgaya (Bautze-Picron, The Bejeweled
Buddha from India to Burma, New Delhi, 2010, p.101). The Crowned Buddha appears
to employ regal imagery to convey assertions of spiritual dominion and authority. The cult
of the Crowned Buddha developed in Northeastern India by the 9th century and gained
popularity throughout Southeast Asia.

Beautifully carved in a style associated with the famed Pala monuments of Nalanda,
Bodhgaya, and Kurkihar in Bihar, he wears a long, sheer, form-fitting monastic robe
covering both shoulders, and a broad torque of scrolling foliate design. Lotus flower
earrings flank his smooth cheeks. His tall crown rises in three triangular foliate leaves
above a ribbon headband. A related Crowned Buddha in bronze was recently sold by
Bonhams, Hong Kong, 2 October 2017, lot 16.

The stele’s unornamented backplate strongly indicates it was carved by the 10th century,
before the evolution towards baroque exuberance seen in Pala art under the Sena rulers
by the late 11th century. Compare with other closely related 10th-century examples
from Bihar in the British Museum (acc.# 1950,1018.1 & 1872,0701.22). The present lot
also compares favorably to a similar 10th-century example from Bihar in the Victoria and
Albert Museum (acc.#IM.107-1920; Skelton, Arts of Bengal, London, 1979, p.26, no.7).

Published
Carlton Rochell Asian Art & Rossi Rossi Ltd, Masterpieces of Himalayan Art from a
Private European Collection, New York, 2009.

Provenance
Private Collection, New York, acquired in the 1960s
Sotheby’s, New York, 16 & 17 March 1988, lot 38
Private European Collection
Carlton Rochell Asian Art, New York, 22 March 2010

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