Page 14 - 2021 March 16th Indian, Himalayan and Tibetan Art, Bonhams NYC New York

305
A BRASS FIGURE OF VAJRAVARAHI
NORTHEASTERN INDIA, PALA PERIOD, CIRCA 11TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.16914
7 1/2 in. (19 cm) high

$400,000 - 600,000
印度東北部 帕拉時期 約十一世紀 金剛亥母銅像
Provenance
Nyingjei Lam Collection, acquired in the 1990s

Dancing on a corpse representing the human ego, Vajravarahi is a form of the
most important female meditational deity (yidam) in Tibetan Buddhism, providing
a route to enlightenment. Aloft in her right hand she wields a flaying knife (kartika),
which tantric practitioners use in rituals to visualize flaying their own limited self-
perception. In her left hand she holds a skull cup (kapala). The staff (khatvanga)
cast in the crook of her left arm is a visual cue to her male counterpart Samvara,
another key yidam. Also known as a “transformative deity”, a yidam serves as a
transcendent role model, embodying a set of doctrines, meditations, and ritual
practices that a tantric practitioner uses to transform their consciousness and be
reborn instantly as the enlightened yidam itself. With her implements, garland of
severed heads, and crown of dried skulls, Vajravarahi’s terrific vision confronts our
mortal limitations. Yet, she does so with the grace and beauty of a young dancer
poised entirely on the ball of her left foot. She has a composed, deliberate manner.
Underfoot, swirling vegetal waters of the cosmos have given rise to the lotus she
dances upon, as more vines rise to support her—for Vajravarahi is the sacred,
cultivated blossom of Buddhist wisdom.

Rich with such expressive iconography, this inspired bronze of the goddess derives
from the cradle of Tantric Buddhism in Northeastern India. The sculpture is cast in
the Pala style of the 11th century, coinciding with the period in which devotion to
Vajravarahi and related yidams emerged as central practices in Tantric Buddhism
as it would subsequently be preserved in Tibet. Thus, this refined bronze is likely
among the earliest depictions of the goddess in bronze.

Vajravarahi is a form of Vajrayogini, the most important female yidam, with a
porcine head protruding from the right side of her skull (ibid., “Vajrayogini”).
In Buddhist teachings, the pig represents ignorance, one of the three primary
obstacles to enlightenment. Thus, Vajravarahi’s appearance alludes to her ability
to confront and transform this poison into wisdom. There is a general scholarly
consensus that Vajravarahi is an adaptation of the Hindu goddess Varahi, the
female counterpart to the boar avatar of Vishnu, who raised the Earth from a
cosmic watery abyss. The sculpture appears to evoke this heroic, divine act. Vedic
literature frequently likens the Earth to a delicate young girl, embodied here by
Vajravarahi, who is shown flowering out of chaotic vegetal waters represented by
the scrollwork around the base.

12 | BONHAMS