Page 20 - 2021 March 16th Indian, Himalayan and Tibetan Art, Bonhams NYC New York

Helping to narrow the dating of the bronze to c.11th century, the flaying
knife (kartika) in Vajravarahi’s right hand appears to have an early shape that
subsequently fluctuates by the 13th century. Cast unambiguously here as a curved
dagger, it differs from the wider crescent blades and ever-shifting positions of
the handle represented across several 13th-century thangkas compiled as HAR
set no.3765 (“Vajrayogini: Early Paintings”). However, an earlier Kadam thangka
attributed c.1100 (fig.3; HAR 35845) depicts a knife more akin to the dagger in
the present bronze, and in equally exacting detail. A 12th-century Pala bronze
of Vajravarahi preserved in the Potala Palace Collection, Lhasa, also shows her
brandishing a curved dagger (von Schroeder, Buddhist Bronzes in Tibet, Vol.I,
Hong Kong, 2001, no.94A), while its comparatively reductive ornamentation and
posture suggest it is a later casting. An excellent stylistic comparison in stone
from the early 11th century is a famous Pala stele of Hevajra in the Bangladesh
National Museum (Huntington & Huntington, The Art of Ancient India, New York,
1999, p.399, fig.18.13). His flaming hair is similarly arranged into a fan-like coiffure
above a crown of three dried skulls tied by a ribbon with upswept ends. His
torque’s pendants also appear modelled after tiger teeth, the long necklace that
approaches his navel is made of strings of beads, and the severed heads he wears
as a garland are similarly dwarfed by his size.

By the end of the 10th century in Northeastern India, a new class of tantras
ascended in popularity, centered around yidams such as Hevajra and Vajravarahi
(cf. Linrothe, Ruthless Compassion, London, 1999, p.324). Called Anuttarayoga
Tantras, or “Highest Yoga Tantras”, they and their icons spread to the Tibetan
Plateau as central practices during the Second Dissemination. As most Pala
sculptures that remained in India were lost or buried during the onslaught of Muslim
invasions at the start of the 13th century—which leveled the region’s Buddhist
monasteries—this Vajravarahi’s buttery, un-encrusted surface, and cold gold
pigmentation almost certainly indicate that it travelled to Tibet as an agent of the
Second Dissemination.

Fig.3
Vajravarahi
Tibet, Kadampa Tradition
Circa 1100
Ground Mineral Pigments on Cloth
72 x 50 cm (28.75 x 20 Inches)
Himalayan Art Resources no.35845
Image courtesy of Walter Arader, New York
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