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A CAST AND REPOUSSÉ GILT COPPER ALLOY SHRINE TO MANJUVAJRA
NEPAL, 17TH/18TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.16920
8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm) high
$130,000 - 180,000

尼泊爾 十七/十八世紀 銅鎏金文殊金剛像

This distinctive shrine invokes Manjuvajra, an esoteric form of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva
of Transcendent Wisdom. With three heads and six arms, he crosses his principal hands
at the chest, embracing his consort Prajna, and signalling a perfect union of Wisdom and
Compassion. Both male and female deities brandish long swords in their top right hands,
creating a powerful image of their ability to dispel ignorance and delusion. Manjuvajra’s
remaining three arms hold a lotus, a bow, and an arrow, common attributes for wisdom deities.

Manjuvajra’s physical appearance is described in the Nishpannayogavali (‘Garland of Perfection
Yoga’), a Vajrayana iconographical treatise from the Pala period. The earliest known sculptures
of the deity date to the 11th/12th century: see two Pala examples preserved in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, including a black stone stele (57.51.6) and a small bronze figure (L.2017.31.1).

The shrine’s pedestal has an ornate façade symbolizing Manjuvajra rising from the ocean of
existence on the ‘sun disc’ of a lotus. A robust central stem bifurcates with vines encircling
a pair of lions, which are often shown guarding the thrones of Buddhist deities. The formal
depiction of both motifs can be traced back to the Pala art of medieval Northeastern India,
testifying to Nepalese art’s remarkable conservatism. For example, compare the treatment of
the vines or the two outward-facing lions with their tails whipped over their backs with several
Pala stone sculptures published in Huntington, Leaves from the Bodhi Tree, Dayton, 1990,
nos.4, 6, 13, 15 & 36-8. Similar elements were incorporated into the base of a large gilt bronze
Buddha from the Khasa Malla kingdom sold at Bonhams, New York, 19 March 2018, lot 3019.

A gilt bronze figure of Chakrasamvara, dated 1709, has a similar compact scale, crown type,
and bangles (von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p.386, no.105B).
Elaborate flaming repoussé aureoles are common to Nepalese sculptures of the 17th and 18th
century (ibid., pp.390-1, nos.107B-D). Also see a contemporaneous but smaller bronze of
Manjuvajra with consort preserved in the Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena (Pal, Art from
the Himalayas and China, New Haven, 2003, p.99, no.64).

Provenance
Ex-Private French Collection, 1980s

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