Page 91 - Bonhams Presencer Buddhist Art Collection Oct. 2 2018

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A BRASS ALLOY SHRINE TO VISHNU AND LAKSHMI Compare a 6th-century example of Vishnu Trimurti in Pal, Bronzes of
KASHMIR, CIRCA 8TH CENTURY Kashmir, Graz, 1975, pp. 64-5, no.8. According to Pal, three-headed
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61668 Vishnus are generally replaced by four-headed icons by the 9th-
15 cm (6 in.) high century (ibid., p.64; compare pp.66-7, no.9).

HK$65,000 - 85,000 Provenance
Collection of Bob and E.R. O’Connor, London, late 1960s
克什米爾 約八世紀 毗濕奴與吉祥天女銅神龕

Surviving with a rubbed, glossy patina from sustained ablutions, this
brass image depicts the Hindu god Vishnu Trimurti together with his
consort Lakshmi and two helpers, Gadanari and Chakrapurusha.

Vishnu has three heads: a human, boar, and lion. These indicate
his cosmic nature manifesting in various avatars. Vishnu’s system
of avatars somewhat parallels a Buddha or Bodhisattva’s various
manifestations. Also, Linrothe has described a process by which
wrathful Vajrayana deities, like Vajrapani, were gradually worshipped
independently towards the end of the first millennium CE, after starting
out as dwarf-like helpers like those depicted either side of Vishnu here
(Linrothe, Ruthless Compassion, New York, 1999).

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