Page 14 - Bonhams, Indian and Himalayan Art New York July 23, 2020

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A SCHIST STELE OF HARITI TWO SCHIST VOTIVE IMAGES OF BUDDHA AND ARDOCHSHO
ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 2ND/3RD CENTURY ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 3RD/4TH CENTURY
7 3/4 in. (19.8 cm) high Buddha: 10 3/8 in. (26.5 cm) high
Ardochsho: 8 1/4 in. (21 cm) high
$4,000 - 6,000
$1,500 - 2,500
犍陀羅 二/三世紀 片岩訶梨帝母石碑
犍陀羅 三/四世紀 片岩佛陀像及阿道克狩像
Hariti, a reformed ogress propitiated for successful child-rearing,
was the principal female Buddhist deity of ancient Gandhara, also In one is carved a sweet personal votive image of the Buddha seated
popular throughout Central Asia and China. A 7th-century account above a throne supported by lions with a diminutive bodhisattva
indicates that sculptures of her were commonly installed near (probably Maitreya). The other is carved with the Iranian goddess of
Gandharan monastic dining halls (Takakusu (trans.), Record of the fortune, Ardochsho, evidently a part of the cosmopolitan pantheon
Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago, worshipped in Gandhara. In her left hand she holds a cornucopia—a
Oxford, 1896). Another small-scale stele of Hariti with her children symbol of plenty and prosperity. A small votive image of a pensive
is in the Peshawar University Museum (Luczanits, Gandhara: Das bodhisattva in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford draws similarities to
Buddhistische erbe Pakistans, Mainz, 2008, p.156, no.105). The both pieces (Jongeward, Buddhist Art of Gandhara in the Ashmolean
present sculpture’s distinctive dark schist color has a regional Museum, Oxford, 2019, p.113, no.79). Another image of Ardochsho’s
association with monuments at the epicenter of Gandharan civilization (but missing her head) is closely related in terms of carving and
such as Takht-Bahi and Sahri-Bahlol (cf., ibid., pp.154-5, nos.102 & material, and is published in Ingholt, Gandharan Art in Pakistan, New
104, and pp.244-5, abbs.3 & 5). York, 1959, no.345.

Provenance Provenance
Estate of Maude O. Davis, Princeton, NJ The Estate of Benjamin M. Rice II, New York, by 1998
Sotheby’s, New York, 23 March 1995, lot 32
The Estate of Benjamin M. Rice II, New York

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