Page 32 - Bonhams Indian and Himalayan Art March 2016 New York

18
A COPPER FIGURE OF DEVI
Nepal, circa 9th century
Naturalistically modeled with a graceful sway to the right,
the bright goddess smiles with the gesture of teaching.
7 1/4 in. (18.41 cm) high
$200,000 - 300,000

尼泊爾 約九世紀 女神銅像
This powerful goddess is portrayed as an adolescent figure with youthful vigor and natural
beauty. She has high swollen breasts, well-defined buttocks, and a round stomach wrapped
in patterned textiles. Her oval jewelry accentuates her proportions. Her face is plump and
cheerful. Her hair is finely detailed and arranged in a loose pigtail, and her countenance is
framed by the flaming aureole.
Her exact identification is elusive. She holds the hilt of a sword in her upper right hand and
a shield in the upper left. The lower right displays the gesture of explication (vitarka mudra),
and the lower left holds a water pot. The sword hilt and shield may suggest Durga: common
attributes for the goddess, as seen in the Kshemankari Durga published in Dehejia, Devi, the
Great Goddess, Ahmedabad, 1999, p. 27. However, no examples of the goddess are known
showing her with a youthful, plump body, except for a single, roughly carved, Pala stele in the
Victoria and Albert Museum (acc. #1879,1101.335) of the goddess seated, securely identified
by the presence of her lion beneath her.
A water pot can also appear in Durga’s hands, but without her buffalo-mount, or the tail
normally held in one of her lower hands, we are prevented from making a definite attribution.
This is especially the case in light of other deities also bearing these attributes, such as a stone
Nepalese Seated Vatsaleshvari in Pashupatinath, dated to the 12th century, again rendered
with a non-congruent idealized slim waist (Pal, The Arts of Nepal, Leiden, 1974, no. 234).
The repeated peacock feather eye incised to the interior of her shield is a curious feature. The
peacock has many connotations in Hindu and Buddhist art, but there are no known texts that
describe its very deliberate placement here. While the goddess Astamatrika Kaumari rides a
peacock, reference to its feathers in a shield would be an unusual representation of the bird’s
function as a vehicle. At this juncture, we must classify this figure as Devi, the Goddess, who
manifests in many forms.

30 | BONHAMS