Page 10 - Bonhams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art March 2019

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A SANDSTONE GHATAPALLAVA PILLAR WITH A DVARAPALA A MARBLE STELE OF A JAIN TIRTHANKARA
NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 9TH CENTURY WESTERN INDIA, CIRCA 15TH CENTURY
17 7/8 in. (45.5 cm) high With a three line inscription across the base.
17 3/4 in. (45 cm) high
$3,000 - 5,000
To be sold without reserve $6,000 - 8,000

Standing in tribhanga under a broad-petalled nimbus, the celestial The stele depicts one of Jainism’s twenty-four exemplars (tirthankaras)
guardian (dvarapala) gazes to the left. Above, a vase of plenty (purna surrounded by auspicious imagery converging the natural and mythic
kalasha) overflows with swirling vines. Compare with a column in the worlds. He stands naked in the ‘body-abandoning’ pose (kayotsarga).
Cleveland Museum of Art attributed to Northern Rajasthan in Desai & Lotus stems reach up to support his hands, while his head and shoulders
Mason, Gods, Guardians, and Lovers, New York, 1993, p.199, no.34. are framed by a canopy of leaves and a parasol descending from the
mouth of a ‘face of glory’ (kirtimukha). The stele’s left shows a sequence of
Provenance a nature spirit (yaksha) paying homage, an elephant, and a mythic horned
Collection of Fay and William Bullock King (1911-73), South Carolina lion (vyala).
Thence by descent
The Charleston Library Society, South Carolina, 1992-2019 The sculpture’s overall stylization suggests a 15th-century date, when
Jainism once again flourished in Western India after the cessation of
Muslim conquests. Great temples such as Ranakpur and the later Dilwara
temples of Mount Abu were erected at that time. Compare the stele’s
capped columns and with a 15th-century white marble figure of another
Tirthankara in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1931-60-1).

Provenance
Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, New York
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 14 October 1964, lot 119
Estate of Dorothy Beskind (1917-2014), New York
Thence by descent
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