A GILT-COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF SAMVARA PALA, 12TH CENTURY, THE SHRINE, 14TH CENTURY

the four-armed deity depicted standing sturdily with legs wide apart, the main arms bent and crossed at the wrists before the chest and grasping a vajra in each hand, the other two hands grasping various ritual implements, elaborately adorned with beaded jewellery and skull ornament, the figure set on a shrine framed by a flaming mandorla and depicted crushing two supine figures lying atop the base decorated with a skeletal border

The figure is in overall relatively good structural condition, with just minor cracks and losses to the extremities, including the tip of the left shoulder. As visible in the catalogue photo, there is oxidisation to the surface and extensive rubbing to the gilding. The colour in reality has slightly less of an orange-yellow tinge.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This rare four-armed male semi-wrathful four-armed deity probably represents Chakrasamvara in esoteric form; the unidentifiable broken attribute in the lowered left hand precludes firm identification. The vajra and ghanta in his hands crossed at the chest and the damaru in his raised right hand are attributes of the deity; the fragmentary scarf end at the left shoulder might have been attached to a now-lost khatvanga, one of Chakrasamvara’s other principal ritual implements. The figure may also represent one of the six armour deities (kevacha devata) as depicted in similar form in an early Tibetan thangka in a private collection, see John C. Huntington and Dina Bangdel, The Circle of Bliss, Chicago, 2003, p. 293, cat. no. 81. Armour deities are associated with the meditational practice of Sahaja Chakrasamvara, the primary form of Chakrasamvara, ibid, p. 294.

Historical narrative distinguishes this intriguing miniature shrine where the deity is clearly made by a different hand to the base and halo. The figure reveals Indian Pala period style in the physiognomy, jewellery and stance, while the base, halo and vajra finial are in Tibetan style. The figure must have found its way from eastern India to Tibet, maybe around the twelfth century at the time of Muslim invasions, where sometime later it was given a mount and flaming halo. This is not an unknown practice: an early Nepalese Tara collected before 1920 in Kham by Dr. Albert L. Shelton has a later base and prabhamandala, see Valrae Reynolds, Tibet: A Lost World, New York, 1978, p. 88. Tibetans revere early Indian and Nepalese works of art as tangible links to the source of their adopted Buddhist faith, hence the re-consecration of the figure for use in Tibetan ritual. The pedestal made for the statue is unusual and does not follow conventional iconography, with the depiction of reclining skeletal figures on the front. Their inclusion may refer to the charnel grounds that appear in mandalas, and the favoured location of ascetics for tantric meditation.