GANDHARA, 2ND/3RD CENTURY

The hand holding the lotus flower and bud is a rare feature in standing figures and particularly well executed in the present example. In the context of Gandharan art this may be interpreted as a figure of Padmapani, whereby the lotus is not necessarily held in an upright position as in the later Himalayan convention; compare the fragment of a hand with lotus in the Karachi Museum, see H. Ingolt, Gandharan Art in Pakistan, 1957, cat. no. 459, and a figure of a Bodhisattva holding a bunch of lotus flowers in his right hand, in A. Grünwedel, Buddhist Art in India, 1901, p. 191, fig. 139.