KASHMIR, 10TH CENTURY

The small inscription at the front of the base is in the Tibetan script, and reads "na.ga." As evinced by Ian Alsop, this is a reference to Nagaraja, a powerful "royal monk" who lived from 988 to 1026. The son of Ye she 'od, king of Guge in Western Tibet, Nagaraja amassed a sizeable number of Kashmiri and Western Tibetan Buddhist bronzes for his personal collection, stamping each one with his name as an indication of this religious endeavor. For another example with a Nagaraja inscription, see U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, p. 149, cat. no. 26G, also sold at Christie's, New York, 22 March 2011, lot 464; for a similar figure of Maitreya, see U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, p. 127, cat. no. 20E.