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Lot Essay
During the Pala period, there was an increase of Buddhist patronage in Northeastern India, resulting in the production of a vast number of highly refined artworks that participated in the development of esoteric forms of Buddhism. Known as Vajrayana, the “diamond path,” this new iteration of Buddhism greatly expanded the pantheon of Buddhist deities. A large number of tantric texts were produced in Northeastern India and circulated throughout the Himalayas, where the esoteric knowledge they contained continued to flourish. Bronze sculptures played a crucial role in these lines of transmission. As portable objects, they could easily be carried across vast distances by the groups of monks and pilgrims who travelled by land and sea.
Situated at the heart of Pala territory, less than twenty miles from Bodh Gaya and close to the renowned Buddhist monastery and educational establishment at Nalanda, Kurkihar became a sophisticated international center of artistic production at the end of the first millennium AD. Inscriptions found at Kurkihar document the arrival of monks and pilgrims from regions abroad, including distant places in India such as Kanchipuram in the South and also foreign lands such as maritime Southeast Asia. These visitors commissioned bronzes like the present example to donate to local temples and monasteries or to carry home.
The bronzes produced by the expert artisans in Kurkihar contribute to in the overarching Pala style while revealing their own local idiom particular to the Kurkihar workshops. Figures are characterized by slender proportions, delicately tapering torsos, and chests that swell with the intake of prana, the sacred life-breath. The bronze from which the sculptures are cast often displays a rich brown patina with a finely smoothed surface. This figure of Ratnasambhava, the “jewel-born” Buddha, is a seminal example of Kurkihar craftsmanship that gives expression to the donor’s pious devotion, further exemplified by the fine inscription of the Ye dharma hetu mantra in Sanskrit on the verso. Mr. Ellsworth must have acknowledged the spirituality contained in this sculpture, as it was included in the select group of deities which graced the headboard of his bed, greeting him each morning and evening.
Situated at the heart of Pala territory, less than twenty miles from Bodh Gaya and close to the renowned Buddhist monastery and educational establishment at Nalanda, Kurkihar became a sophisticated international center of artistic production at the end of the first millennium AD. Inscriptions found at Kurkihar document the arrival of monks and pilgrims from regions abroad, including distant places in India such as Kanchipuram in the South and also foreign lands such as maritime Southeast Asia. These visitors commissioned bronzes like the present example to donate to local temples and monasteries or to carry home.
The bronzes produced by the expert artisans in Kurkihar contribute to in the overarching Pala style while revealing their own local idiom particular to the Kurkihar workshops. Figures are characterized by slender proportions, delicately tapering torsos, and chests that swell with the intake of prana, the sacred life-breath. The bronze from which the sculptures are cast often displays a rich brown patina with a finely smoothed surface. This figure of Ratnasambhava, the “jewel-born” Buddha, is a seminal example of Kurkihar craftsmanship that gives expression to the donor’s pious devotion, further exemplified by the fine inscription of the Ye dharma hetu mantra in Sanskrit on the verso. Mr. Ellsworth must have acknowledged the spirituality contained in this sculpture, as it was included in the select group of deities which graced the headboard of his bed, greeting him each morning and evening.