CAMBODGE, KHMER, EPOQUE PRE RUP, FIN XEME SIECLE

Brahma is sculpted here with four faces and four arms as in the Indian tradition. His four mouths are said to have each issued one of the holy Veda texts. In Khmer art, the Hindu god Brahma is rarely represented freestanding like the presented one. A specific iconographic feature of Brahma in Khmer art is the ring of large pearls encircling his four chignons. This representation with a slightly aquiline nose on each face, finely detailed moustache, trimmed beard and the typical sampot places this rare Brahma figure in the Pre Rup period or at the very beginning of the Koh Ker period.

The renowned French Khmer art expert Jean Boisselier (1912-1996), member of the French School of the Far East (Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient), wrote an essay on this piece, ‘Brahma Debout, Diademé‘, dated 22 July 1982.