ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 3RD-4TH CENTURY CE

This crisply carved head of a bodhisattva features a rare and unusual motif at the center of the turban crest: the depiction of Garuda capturing a nagini, a beautiful female representation of a naga, in his peak. The bird-like creature is said to eat snakes daily in vengeance against the Naga tribes, the serpents who captured his mother. This scene mirrors the event in Greek mythology when Zeus turns into an eagle and kidnaps the boy Ganymede. This motif is known to be depicted in the headdresses of images of Avalokiteshvara, although it is rarely found in surviving examples. See I. Kurita, Gandharan Art II: The World of the Buddha, 2003, p.311 and D. Klimburg-Salter, Buddha in Indien. Die fruehindische Skulptur von Koenig Asoka bis zur Guptazeit, 1995, cat. No. 138 for comparable figures of bodhisattvas with this turban motif. Also compare to a small, but well-preserved fragment of a Garuda turban ornament sold at Christie’s New York 18 March 2015, lot 4009, for $13,750.