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Lot Essay
The object at hand is a metal figurative work albeit with three heads and six arms, four legs and male in gender, embracing a female consort with one face and two arms. They stand atop two prone figures and an oblong flat horizontal single floral base usually characterised as a lotus although other flowers can be textually found. Such objects as these are typically of a religious nature and commonly found in India and South Asian traditions along with those regions under the cultural sway.
The identification of this figure is established by the unique hand attributes, hand held objects, which typically serve as identifies in iconographic studies of these figures. In this case we are observing a wrathful countenance, three bulging eyes per face, a gaping mouth and sharp canine teeth. The sparse clothing of a tiger and leopard skin along with snake ornaments and the remnants of an elephant hide and human skin are typical of an Indian model of a wrathful deity known as a 'Raksha.' In this case the deity is identified as Buddhist betrayed by the vajra sceptres held in the right hands. The vajras themselves identify the figure as Buddhist. The three left hands of the male hold three skull cups. Only a single Buddhist deity from the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism has these hand attributes. Underfoot we find two ghoulish subordinates, male and female, whose proper names will be recorded in the corresponding ritual texts.
The name is Mahottara (che mchog), meaning something along the lines of 'great supreme one.' In this rare example there appears to be Nepalese influence with the two prone figures following the model of the upward bent head of the male Black Bhairava and the skeletal-like female red Kalaratri lying on her back. This standard depiction of the two is generally seen under the two feet of another Tantric Buddhist figure named Chakrasamvara. No later examples of this figure in painting have any standardised iconography of the figures under foot.
The object is rare because only two other sculptural examples of Mahottara are known. The first is a black stone carving (HAR 3205) and the second is a metal work (HAR 22171) with only the upper torso and arms remaining. Paintings are also of little help as only one early work depicts this figure from the same or very close time period of the 12th or early 13th century (HAR 89981). The dating is known both by stylistic elements for both the sculptures and single painting because of the teacher that popularised this deity form within Nyingma Buddhism is Nyangral Nyima Ozer who lived from 1124 until 1192. Some scholars dispute the dates but only by adjusting for a few years forward with a slightly later birth and death.
An inscription on the back of the floral base reads 'To fulfil the intentions of the teacher Gonpopa, this Eight Pronouncement Mahottara was well made by the artist Rinchen Ozer. Mangalam!' Inscriptions such as this with the words 'to fulfil the intentions' generally indicate that the person Gonpopa is deceased and this sculpture was made as a memorial. Nothing is currently known of the artist Rinchen Ozer.
Although seeming to be a Tibetan production, the mercuric gold gilding and the inset turquoise stones along with the face of Black Bhairava having a very strong Newar Buddhist Bhairava mask character, there was very likely some Nepalese craftsman involved with the workshop of the objects creation.
The sculpture of Mahottara is unusual indeed with only two other examples known from this time period and a single painting of a mandala with Mahottara at the centre. A later painting of Mahottara is identified as Eastern Tibetan from the mid 16th century, otherwise all further examples are essentially modern from the 18th to 20th centuries. The Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism is regarded as the earliest however it is very rare to find works of art prior to the 16th century.
The identification of this figure is established by the unique hand attributes, hand held objects, which typically serve as identifies in iconographic studies of these figures. In this case we are observing a wrathful countenance, three bulging eyes per face, a gaping mouth and sharp canine teeth. The sparse clothing of a tiger and leopard skin along with snake ornaments and the remnants of an elephant hide and human skin are typical of an Indian model of a wrathful deity known as a 'Raksha.' In this case the deity is identified as Buddhist betrayed by the vajra sceptres held in the right hands. The vajras themselves identify the figure as Buddhist. The three left hands of the male hold three skull cups. Only a single Buddhist deity from the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism has these hand attributes. Underfoot we find two ghoulish subordinates, male and female, whose proper names will be recorded in the corresponding ritual texts.
The name is Mahottara (che mchog), meaning something along the lines of 'great supreme one.' In this rare example there appears to be Nepalese influence with the two prone figures following the model of the upward bent head of the male Black Bhairava and the skeletal-like female red Kalaratri lying on her back. This standard depiction of the two is generally seen under the two feet of another Tantric Buddhist figure named Chakrasamvara. No later examples of this figure in painting have any standardised iconography of the figures under foot.
The object is rare because only two other sculptural examples of Mahottara are known. The first is a black stone carving (HAR 3205) and the second is a metal work (HAR 22171) with only the upper torso and arms remaining. Paintings are also of little help as only one early work depicts this figure from the same or very close time period of the 12th or early 13th century (HAR 89981). The dating is known both by stylistic elements for both the sculptures and single painting because of the teacher that popularised this deity form within Nyingma Buddhism is Nyangral Nyima Ozer who lived from 1124 until 1192. Some scholars dispute the dates but only by adjusting for a few years forward with a slightly later birth and death.
An inscription on the back of the floral base reads 'To fulfil the intentions of the teacher Gonpopa, this Eight Pronouncement Mahottara was well made by the artist Rinchen Ozer. Mangalam!' Inscriptions such as this with the words 'to fulfil the intentions' generally indicate that the person Gonpopa is deceased and this sculpture was made as a memorial. Nothing is currently known of the artist Rinchen Ozer.
Although seeming to be a Tibetan production, the mercuric gold gilding and the inset turquoise stones along with the face of Black Bhairava having a very strong Newar Buddhist Bhairava mask character, there was very likely some Nepalese craftsman involved with the workshop of the objects creation.
The sculpture of Mahottara is unusual indeed with only two other examples known from this time period and a single painting of a mandala with Mahottara at the centre. A later painting of Mahottara is identified as Eastern Tibetan from the mid 16th century, otherwise all further examples are essentially modern from the 18th to 20th centuries. The Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism is regarded as the earliest however it is very rare to find works of art prior to the 16th century.