LOT 0311

Kashmir Terracotta Head of a Bodhisattva

HUND REGION, 6TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.

16 3/4 in. (5.76 kg total, 42.5 cm high including stand).

Modelled in the round with heavily-lidded eyes, aquiline nose, thin-lipped mouth; band of conch shells to the brow hanging from a brow-band with segmented bulb above supporting a radiating plaque and sphere, flanked by two rosette collars each supporting a skull; mounted on a custom-made stand. [No Reserve]

American collection, probably from the 1990s.
Private collection, London.

Accompanied by a thermoluminescence analysis report by Oxford Authentication.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13252-253040.

For contemporary portraits of Bodhisattva (6th-7th centuries A.D.) cf. Shah M.A., ‘Revisiting the chronology of the early sculptural art of Kahsmir, India’ in Archaeology Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia,42 (3) 2014, pp.80-86, figs.1,6.

Many terracotta fingers, toes and hair curls from such statues have been found at sites in Kashmir, like Harwana. Such terracotta objects depict the influences of Gandharan art in the Kashmir valley. The terracotta objects found at the sites depict the strong influences of the Gandhara school of art in the Kashmir valley. The bodily limbs of Lord Buddha and bodhisattva in terracotta and their art, besides the isolated plague represent the replica of the miniature stupa.