Vajrapani
This powerful figurine is best understood as the Mahayana bodhisattva Vajrapani, who appropriated the lighting-bolt scepter (Skt: vajra) of Indra, the Vedic storm god, and repurposed it. Its meaning shifted from that being associated with the life-affirming power of storms (e.g. the monsoons), to the Buddhist savior Vajrapani, who facilitates journeying the path of enlightenment and aiding crystal clear thought as penetrating as a lighting strike.
In this, among the earliest representations known from the greater Kashmir world, the double-ended thunderbolt symbol is imposingly large, the shaft of which extends the length of Vajrapani’s figure. In addition to the massive device with its distinctive prongs, the bodhisattva holds a rosary (aksamala). His face is somewhat abraded but traces of a moustache remain, and he wears a distinctive headdress of an elaborate cockade with hanging strings of pearls disgorging from the center, in the Gupta-manner. Large annular earplugs, also of known Gupta type, are shown frontally. He wears a sacred cord (yanopavita) and short waist cloth with a sheathed dagger secured in the belt. In his raised proper left hand he holds the oversized vajra, and his head is framed by a large unadorned circular halo.
In this, among the earliest representations known from the greater Kashmir world, the double-ended thunderbolt symbol is imposingly large, the shaft of which extends the length of Vajrapani’s figure. In addition to the massive device with its distinctive prongs, the bodhisattva holds a rosary (aksamala). His face is somewhat abraded but traces of a moustache remain, and he wears a distinctive headdress of an elaborate cockade with hanging strings of pearls disgorging from the center, in the Gupta-manner. Large annular earplugs, also of known Gupta type, are shown frontally. He wears a sacred cord (yanopavita) and short waist cloth with a sheathed dagger secured in the belt. In his raised proper left hand he holds the oversized vajra, and his head is framed by a large unadorned circular halo.
Artwork Details
- Title: Vajrapani
- Date: late 6th–7th century
- Culture: India (Kashmir)
- Medium: Gray chorite
- Dimensions: H. 9 in. (22.9 cm); H. inc. base 10 1/4 in. (26 cm); W. 5 3/8 in. (13.7 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Purchase, Carol Collins Malone Gift, in honor of John Guy, 2016
- Object Number: 2016.241
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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India, Tamil Nadu
second half of the 8th–early 9th century
India (probably Bihar)
late 6th–early 7th century
India
second half of the 8th–early 9th century
India (Jammu & Kashmir, ancient kingdom of Kashmir)
last quarter of the 8th century
Indian (Tamil Nadu)
ca. first quarter of the 10th century
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