A BRASS ALLOY SHRINE TO VISHNU AND LAKSHMI


KASHMIR, CIRCA 8TH CENTURYHimalayan Art Resources item no.61668 15 cm (6 in.) high
|克什米爾 約八世紀 毗濕奴與吉祥天女銅神龕Surviving with a rubbed, glossy patina from sustained ablutions, this brass image depicts the Hindu god Vishnu Trimurti together with his consort Lakshmi and two helpers, Gadanari and Chakrapurusha.Vishnu has three heads: a human, boar, and lion. These indicate his cosmic nature manifesting in various avatars. Vishnu's system of avatars somewhat parallels a Buddha or Bodhisattva's various manifestations. Also, Linrothe has described a process by which wrathful Vajrayana deities, like Vajrapani, were gradually worshipped independently towards the end of the first millennium CE, after starting out as dwarf-like helpers like those depicted either side of Vishnu here (Linrothe, Ruthless Compassion, New York, 1999).Compare a 6th-century example of Vishnu Trimurti in Pal, Bronzes of Kashmir, Graz, 1975, pp. 64-5, no.8. According to Pal, three-headed Vishnus are generally replaced by four-headed icons by the 9th-century (ibid., p.64; compare pp.66-7, no.9).ProvenanceCollection of Bob and E.R. O'Connor, London, late 1960s