A COPPER FIGURE OF AVALOKITESHVARA

Description:

North-India, Pala period, 12th c.
H. 7,4 cm
Seated in lalitasana on a lotus base with his right foot supported by a smaller lotus rising from the main one, his right hand lowered in the varadamudra while the left is showing the vitarkamudra and holding the stem of a lotus flowering along his left upper arm, wearing dhoti fastened around his waist with a belt, upavita, bejewelled, his face displaying a serene expression with almond-shaped eyes below arched eyebrows, elongated earlobes, his blue coloured hair combed in the jatamakuta and secured with a tiara decorated with a pair of pattras.
Old German private collection, according to the owner bought prior 1990
This form of Avalokiteshvara, known in English as “Savior of the World”, was particularly popular during the early Pala period in Northeastern India. He is one of three principal deities of Mahayana Buddhism, along with Shakyamuni, who represents the present, and Maitreya, the future Buddha. Lokanatha displays some distinctly Shaivite features, namely a high chignon of coiled locks and a sensuous, supple body. By the eleventh century, however, one can clearly see the fusion of Brahmanical and Buddhist iconography that appears in this region-particularly the shakta influence of jata in Buddhist images.
Wear, traces of age